What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

I used a brand new blade in my trusty Stanley and just barely sliced the Dip itself right along the seam at the masking tape. The trick I think is to have as sharp a blade as possible so that the Dip gets cut rather than drug along. I also put a really thick coat on in the first place because my goal was to create a bumper guard of sorts, not sure if this made my life easier or not...
 
Changed the front and rear sway bar bushings. Hopefully that will cure cold weather clunking from the front. Although the front bushing still looked in pretty decent shape, so who knows.
 
New Monroe quick struts in front, new kyb shocks in the back, Duralast lifetime inner tie rod end on passenger side. New Energy suspension polyurethane greasable sway bar bushings in front. Powerstop brake rotors and matching scorched pads in front. Tinted all the windows on the sliding doors and the small ones in back (not the rear windshield or front windows because I want to keep our night visibility as high as possible). Repaired the driver's window switch assembly. Replaced 3 left front lowbeam (H7) headlights. Repaired headlight adapters and wiring that corroded and applied liberal amounts of di-electric grease. Adjusted the headlights. Replaced the squeaking serpentine belts with Gates belts. Replaced the U-nuts and other hardware that hold the skidplate on. Replaced, antiseized, and torqued all the bolts on the metal under the front cowl. Replaced the rear license plate mounting hardware (the old ones were rusted off and broken inside the rear hatch). Installed a GROM audio kit for mp3 players/smartphones. Installed an Inno roofrack. Put on 16" steel wheels and generic hubcaps (they hold up better on our crappy roads) wrapped in Bridgestone Ecopia P205/55 tires fresh for the winter. Replaced the front and rear wiper blades. Cleaned out the oil that I found inside the valve cover near the spark plugs (someone had spilled a bunch in there at some point). Let's see, I think that's it that i've done TO it myself.

What i've done with it is lots of miles of my wife driving it to daycare for our kids and work. I've hauled some 10 foot lumber in it. We have traveled with our kayak on the roofrack. I got a speeding ticket in Indiana with it and i'm sure there is alot more that we will do with it. (Hopefully no more tickets. : )
 
LOL! Yeah I saw your list and said, "welp I'm not going update 'I've cleaned my car' compared to this guy!"
 
I backed my '12 into a basketball pole over the weekend! It's next to my driveway, and I've only been driving around it in various vehicles for the past 6+ years, but I guess I'd gotten used to having my car on the other side of the driveway for a week or two, and was distracted, and I found a tire rut going straight back from where I'd parked, off the edge of the driveway, and right into the pole!

The good news is that the only serious casualty is the p/s taillight lens, and I went out immediately and got some of that red lens repair tape to keep from showing white lights to the rear. torquelover suggested at random that it might be possible to glue the lens back together, and I think I may have collected enough pieces to do that. Though, we also discovered that a replacement is only like $100 (I'd worried that it would be more), so I may just replace it. Used ones at nice prices don't seem to be available yet, at least from what I've seen online ....

Either way, I guess I get to learn how to get the light out, which may be a lot harder than I'm used to from my older cars since it doesn't look like the back of the lamp assembly is all that accessible. Then again, maybe it's accessible through the tiny cargo compartment next to the boot light. Since there's no Haynes manual for this thing (at least not that I yet know about), what do people do to learn how to get stuff apart?
 
:(. Luckily bumper covers don't cost too much. Btw, does this mean the spoiler is finally going on?

Nah, this is a daily or every-other-daily occurrence when she turns the wheel too early coming out of the driveway. It just catches on one corner and pulls it away- not the whole bumper. I don't bother fixing it anymore because it keeps happening- no point in tacking it back into place just to be torn off again. :(

When I get around to doing body work on the car I'll add the spoiler and the side skirts that I picked up a few years back.
 
Finally had time to finish the brake job. Mazdaspeed front calipers/rotor upgrade. Matching rear rotors. Braided brake lines and fluid flush. These things feel way better than before. Not sure if it was because of the upgrade or because the old pads were worn and glazed. Huge improvement either way. Firm, progressive pedal feel.

Front
P1030098.JPG


Rear
P1030099.JPG


The whole thing.
P1030101.JPG
 
Nice! Give it 500 miles, another bleeding, and it feels even better! A lot of folks are over looking this awesome low budget yet safety and performance contributing mod. It's not much more work if you need to replace pads and rotors anyway. I honeslty can't wait to put mine back on the new car but it doesn't need brake work yet.

Some questions:
What did you do with the backing plate/dust shield?
What pads are you using (front and rear)?
What rotors are those?
 
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Winter Tire family bonding.

Children from far away places come to visit the parents at the start of winter and beginning of spring.
Mazda5, MAzda2, and now the MAzda3.. (Mazda family). The changing of the tires. Has become a family
tradition.

 
A lot of folks are over looking this awesome low budget yet safety and performance contributing mod.

Some questions:
What did you do with the backing plate/dust shield? Nothing, bolted right up with no rubbing or fitment issues.
What pads are you using (front and rear)? Used the Centric (Stoptech Street, Para-aramid material)
What rotors are those?The Powerstop Drilled and Slotted - JBR1116XPR for the rears and JBR1315XPR for the front.

