My "follow-along" Mazda5 Suspension upgrade

Wait a minute has your van been sitting in your driveway on jack stands all this time? You must be on the board of your HOA :p hope your install goes to plan
 
You mean you didnt use your muscle memory? You need to pay mind to crap you take off! J/K.

Did you look at the Mz5 FSM? I would think all torque values are in there. I just follow the general rule of thumb. You can estimate toque value by the size of the bolt (for non precision components). Big bolt, strong. Little bolt, weak. Google for the Mazda 5 FSM or let us know and someone can post/PM it.
 
No HOA! Just been so busy lately. Yes it's just been sitting there. :)

Those damn pins I had all cleaned up surface rusted over before I got a chance to paint them. :(

Found the FSM, I'll take a look at that and let it put me to sleep. :D

Then I have to find the proper spec to set the camber to start with.
 
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Newby question- replacing the rear sway bar bushings with the greasable Energy Suspensions....should I put the car on jack stands and let the suspension hang, or jack stands and then compress (load) the suspension? Don't want to hurt myself or F&ck something up because it explodes!
 
Newby question- replacing the rear sway bar bushings with the greasable Energy Suspensions....should I put the car on jack stands and let the suspension hang, or jack stands and then compress (load) the suspension? Don't want to hurt myself or F&ck something up because it explodes!
Jack up your 5 from the center of the rear subframe and let the suspension hang....go at it!
 
You could probably get it "close enough" by replicating the upper arms you are taking off. Measure the OE stuff from center of mounting hole to center of mounting hole, then set the SPCs to that same size. You were most likely going to take it to get aligned after all this work is done anyway right? Lucky you, with no HOA, its nice to be able to leave stuff sitting without the "neighborhood watch" giving you the skunk eye. Hell, i had to move to the middle of no-where with 3.5 acres to get that sort of freedom
 
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i might have missed it, but why did you choose the Koni FSD shocks? I have Koni yellows in the back of our car, and they only lasted maybe 30k miles and they are leaking all over the driveway already. i'm soooo sick of the rear end of this thing.
 
i might have missed it, but why did you choose the Koni FSD shocks? I have Koni yellows in the back of our car, and they only lasted maybe 30k miles and they are leaking all over the driveway already. i'm soooo sick of the rear end of this thing.

Well a Robotaz has had the same thing happen on his FSD's, two in fact!

ブレイク has also had one of his Koni yellow fail. Did Koni even bother to make sure there suspension actually can keep up with the weight of our cars? (I mean your guys cars, crap, forgot she was gone :(...)
 
See there, I'm sick of the FRONT end of mine! The rear is holding up fine on mine with comparatively crappy OE Spectrum shocks. Of course the phrase "lightly loaded" fits my car to a T, its usually carrying just me. And to be fair, I believe the trouble I'm having with the front is my fault, slap dash assembly of the Koni front struts, come back to haunt me....
 
You could probably get it "close enough" by replicating the upper arms you are taking off. Measure the OE stuff from center of mounting hole to center of mounting hole, then set the SPCs to that same size. You were most likely going to take it to get aligned after all this work is done anyway right? Lucky you, with no HOA, its nice to be able to leave stuff sitting without the "neighborhood watch" giving you the skunk eye. Hell, i had to move to the middle of no-where with 3.5 acres to get that sort of freedom

That's what I did- bolts through both arms to match the length before installation... but the upper arms are a ROYAL PAIN to adjust after they're on the car. You need to remove the wheel, pull the outer bolt out, then adjust the ball joint length. I went by my old alignment specs and estimated the required length to get to the camber I wanted, then extended the length by the right number of turns to get the camber I wanted. I nailed it within .2 degrees, so I'm happy. You'd be well served to do the same so you don't have to adjust while you're on the alignment rack. You DON'T want to pay the labor charge to do that.
 
My experience. I like the feel of the SPCs.
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-Tricks-to-replace-rear-camber-arm&highlight=

IIRC, both stock arms are the same length.


Make life a lot easier if you cut-off .5 off the driver side bolt so itll go in easier. I cut both. There's just too much excess bolt.




That's what I did- bolts through both arms to match the length before installation... but the upper arms are a ROYAL PAIN to adjust after they're on the car. You need to remove the wheel, pull the outer bolt out, then adjust the ball joint length. I went by my old alignment specs and estimated the required length to get to the camber I wanted, then extended the length by the right number of turns to get the camber I wanted. I nailed it within .2 degrees, so I'm happy. You'd be well served to do the same so you don't have to adjust while you're on the alignment rack. You DON'T want to pay the labor charge to do that.

You have to take off the outer bolt to adjust? The Topspeed look (quick google) almost identical to the Megan arms, which both should function the same as the SPCs three piece design. For SPCs, you do have to take the wheel off (otherwise you cannot physically reach the adjustment nut) but once the wheel is off and if you have a wrench big enough that can reach the adjustment bolts, you can adjustment it while on the car. The shop I took it too had a wrench big enough to catch the large nut BUT the angle of the nut/opening made it impossible to reach. The shop owner then heat torched a spare wrench to give the tip a 45*ish angle (yes, just for me :D) and can then make adjustments without having to take off any bolt. Still had to take the wheel off for every adjustments but I dont see how you can get around that.
 
