ATENZA: OEM Puddle light installation & new floor mats

Recently i had the urge to replace the floor mats in my Mazda 6 / Atenza (see why in a minute). so while placing an order at Mazda, i browsed around the Mazda accessory page and also found some other cool things to add, but then luckily my budget was quite limited, so i decided to only get one additional item. A few days ago the delivery arrived:

The first thing was a set of “Premium” floor mats. You have to buy the whole set and even if they’re called premium, the quality is honestly quite cheap. at least if you look at the bottom side..

This is was the floor mats look after only 5 years of daily driving. My Honda floormats didn’t look that bad after 10 years! When these are worn out too, i’ll probably switch to some more heavy duty aftermarket product:

The other thing was the “Puddle lights” kit. I foolishly thought this is only a quick plug’n’play replacement for the original door lights. But when i opened the kit and went through the manual, i realized this is more than a 10minute job…

It includes the removal of the door panels, some rewiring (allthough with factory supplied plugs and fasteners, so it all looks neat and OEM, once installed and nothing rattles!)

It also includes drilling a hole in your factory door panels. Luckily you can’t really do it wrong and even a fitting drill bit is included in the set:

Here is how it looks installed:

While at it anyway, i decided to also give the interieur a good clean. I rally like to keep my car clean. The floor mat was only that dirty because i knew i’m going to replace it anyway and the rubber inlays of the door panels, which you see below, collected a bit of dirt over the years and are usually installed in a place where it’s difficult to clean and you won’t see the dirt. After a quick sponge wash they look like new again now…

And here we go. all installaed. Looking quite neat if you ask me. Maybe a pretty damn useless modification, but fun, and OEM Mazda. So no cheap “Wish” quality parts. I’ve heard from many cheap chinese aftermarket parts that the Mazda logo fades after only a few months… and the installation is via the original door bulb, so the fuse is likely to burn after a while, since not made for such a high current. The mazda kit includes additional fuses, plugs, etc. So while it was more work than initially planned, it was a fun modification and i really like the result.

Note 1: Be sure to also buy a set of plastic clips from Mazda, as mentioned in the manual (sold separately) You will likely brake a few at the removal of the door card. And take your time to read the manual. You really need a few minutes to figure it all out.
You can find them cheap (for e.g. on Ebay), if you look for the OE supplier number “6822LL”

Note 2: I had an issue that the front windows wouldn’t turn down or up to the end position automatically if you put the window switch (both driver and passenger side) to the second “click” where the window should automatically go to the end position.
Turns out you need to re-calibrate the window switches on the driver side in such a case:
– Hold the window switch in the first click down (manual movement) until it is in the end position (window completely down) and then for another two seconds (you might hear a very silent relay clicking)
– Hold the window switch in the first click up (manual movement) until it is in the end position (window completely closed) and then for another two seconds (you might hear a very silent relay clicking)
That’s it. now the window should go Automatically completely down or up in the second click (what Mazda calls the “comfort mode”), from both the passenger and driver side window switches.