HOW TO: Protege 5 Strut and Sway Bar install

some people have had the metal cup ontop of the dustboot i believe come loose. correct me if im wrong.

if thats the case, try adding a washer on top of the metal cup underneath the strut mount. i doubt it could be that though. ive heard the endlinks being worn out are more of a culprit. ordering new endlinks is a good idea. sstart fresh. surprised you got the old ones off.lol i wasnt having that. so i cut them right off.lol
 
found it!! stupid clunk is gone, it was the metal can, it wasnt being squished enough, so i took the strut out, and just reassembled it so everything so super tight. endlinks are still ok, im thinking they are going to break or something from the stress.

all the bolts come out SO EASY when you wirewheel them to a shine, its awsome!
 
nice. i had a feeling it would be that metal cup. glad to hear its all good now.

i just got my install done last weekend. hp with espelirs. the drop is pretty much where i wanted it to be. but i ran into an issue with my racing beat swaybar and clunk kit. im trying to get that fixed. so right now im riding with no swaybar. feels like i s*** my pants and im sliding around in it.lol so bad. cant wait to get the bar back in.
 
pr5owner said:
found it!! stupid clunk is gone, it was the metal can, it wasnt being squished enough, so i took the strut out, and just reassembled it so everything so super tight. endlinks are still ok, im thinking they are going to break or something from the stress.

all the bolts come out SO EASY when you wirewheel them to a shine, its awsome!


Great write up, you have really good ideas. Evolv and I actually tried to tackle my suspesion yesterday. But surprise surprise. Endlink bolts are FAcking siezed up tighter than a proffesional welders best job. G-Damn winter.. (notcool)

Talked to the stealership and they said they don't even remove them by bolt anymore, they just cut them off and replace them. And at 40 dollars "cdn" a replacement "pre endlink" ,fuk that! So maybe I can trying polishing the s*** out of the nut; thats not a bad idea "Thanks!". I know i liquid wrenched the hell out of it, but all that did was allow us to strip the s*** out of the rear endlinks but...

(encourage What can i Say, back at it next monday off, thank goodness we got the rear brakes done, that was a peice of cake in comparison.
 
When you torqued the bolts, did you go by feel or did you torque them to a poundage?

Approximately, how tight should the strut and other bolts be?
 
Quick help needed.

Can someone please give a couple tips on how to take apart the interior in the rear of the P5? I.e. the trunk area.

I know how to take the take out the two fasteners on the bottom. What else is there to it?
 
I'm wondering if changing out the ABS wheel sensor myself would be a better way of saving money then taking it to Mazda? My sensor is going bad Can ya help me out? Just wondering if it's complicated and would it require doing anything else or complicated to the vehicle?
 
Quick help needed.

Can someone please give a couple tips on how to take apart the interior in the rear of the P5? I.e. the trunk area.

I know how to take the take out the two fasteners on the bottom. What else is there to it?

Update: this was really easy, even though I didn't know what I was doing. First undo the two fasteners behind the hatch sill, and then it's obvious how stuff comes apart.
 
TO INSTALL A SWAY BAR (in the above pics I circled both bolts for the endlink, this was preparation for sway bar install)

Step 1: Undo the endlink bolts (if you havent already done so)

Step 2: undo carriage Bolts
StrutSwayIn52.jpg


Step 2.5: troubleshooting crossmember bolts,

if the nut inside the cross member magically unwelds it will look like this
StrutSwayIn53.jpg

StrutSwayIn56.jpg

StrutSwayIn57.jpg


The bolt will spin freely and will never come out no matter how fast you spin your impact gun
To separate the bolt you will need a wrench with a shallow 17mm socket, beside the bolt you will see a larger rectangular opening,
Place the wrench with 17mm socket inside (ensure you set your wrench to reverse to loosen), you may not need to hold it there as there is not very much room inside the cross member and the wrench will hit one of the sides, you can now unscrew the bolt, I do not recommend using an impact gun, just use your breaker bar and go slow so the wrench doesnt pop out.
StrutSwayIn52.jpg


Step 2.75: after you get your stuck sway bar out, Compare your crappy stock uncooperative sway bar with your new kick ass bar
StrutSwayIn55.jpg

Man thank you for this write up. I'm definitely at Step 2.5 right now and I'm cussing like a drunk sailor. I need to get this fixed before Auto-X school !

How'd you manage to get the horizontal bolts (in the vertical portion of the crossmember) out? I don't have enough room for my impact gun unless I pick up one of those universal joint adapters and I'm not exactly a big guy so I can't do it with muscle alone.

Thanks again !!!!
 
Where did you get the swaybar and end-links from. Rear links and swaybar in my Protege5 making awful noise and I want to get it replaced to get rid of all that noise. How much you think it will be to buy rear swaybar bushing and end link. I can install by myself. Thanks and by the way great writeup with all the details.
 
found it!! stupid clunk is gone, it was the metal can, it wasnt being squished enough, so i took the strut out, and just reassembled it so everything so super tight. endlinks are still ok, im thinking they are going to break or something from the stress.

all the bolts come out SO EASY when you wirewheel them to a shine, its awsome!

what do you mean when you say metal can wasn't squished enough?
It seems like I have the same problem, by now I've replaced both struts, end links and strut mounts, but the clunk is still there.

Need that answer asap.
Thanks in advance
Dima
 
since someone else brought this back from the dead, I might as well add my .02 as well. I just tried to do my struts/springs yesterday thinking it would only be about 15-20 mins per corner (considering that's all it's usually ever taken me), but given that I don't have air tools and that the damn design of our rear suspension puts the endlink bolting directly to the damn strut, I had to admit defeat and just put it all back together. What kind of piss poor design is that anyway. I mean the geometry is decent, but can't they put a dust boot or some sort of protective something over the endlink ends so that they don't seize rock friggin solid like this. I'm so annoyed that I now have to either just go buy a rear anti-sway bar, or bring the car to someone with some air that can hit them hard and *maybe* break them free.

Awesome write-up too by the way, that's one of the best one's I've seen in a long while.
 
StrutSwayIn02mm.jpg

Are these endlink nuts reverse threaded? I've been hammering them all day yesterday, even using the double wrench method. They've been sprayed with about half a can worth of pb blaster
 
if you can't release them you might have to cut them with the saw or grinder, and be prepared to buy new ones.. ;)
 
i was planning on replacing the end links and the sway bar bushing at the same time so i've got the parts ready to go except every single nut in this damn car is rusted solid. do you cut the rod in the middle or the ends with the socket/bolt? has anybody tried a nut splitter on these things?
 
Excellent write-up, ive been attacking my suspension for the last 2 days, endlinks made me lose about 5 hours a day, I finally cut them off and then also had to cut the portion where it attaches to the sway bar & the strut, cuz the hex nut rounded out and there was no way in hell I could take them off!
 
Just for reference for everyone on endlinks: if you get a pair of needle nose vise grips and clamp behind the endlink on the bolt part, not threaded part. And sometimes that works. Mine where original with 135k so I had to cut mine off the front. But that's a trick that sometimes works.
 
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