rear shocks gone again at 52k

5

5phreak

Member
:
2007 5 Touring Whitewater Pearl
anyone else's 5 eating rear shocks? First set went at like 16k, or 26k, now the second set is blown at 52k.

of course the 100k bumper to bumper extended warranty I bought doesn't cover them.

I'm a little displeased.
 
I lost my left rear shock at 100,000km. the right is still good, but the dealer is telling me that my trailing arms will need to be replaced soon as the bushing are wearing out. over all at the rate this car wears, I'll still have alot of original drivetrain and suspension when I get to 300,000km!!

Oh and I'm not exactly mild mannered when driving! this car is too much fun to nancy around in!
 
I think that the the oem damper specs and spring rates are for the rear is inadequate. I do feel the rears bottom out in situations when they are not supposed to.

I think in order to maintain agile handling, mazda chose this setup, but sacrificed longevity.

I think heavier duty dampers will address the problem, although i haven't research if any exist. My thinking is that just changing brands might not fully address the issue, because the damping will still be too soft.
 
I lost the left rear at 30000km as well. I will be monitoring the others closely over the remaining year of warranty.

Note to anyone with a nice driveway - I had to wait a week to get my car in for the shock replacement. Whatever oil they have in the dampers eats asphalt! The last time I saw anything like that was when my 1980 Rabbit leaked Diesel on the driveway - brutal stuff.
 
I replaced mine at around 55 000 kms as well with the KYB GR II replacement and they are holding up at the moment. I don't think I would use these if the car was lowered though and might want to go with a better lowering shock replacement as the Tokico Blue or something suitable. The good thing is they are easy to replace. The back took about an 1 to 1 1/2 hr to do myself.

Cheers
 
I just changed all four at 40K miles with the KYB's. I had one rear blow out at 8000 miles when my wife hit a pot hole and bent two wheels. I always was suspect of the front shock on that side after that. The other rear started spewing oil a few months ago, and the front was rattling, so I went ahead and did all 4.

The KYB's seem like a nice improvement so far. A little more dampening/stiffer than stock, but not crazy harsh.
 
holy cow!!!.... it ate the new shocks they put on Friday this weekend. by Sunday they were both leaking fluid and one is clunking. I mean really. Three sets of shocks in 52k miles??

there's got to be something wrong. It's going in again tomorrow.
 
What brand did they use? I don't know how the 5 is on cheap shocks, but old vw rabbits and golfs would eat a cheap set on Monroes in a couple of days. A lot of people are using the KYB GR2's, and that's what I put on. Has anyone had these die prematurly yet?
 
I'm still on my original set of shocks at 60k. I'm wondering if it has to with the fact that I don't regularly carry a lot of people or equipment on a regular basis. There is usually just 1-3 people in the car. Maybe the shocks were designed for Mazda3 type loads instead of Mazda5 6 seater/utility ones.
 
whatever the issue is, they better figure it out. Because I paid $418 to have those shocks put in, and they lasted 2 days. They are aftermarket, not sure what brand. The previous two pair it ate were Mazda OEMs.
 
I'm at 82K kms and still on original OEMs except for the D/S rear which blew on the first 3 months of ownership and I'm lowered 1 3/4". I still do not have fluid leaking but suspect all 4 shocks nearing its end of life or its just me. I'll be going for monroe sensamatic next time or koni yellows If I got the monies.
 
I'm driving an MS3, but i'm sure the OEM shocks are very similar. My rears started leaking at 35k, bumper to bumper wouldn't cover it since they weren't "blown" until around 40k, after the warrantee expires. Upon contacting corporate mazda, they said too bad, since I had a claim in with them already for issues with my CAI ver2, MAF, and clogged vacuum lines.

Since then, I'm at 48k miles and all shocks are blown and will be replacing them with Koni Yellows this wednesday.

Goodluck with this, parts go bad, it happens, but Mazda can't expect to make shocks into a perishable item like brake pads and expect their customers to be happy for long.

In all of the cars I've owned over the years I've never replaced the shocks until atleast 100k miles and that's if I felt like improving the worn shocks, not the blown must replace shocks.

Garbage.