Super easy and not that expensive. For those that want to go the quick and cheap route you can do this upgrade on the front for about $250 total for replacement parts, not including brake line upgrade.

Centric reman calipers that include the brackets. Send your old calipers and brackets back for core refund. Net cost about $130 for the pair after core. Rockauto part number 14145112 and 14145111. The 5's existing caliper bracket bolts are the same as the MS3.
Centric rotors. Rockauto P/N 12145078. About $40 each
Bendix pads - Rockauto P/N RD1044. About $30
 
Super easy and not that expensive. For those that want to go the quick and cheap route you can do this upgrade on the front for about $250 total for replacement parts, not including brake line upgrade.

Centric reman calipers that include the brackets. Send your old calipers and brackets back for core refund. Net cost about $130 for the pair after core. Rockauto part number 14145112 and 14145111. The 5's existing caliper bracket bolts are the same as the MS3.
Centric rotors. Rockauto P/N 12145078. About $40 each
Bendix pads - Rockauto P/N RD1044. About $30
ORLLY?! That is very interesting. The shield definitely would not fit on my 08 Sport; there were two issues. The radius of the lip on the bottom is not large enough to clear the larger MS3 rotor and had to be bent/straighten/cut off to clear. The MS3 rotor rubs against it and had to be stretched to fit for this pic. Theres also a little nub protruding on the bottom of the shield that obstructs the caliper body where theres no way it can physical mount without bending it away or cutting it off. The top nub was also awfully close to the caliper body so I decided to nip it off as well.

I wonder if the dimensions of our rotors are physically different. I use MS3 Centric Heavy Duty blanks (I suspect is the base used for StopTech since stop tech does not offer blanks, whereas Centric does not offer drill/slotted/dimpled) that were cryogenically treated. It doesnt make sense but I wonder if this made it larger? Nonetheless, this only address issue with the rotor size. Theres still the other issue of not being able to mount the body without having to trim the edge. Maybe I did something wrong or did not see something. I am baffled!








Now I question the quality control on this thing?!?!... Or is this an undocumented change for lucky 09+ owners along with your fancy stock oil filters :p. Makes me wonder what else is undocumented (GTs have better horns than the Sport/Touring factory alarm). Did you try putting on your stock wheels? I will be quite upset (at Mazda) if your stock rims clear the caliper body. I had to use spacers. Im hoping my current GT is somehow more like you 09 and less like my previous car.

Also, thumbs up for keeping the sleeper look! You are all set to go racing! :)
 
ORLLY?! That is very interesting. The shield definitely would not fit on my 08 Sport; ...




Or is this an undocumented change for lucky 09+ owners along with your fancy stock oil filters :p. Makes me wonder what else is undocumented (GTs have better horns than the Sport/Touring factory alarm). Did you try putting on your stock wheels? I will be quite upset (at Mazda) if your stock rims clear the caliper body. I had to use spacers. Im hoping my current GT is somehow more like you 09 and less like my previous car.

Also, thumbs up for keeping the sleeper look! You are all set to go racing! :)

I didn't recall having that radius on the lower half of the shield that would cover the lower edge of the stock rotor like yours. Likely was a change on 09 or later. The shield on mine is pretty much flat. I never tried the stock rims but am running a 17 inch wheel now. It is a 17x7.5 w/ 42mm offset. Seems to have plenty or clearance. I've heard of some MS3 guys running 16" wheels for track days also. What wheels are you using? I Am thinking they'll clear the stockers.
 
I didn't recall having that radius on the lower half of the shield that would cover the lower edge of the stock rotor like yours. Likely was a change on 09 or later. The shield on mine is pretty much flat. I never tried the stock rims but am running a 17 inch wheel now. It is a 17x7.5 w/ 42mm offset. Seems to have plenty or clearance. I've heard of some MS3 guys running 16" wheels for track days also. What wheels are you using? I Am thinking they'll clear the stockers.
I'm using stock '08 wheels. The issue is not the rim’s width/diameter. The issue is an unfortunate mix of high offset on the OE rims, design of the spokes being too vertical ('08 rim), and the MS3 caliper bodies are bulkier. The spokes end up rubbing against the caliper body, front facing, and the rim cannot seat flush to the hub –off by just by a tiny bit. Need spacers to clear the calipers.
 
Super easy and not that expensive. For those that want to go the quick and cheap route you can do this upgrade on the front for about $250 total for replacement parts, not including brake line upgrade.

Centric reman calipers that include the brackets. Send your old calipers and brackets back for core refund. Net cost about $130 for the pair after core. Rockauto part number 14145112 and 14145111. The 5's existing caliper bracket bolts are the same as the MS3.
Centric rotors. Rockauto P/N 12145078. About $40 each
Bendix pads - Rockauto P/N RD1044. About $30

Looks like that caliper part number is same 08 to 2013, so install should be just the same.
Once I need new rotors/pads I'll do the change over as well.
 
Silent, that means you will need wheel spacers to be a straight swap with stock rims? I was never really keen on wheel spacers, not sure what my hang up is lol
 
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