Where is the oil filter on a Mazda 3?

Answer 1

if you look under the front of the car, there's a plastic splash shield that needs to come off. on 2.0L cars, there's a cutout that lines up (I'm told) with the filter, so you don't have to take off the whole shield. But on 2.3L cars like mine, the hole doesn't line up. it's much less messy to just take off the spash shield anyway. also, be careful, 2005 and earlier 3's have a filter cartridge, whereas 2006 and later (I think that's the cutoff) have a traditional spin-on filter. good luck.