help picking modest suspension upgrade

tsunami · May 30, 2009

i would think it would be something loose not the settings. the softest setting on the shock is still stiffer then stock isn't it?

joshritger · May 30, 2009

I am gonna check for loose parts, but may also stiffen them up a bit. I really don't know, it felt like I was driving on a cheese grater at some points, that being said, the majority of the feeling was coming from the rear I think. I don't know if it was skipping over the bumps, or if it was bouncing. I will check the mounts and then if that doesn't come up with anything I will play around with them a bit. I just hope I can figure out how to adjust them myself. I am wondering if the softest setting is too soft for the stock springs.

tsunami · May 30, 2009

there rears are pretty easy there is one large bolt behind the wheel assembly and 2 nuts up at the top. if it sounds like a cheese grater i would think those 2 nuts wouldn't be tight??? causing the mount to slide up and down on the threaded rod. good luck!

joshritger · May 30, 2009

Well I removed both rear shocks and made sure that everything was tight and put them back in. One of the top mounts was slightly loose, but that still didn't take care of the noise totally. I had my dad ride in the back while doing a test drive and he said the noise was coming from the body not the shocks. This was done without any of the interior in the rear hatch area, I pulled it out thinking that I needed to get at the top of the shock mounts. My dad said he thought the sound was just the body reacting to the shocks. Can anybody tell me if they got more body noise from the rear shocks when they installed them, mine are still set at the softest setting. If this noise doesn't go away I will probably try to adjust them a bit next weekend.

Thanks,
Josh

NTIMD8R · May 31, 2009

Sorry, I didn't have any noise like you're describing. I had a little noise up front but it was a loose connection where the endlink attached to the front swaybar. I had a shop install my shocks, sways, and springs on my 5-door, so I didn't see what was involved with the rear shocks. I knew that they had to remove the interior panels in the back but I didn't know why.

Can you adjust the rear shocks from inside the car after removing the panels or do you have to remove the shocks from the car, make the adjustment, and then reinstall? If it is possible to adjust from the interior of the car then I would like to have a couple removable panels made to get at the rear shocks to make future adjustments. I've been happy with the settings (softest) so far for daily driving but am thinking about autocrossing it in the future and would like to make adjustments then.

Sorry to scare you a little about the RB sways. I think you'll really like them! My 5-door is so much more fun now that they are installed! There not nearly as bad as I probably made them sound. Honestly, I really do like the ride of my car now. The sways are pretty stiff at first and then they seem to settle in after a small break-in period and the ride isn't as harsh. It also could be my springs settling in as well. But it rides much better now after almost 2 months of driving it daily. I still do have that issue with pulling out of a parking lot at an angle and running on the outside of my tires, but I've learned to deal with it and it doesn't bother me anymore.

I just had them installed in late March so I can't comment on driving in snow. We do have an awful lot of snow here in Nebraska! Maybe not quite as much as you in Wisconsin, but we do have some and I don't think we'll have that much trouble. It might be a little worse than it was stock but I can't see it being that much of a problem!

joshritger · May 31, 2009

NTIMD8R in regards to the adjustment of the rear shocks, you have to remove the shocks from the car to adjust them. This really isn't that big of a deal, you have to remove the rear wheel, then undo the bolt at the bottom that holds the shock on, then undo the two nuts at the top of the wheel well that hold the shock mount to the car. Then you compress the shock slightly to get the shock out. Then you have to remove the shock mount and slide over type of thing that protects the shaft. Then you fully compress the shaft using a bench vice or something similar and turn the body to the appropriate setting. I didn't install them myself, I just had them out to check for loose parts because of that noise. I don't know why the shop removes anything from the interior of the car, I removed all of the interior from the rear of my car and then did nothing from the inside. I am still thinking about getting the racing beat sways, they are just back ordered yet. I am also going to take it back to the shop that did the work and make sure that nothing else is loose, they did a 4 wheel alignment when I had them installed, want to make sure nothing is loose.

