thebeansoldier
Member
- :
- '02 Honda S2000
Here's how-to applies to all strut bars for the 3. It's more involved for those who are used to installing strut bars on strut towers where the bolts stick up and you just loosen the 3 nuts. The mazda 3 however has 3 bolts pointing down. So once they're all off, the strut has a possiblity of shifting (will shift at a quicker pace if you have heavy/wider wheels) all you do is align it back, and this will guide you.
1. Tools needed:
- 8mm allen wrench [for the bar]
- 17mm socket [for the bar]
- 14mm socket/wrench [for the strut towers]
- torque wrench
- 2 jacks / 1 jackstand + 1 jack
2. Starting
- The car has to be perfectly level. If not, you will have to align the strut, which will take awhile by itself.
- Remove the plates from the tower bar, in this case- the GT Spec Bar, using the 8mm allen wrench + 17mm socket
3. Tower bolts removal + plates installation
- YOU WILL HAVE TO WORK VERY QUICKLY
- Optional, but highly recommended: raise both sides of the car, remove the wheels to ease the stress on the struts and work from there
- Using the 14mm socket/wrench, remove all 3 strut tower bolts quickly because the strut will start to shift very slowly, which will misalign the holes for the bolt. If the car is not perfectly level, upon removal of the first bolt, the strut will start to shift almost immediately.
- Right after you remove all 3 bolts, remove the existing plate and quickly align the new plate into the tower (it's easy cause the tower has 2 tabs, and the plate already has special holes to accomodate them). Then start putting back the bolts immediately.
- Do the same for the other strut tower
- Torque specs for the strut tower bolts is: 14.1-20.5lbs as per the service manual
- If the holes are completely misaligned, go to step 5
4. Finishing up
- Align the bar and tighten the bolts. I put 17mm side in the front and allen side in the back for quicker install/uninstall like the first picture.
- DONE.
5. Re-aligning the strut
- Jack up the car
- Remove the wheel (optional and highly recommended: jack up both sides of the car and remove both wheels to ease tension on the strut)
- With another jack- raise this part in the pic just behind the rotor by an 1in-2in to loosen the strut for easier alignment. Be patient, it takes a hard tugs to align the holes. Took me 30-45 minutes.
- As soon as you see a hole align, put in the bolt but don't tighten it too much. You want as much play so you can still move the strut to align the rest.
- If the last bolt is almost aligned and just needs a tiny bit to move and you have 2 bolts in
- tighten those 2 bolts by a little more
- put in the wheel and very slowly lower the car and the 3rd hole will slowly align itself, with enough clearance to put the bolt back in (make sure of this because you wouldn't want to mess up the threads on the last bolt).
- After you've tightened all the bolts, make sure you've torqued the wheel(s) to 87-90lbs, completely lower the car and you're set.
Without the battery cover and ducting
With the cover and ducting (looks cleaner)
1. Tools needed:
- 8mm allen wrench [for the bar]
- 17mm socket [for the bar]
- 14mm socket/wrench [for the strut towers]
- torque wrench
- 2 jacks / 1 jackstand + 1 jack
2. Starting
- The car has to be perfectly level. If not, you will have to align the strut, which will take awhile by itself.
- Remove the plates from the tower bar, in this case- the GT Spec Bar, using the 8mm allen wrench + 17mm socket
3. Tower bolts removal + plates installation
- YOU WILL HAVE TO WORK VERY QUICKLY
- Optional, but highly recommended: raise both sides of the car, remove the wheels to ease the stress on the struts and work from there
- Using the 14mm socket/wrench, remove all 3 strut tower bolts quickly because the strut will start to shift very slowly, which will misalign the holes for the bolt. If the car is not perfectly level, upon removal of the first bolt, the strut will start to shift almost immediately.
- Right after you remove all 3 bolts, remove the existing plate and quickly align the new plate into the tower (it's easy cause the tower has 2 tabs, and the plate already has special holes to accomodate them). Then start putting back the bolts immediately.
- Do the same for the other strut tower
- Torque specs for the strut tower bolts is: 14.1-20.5lbs as per the service manual
- If the holes are completely misaligned, go to step 5
4. Finishing up
- Align the bar and tighten the bolts. I put 17mm side in the front and allen side in the back for quicker install/uninstall like the first picture.
- DONE.
5. Re-aligning the strut
- Jack up the car
- Remove the wheel (optional and highly recommended: jack up both sides of the car and remove both wheels to ease tension on the strut)
- With another jack- raise this part in the pic just behind the rotor by an 1in-2in to loosen the strut for easier alignment. Be patient, it takes a hard tugs to align the holes. Took me 30-45 minutes.
- As soon as you see a hole align, put in the bolt but don't tighten it too much. You want as much play so you can still move the strut to align the rest.
- If the last bolt is almost aligned and just needs a tiny bit to move and you have 2 bolts in
- tighten those 2 bolts by a little more
- put in the wheel and very slowly lower the car and the 3rd hole will slowly align itself, with enough clearance to put the bolt back in (make sure of this because you wouldn't want to mess up the threads on the last bolt).
- After you've tightened all the bolts, make sure you've torqued the wheel(s) to 87-90lbs, completely lower the car and you're set.
Without the battery cover and ducting
With the cover and ducting (looks cleaner)
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