Gmac
 
5zoom said:
I'm still on my original set of shocks at 60k. I'm wondering if it has to with the fact that I don't regularly carry a lot of people or equipment on a regular basis. There is usually just 1-3 people in the car. Maybe the shocks were designed for Mazda3 type loads instead of Mazda5 6 seater/utility ones.
Click to expand...

We only use the third row when my nephew comes along (40lbs), and my kids only weigh 40 & 80 lbs. So far no major trips with heavy cargo yet. We will see how it fares to Florida and back at the end of the month. As long as they are under warranty, of course I will stick with stock. After that, I will explore aftermarket options.

It's strange too, my 2001 Protege LX front struts started to leak at around 80000km, but never really wore out. Just weeping oil until I sold it at about 190000km. The rears on that car were like new when I sold it.
 
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I had six people in the car the day after the new shocks were installed, but two of them were children. The first set that blew, I had never had a heavy load in the car, only 4 adults on one or two occasions. The second set, I only had 5 adults in the car one time.

so I can't say I'm hauling heavy loads. I mean if the car can't carry 4 adults and two children like it's designed for without blowing shocks, then we have a problem.

I'm thinking there's something else wrong, like the shocks are at a wrong angle or misaligned, maybe some sort of defect in my car only that is causing premature failure.

EDIT:

Dealer called, installed two new shocks with no charge to me. They are baffled. They've never seen a car do this, and currently have no significant amount of 5s coming in with shock failure. They did research, checked out the new installation carefully to make sure there isn't something wrong, like the mounting points out of align.

I will say this, they are being extremely nice about this, and seem genuinely concerned. So much so, that they want to see the car back there in a month.

we'll see what happens.
 
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5phreak said:
I had six people in the car the day after the new shocks were installed, but two of them were children. The first set that blew, I had never had a heavy load in the car, only 4 adults on one or two occasions. The second set, I only had 5 adults in the car one time.

so I can't say I'm hauling heavy loads. I mean if the car can't carry 4 adults and two children like it's designed for without blowing shocks, then we have a problem.

I'm thinking there's something else wrong, like the shocks are at a wrong angle or misaligned, maybe some sort of defect in my car only that is causing premature failure.

EDIT:

Dealer called, installed two new shocks with no charge to me. They are baffled. They've never seen a car do this, and currently have no significant amount of 5s coming in with shock failure. They did research, checked out the new installation carefully to make sure there isn't something wrong, like the mounting points out of align.

I will say this, they are being extremely nice about this, and seem genuinely concerned. So much so, that they want to see the car back there in a month.

we'll see what happens.
Click to expand...

Nice to hear you are getting some help from the dealer! It is an odd problem, and since you most likely are not jumping the car "Dukes Of Hazzard" style, hauling bags of cement, or flying over speed bumps at full speed, there must be something else happening. The only thing that comes to my mind is an improper install, or faulty new parts. Judging from all the comments I have read on the various forums, I think it is safe to say that the units used on the Mazda3 and Mazda5 are weak to begin with. What did they install the 1st time, and what did they reinstall the 2nd time, Mazda OE shocks or something else? They reinstalled the shock boot/bumpstop right?
 
i'm thinking about this and some of the past tire wear threads and

i've had rear tire wear cupping issues prevalent among the earlier 5's. I know in most cases, inside cupping is a dynamic toe issue, but when I got my alignment checked, the rear toes weren't off enough to explain the kind of cupping i saw.

I then thought, it was a tire brand/inflation issue. After changing to all-season tires and maintaining 36-38 PSI. I then found that one my front shocks went out, so I replaced ALL my shocks with KYBs at about 60K miles, and then got an alignment. The cupping resumed, though not nearly as bad.

I definitely think now that the problems with the rears (cupping and blown shocks) is more of a problem with weak damper/spring rates. I know that people who have placed rear camber kits have resolved the severe cupping issue, and this makes sense more since the "squat' in th back is gone.

I think that the oem's aggresive rear negative camber along with the inadequate damper/spring set up is what is causing all these problems.

Solution could be to install heavier duty dampers if they exist and maybe put in the camber kit to correct the rear camber. If you do this, keep in mind that some handling will be sacrificed.
 
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