Also NTIMD8R what kinda rubber are you running? Are they performance tires or just all seasons? I just had kumho ecsta lx platinums installed (grand touring all season) and for winter I have bridgestone blizzaks.

NTIMD8R · May 31, 2009

joshritger said:
Also NTIMD8R what kinda rubber are you running? Are they performance tires or just all seasons? I just had kumho ecsta lx platinums installed (grand touring all season) and for winter I have bridgestone blizzaks.

I am running Goodyear Assurance Triple-Tred all-season 215/50/17s on my stock 17 x 6.5 inch rims for my winter tires. The Goodyears had OK grip in the winter and a ton of road noise compared to my current summer set-up: 225/40/18 Yokohama S-drive performance tires on OEM RX-8 18 x 8 inch rims. The S-drives are MUCH, MUCH stickier AND quieter than the Goodyears. Impressive grip on dry AND wet pavement. I highly recommend the S-drives! They got well-deserved high reviews on the Tire Rack website.

I will eventually get a dedicated winter tire for the stock 17's when the Goodyears wear out. Heard good comments about the blizzaks!

Attached pics: 1st (left)--winter tires and rims (before being lowered--Yeah, I know the rear tires are cupped!) 2nd (right)--summer tires and rims (after being lowered)

joshritger · May 31, 2009

NTIMD8R the RX8 wheels look so sexy on a 3, they should have put them on stock. Which tires are cupped? And what caused it? Have you noticed any extra or uneven wear on the tires from the racing beat sways? The car looks great also.

NTIMD8R · May 31, 2009

joshritger said:
NTIMD8R the RX8 wheels look so sexy on a 3, they should have put them on stock. Which tires are cupped? And what caused it? Have you noticed any extra or uneven wear on the tires from the racing beat sways? The car looks great also.

I agree with you that the RX8 wheels should be stock on the 3! It's a pretty popular mod that many 3 owners on this forum have done.

The rear goodyears are cupped from not rotating the fronts to the back and the backs to the front as I should have done at regular intervals. You'll notice the dark and then the light tread on the inside of the rear tires in my first picture (click on the picture--once to bring it up, a second time to enlarge). This happened on stock suspension--before I changed everything. The all-season tires have yet to be installed on the lowered car.

I haven't noticed any uneven wear (no wear at all!) on the new Yokohama's since the suspension change (over 6000 miles--mostly all highway miles).

Thanks for the compliment! One of these days I'm gonna make a build thread like some other forum members have done. I really enjoy seeing what others have done to their 3's and get ideas for mine off of what they did to theirs.

Here's one of my favorite pics of my 3--just to show a better view of the RX-8 rims (not that you haven't seen them on a 3 before...)

joshritger · Jun 3, 2009

Well I took my car back in tonight and got the sound looked at. It ended up being that the right rear shock mount was slightly loose causing the noise. This is strange to me considering that I took it out and made sure it was tight.

Oh well the sound is solved and now I have to start adjusting them.

NTIMD8R · Jun 3, 2009

Woo Hoo!! Now the fun begins!! (headbang)

joshritger · Jun 4, 2009

So I currently have the front set at 3/4 of a turn harder then soft, and the rear set to the softest setting. They feel pretty good in front, and I may turn the back up a quarter of a turn. My question is that when I turn the front a quarter of a turn firmer the steering seems to also get stiffer (ie it is a little harder to turn the wheel). Is this going to affect my steering pump? I guess I noticed a fairly big difference between half a turn and 3/4 of a turn.

joshritger · Jun 20, 2009

So I finally got my Racing Beat Swaybars and endlinks. I also picked up a set of replacement rear endlinks intended for the mazda speed 3 off of a parts website. $30 a piece is much cheaper than the $90 a piece mazda wants for almost identical parts. I won't be putting these on for a week or so yet, but I want to know how others have put their cars up to install these. I have a floor jack, and jack stands, but I don't know where to jack the car up and where to put the jack stands. On my previous cars there was alway some frame rail or something I could jack the car up with, but on the mazda it doesn't appear to have a decent lift point other than the jack points provided for changing the wheels/tires.