My experience. I like the feel of the SPCs.
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-Tricks-to-replace-rear-camber-arm&highlight=

IIRC, both stock arms are the same length.


Make life a lot easier if you cut-off .5” off the driver side bolt so it’ll go in easier. I cut both. There's just too much excess bolt.






You have to take off the outer bolt to adjust? The Topspeed look (quick google) almost identical to the Megan arms, which both should function the same as the SPCs – three piece design. For SPCs, you do have to take the wheel off (otherwise you cannot physically reach the adjustment nut) but once the wheel is off and if you have a wrench big enough that can reach the adjustment bolts, you can adjustment it while on the car. The shop I took it too had a wrench big enough to catch the large nut BUT the angle of the nut/opening made it impossible to reach. The shop owner then heat torched a spare wrench to give the tip a 45*ish angle (yes, just for me :D) and can then make adjustments without having to take off any bolt. Still had to take the wheel off for every adjustments but I don’t see how you can get around that.

Hmm. Probably remembering wrong... it's been a while. I haven't adjusted mine since I put them on- nailed the setup dead on the first try.
 
These directions are confusing me.

http://www.spcalignment.com/instructions/67420-INS_WEB.pdf

1. Always check for loose or worn parts, tire pressure and tire wear.
2. Raise vehicle directly under rear coil springs so suspension is loaded and support
with safety stands. Remove rear wheel assembly.
3. Remove stock rear upper control arm by removing both inner and outer bolts.
4. Adjust the new control arm so the outer bushing and adjusting nut are threaded
completely into arm with no threads showing.

5. Hold the outer bushing from turning and unscrew the large 32mm adjusting nut until
the arm length is approximately the same as the stock arm.

6. Install arm onto vehicle using stock bolts and tighten to manufacturers specifications.
Make sure suspension is fully loaded before tightening the bushing bolts.
Caution: While installing the arm be careful not to rotate adjuster nut or outer bushing.
7. Install tire and wheel assembly and lower vehicle.
8. Adjust camber by turning large 32mm adjusting nut until desired camber is reached.
Warning: The gap between the large adjusting nut and the outer end of the arm should
not exceed 12.7mm (1/2). See Fig #1. Exceeding the range of adjustment of these arms
may cause the arm to fail and void warranty.
9. Tighten small pinch bolt and nut to 20 lb-ft. Tighten jamb nut tightly against
adjuster nut.
10. Adjust rear toe, recheck alignment and road test vehicle.

Then there is an illustration which states:
Measurement 'A' must equal Measurement 'B' and neither may exceed 1/2".

How the hell are they supposed to equal each other if the big nut is all the way in, and the length is adjusted by backing out the eye?

Is the "outer bushing" not the same as the "large 32mm adjusting nut"? They are the same. What the hell am I supposed to be unscrewing to get the length close to the same as stock? Which is hard, there are many "settings" with bolts through stock and SPC to line the holes up that allow them to line up on each other.

This pinch bolt setup seems shoddy too. Even tightened down, the larger nut/sleeve is still loose and wobbly in there.
 
Also now that I'm looking at this, the spring seat I purchased is an upper spring seat.

Was I supposed to replace the plastic-y lower spring seat too or does that remain?
 
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I believe I leave the stock lower spring cups in place. At least that is how I am proceeding. I guess if I am wrong I will have to go back.

The 2012+ springs have an orange and purple dot. Does it matter which way is up with these? I don't think it does but want to make sure. Again, I'll be taking it apart if I am wrong.
 
I believe I leave the stock lower spring cups in place. At least that is how I am proceeding. I guess if I am wrong I will have to go back.

The 2012+ springs have an orange and purple dot. Does it matter which way is up with these? I don't think it does but want to make sure. Again, I'll be taking it apart if I am wrong.

Dave, I can't remember for sure how I installed mine and since I don't have the stock springs installed on my 2012 I can't just go out and look. But here is the link to my thread. There's a pic there where I can see the orange dot. See if that gives you a perspective on which direction to install them. By the way I installed mine correctly because I looked at a used 2012 MZ5 we had in our car lot. http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123827975-Upgrade-on-2006-rear-suspension-to-2012
 
SPC%20camber%20arm_zpslski29w5.jpg

I suggest you take a few mins and completely disassemble the SPC arms to see how it is constructed and you’ll fully understand. Essentially it is a 3 piece design where A nests into B which nests into C (see pic, B is AKA “large 32MM adjusting nut”). Pinch bolt locks B and C, lock nut locks A and B. Since the pieces nests into each other, you ideally want the extension between A:B to be similar to B:C to distribute load and neither points should exceed ” with A:B being the weaker point, IMO. The stock arms are exactly 11.25” eye-to-eye. To adjust, you would loosen the lock nut and pinch bolt and adjust “B: adjustment nut” in/out, then lock everything in place, put wheels on, roll car to get new measurements. At least this is how I understand it :p


The lower spring seat remains since it is just a gasket, unlike the upper seat which covers the top coil. Random stupid idea: assuming it fits, you can reuse the old upper perch on the lower coil. This should in theory add a slight bit of height too (<.2”?) and provide an slightly thicker layer for NVH but this is just my random at the moment stupid idea.
 
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