Lowered 5, How does this affect ride quality?

D

Dphillips

Member
:
08 Mazda5
Im looking to close up those ugly wheel gaps in the 5. I was just wondering how do they ride on stiffer springs? Are they bouncy? Or just slighty stiffer, maybe way too stiff?

If you have a lowered 5, please let me know how your car changed from the install.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have H&R springs on mine; lowered around 1.3 inches. Not a huge difference in ride quality compared to stock. Larger bumps on the road seem to be more noticable, but not uncomfortable.
 
subbing, and posting. i would like to see a clean side shot of a mazda5 on H&R's. i want to lower our 5, but i dont want to sacrafice ride quality too much.
 
My 5 on the H&R's

IMGP6410.jpg


IMGP6421.jpg


Wheel Gap

IMGP6416.jpg


The pictures were taken a few days after the install. They've settled another 0.2 - 0.3 inches since.
 
What size wheel/tire package is that?
I would like to see one with factory rims.

That does look very nice though.
 
Dphillips said:
What size wheel/tire package is that?
I would like to see one with factory rims.

That does look very nice though.
Click to expand...

The rims are the Enkei EKM3's with the OEM tires. I will take a picture tonight with the factory rims as I have them installed now with winter tires. Car is gonna be dirty though, so be warned. LOL
 
Sounds great! Ill be waiting. Who cares if its dirty, Im sure this winter weather is killing everybody. Even here in socal, lol.
 
If you get a good spring like H&R, you will not lose substantial ride quality but get way better handling. Pricey but you really get what you pay for.

If you want to retain ride quality, look at the TEIN springs if they have them available for the 3/5... I believe the S Techs will do the trick, but you will get a negligible boost in handling.
 
We installed MazdaSpeed3 springs in our M5. Ride quality is fine. It's a bit harsher, but it felt mushy to me with OEM springs.

If I did it again, I would get H&R springs and MazdaSpeed rear camber arms.

The MS3 springs are a bit lower in the rear than the front and our SPC rear camber arms were a pain to install.

Get the H&R springs. Money well spent.
Get the MazdaSpeed rear camber arms. Unless you track your M5, there is no need to have adjustable rca's.

michael.
 
looks good lowered, will have to wait for the warranty to disappear then I may go that route too.. my biggest concern though is bumper scraping.
 
Ive lowered several cars. If you have crappy streets like we do here in Chicago (or lots of speed bumps) a lowered car has to be driven slower than a stock one to avoid bottoming out. I stopped doing this since I hate paying to make my car slower.

it was nice on those rare occasions that
i had a smooth empty turn to carve.
 
Then I suppose the stock Corvette and Porsche I owned had the wrong springs? Basic math here. My pickup trucks could be driven at full speed everywhere because of the ground clearance. My sports cars had to be driven slower (on bad roads) because of the reduced ground clearance but were faster on smooth roads.
Lowering your 5 makes it more like a sports car.. If you have bad streets you can make a lowered car work no problem, but you have to make it work. The only "right" springs are the ones from the factory. Learning the hard way is common in the aftermarket world, I was no different when I was younger. Keep your stock springs if your roads are bad and buy aftermarket if your roads are good. Its that simple.
 
Well I meant there are two different types of springs - linear and progressive rate springs, and also different springs have different spring rates. Springs that cause cars to bottom out are linear springs with soft spring rates. I had progressive rate lowering springs on the Corolla that were on the stiffer side and never had bottoming out problems, although because of the stiff rate I had to take rough roads a bit slower to avoid rattling my teeth out, but they made for awesome handling on twisties. The stock Corolla springs were way too soft, made for a great luxurious ride yea but there was absolutely no feel for the road, but with the new springs I got I felt too much road lol. If I were to have done it again I would've gone with H&R springs.

The Mazda 5's stock springs have a very good spring rate and feel IMO, a very good spot between comfort and handling feel. I'm going to go with spring rate adjustable and height adjustable coilovers when my shocks/struts need replacing next year.

My lowered Corolla in snow :D :

028.jpg
 
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