Thanks in advance,
Josh

NTIMD8R · Jun 20, 2009

joshritger said:
So I finally got my Racing Beat Swaybars and endlinks. I also picked up a set of replacement rear endlinks intended for the mazda speed 3 off of a parts website. $30 a piece is much cheaper than the $90 a piece mazda wants for almost identical parts. I won't be putting these on for a week or so yet, but I want to know how others have put their cars up to install these. I have a floor jack, and jack stands, but I don't know where to jack the car up and where to put the jack stands. On my previous cars there was alway some frame rail or something I could jack the car up with, but on the mazda it doesn't appear to have a decent lift point other than the jack points provided for changing the wheels/tires.

Thanks in advance,
Josh

Hey Josh! Nice deal on the MS3 endlinks! You got an even better deal than me! As far as jacking points on the 3, sorry, I can't help you there. I had a body shop install the sways and they have one of those fancy-smancy lift thingamagiggers that has a lift within a lift to hold up the engine while you removed the engine mounts, for example. After they did it they complained about what a pain it was to install the front sway bar. Said that they had to remove/unbolt the whole lower engine cradle to do so. They did, however, say the rear sway was much easier to install.

Here's a link to an online workshop manual:

http://www.mazdaclub.net/mz3ws/

To see what's involved click on SUSPENSION, then FRONT SUSPENSION, then FRONT STABILIZER REMOVAL/INSTALLATION. Hope that helps give you an idea! Good luck!

joshritger · Jun 29, 2009

Does anyone know if there is a guide anywhere to install both front and rear swaybars? I have been reading the directions from racingbeat and would like some pics to go with it.
Thanks,
Josh

NTIMD8R · Jun 29, 2009

joshritger said:
Does anyone know if there is a guide anywhere to install both front and rear swaybars? I have been reading the directions from racingbeat and would like some pics to go with it.
Thanks,
Josh

If you look on the other Mazda 3 forum and look under the suspension/brakes how-to's there are instructions on installing both the front and the rear sway bars with pics. We're not allowed to post links to these other sites on this forum so you'll have to do a little searching of your own! Good luck! Hope this helps!

joshritger · Jul 3, 2009

Well I just finished installing the racing beat swaybars tonight (late night, almost 1 in the morning). I have yet to drive with them on so I can't comment on that. Does anyone know where the item in the attached picture goes? It is just some plastic clip type thing, is it important, my dad was helping me with the install and he removed it, but doesn't remember where it came off.

Thanks for the help,
Josh

joshritger · Jul 15, 2009

Does anyone know of stiffer springs for the 3 that do not change the ride height? One of my friends recommended stiffer springs to enhance the ride a little more, but I can't find anything that does not drop the car at all.

NTIMD8R · Jul 15, 2009

joshritger said:
Does anyone know of stiffer springs for the 3 that do not change the ride height? One of my friends recommended stiffer springs to enhance the ride a little more, but I can't find anything that does not drop the car at all.

Why not lower it a little? A lower center of gravity will go further in helping you handle better than just stiffer springs. However, if it is no further lowering of your car that you want, then there is a set of springs that somebody makes (Hotchkis-sp?, maybe) that I read about when I was researching what springs to get for my 3. You'll have to search some of these threads about lowering springs--on one of them someone mentions these springs that I'm talking about that hardly lower the car at all, maybe 0.5" at most. I'll try to find out which ones and get back to you!

BTW, how do you like your Racing Beat sways? Do you have the same issue as I do when pulling out of a parking lot at an angle? Just curious...

joshritger · Jul 16, 2009

The Racing Beat Sways are good, the only time that I have really noticed an issue is if I am making a fast sharp run into a drive way where it makes me come in at an angle. Then one of the wheels comes up a bit I think. NTIMD8R how much did your springs drop the car? If I do springs I was considering the racing beat springs and mazdaspeed springs.

help picking modest suspension upgrade

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