Struts blown at 85,000 miles ?

Bilsteins are done

New strut mounts done.
New brakes done
New trans fluid done.


Car rides fantastic with the bilsteins. It is a lot more composed. A little "harsher" than before, but I love it. Over bumps, the rebound is fantastic. Wish I had these on the car from new.


Next is to mount the new tires I have and align it, and be done.
 
lets see if pics work
 

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nice!!! bilstein? how does the car ride?

was working on the suspension of your car easy?
 
nice!!! bilstein? how does the car ride?

was working on the suspension of your car easy?
Yes Bilstein.
Car rides fantastic with the bilsteins. It is a lot more composed. A little "harsher" than before, but I love it. Over bumps, the rebound is fantastic. Wish I had these on the car from new.

To do the brakes, trans fluid, all suspension, took me total of 5.5 hours with hand tools.
 
Yes Bilstein.
Car rides fantastic with the bilsteins. It is a lot more composed. A little "harsher" than before, but I love it. Over bumps, the rebound is fantastic. Wish I had these on the car from new.

To do the brakes, trans fluid, all suspension, took me total of 5.5 hours with hand tools.

Nice... Im glad to hear. Ive heard nothing but positive reviews with these struts over at the BMW forum so Im happy to share the word with this forum too. What springs did you use? I like how the Bilsteins are sporty yet offer a compliant ride, very durable struts as well.
 
I have had bilsteins on many of my other cars
So I am familiar with them

But our mazda5 is the family beater
Wasnt expecting to spend the money for shocks at such a young age

Currently I am on stock springs

Nice... Im glad to hear. Ive heard nothing but positive reviews with these struts over at the BMW forum so Im happy to share the word with this forum too. What springs did you use? I like how the Bilsteins are sporty yet offer a compliant ride, very durable struts as well.
 
Well 3 months of clunk has finally been solved

Do not get rear bilstein for this car

I installed new rear shock mounts today
Clunk was there
I added washers clunk was there

I decided to swap the rear shocks out again and went KYB, Walah clunk gone

DO NOT BUY REAR BILSTEIN FOR 2012+ MAZDA5
 
Probably had a defective shock- happens sometimes, regardless of the quality of the brand. I still trust Bilsteins overall. I would send it back for a refund since you've swapped to another brand. Both KYB and Bilstein are quality OEM level brands.
 
Probably had a defective shock- happens sometimes, regardless of the quality of the brand. I still trust Bilsteins overall. I would send it back for a refund since you've swapped to another brand. Both KYB and Bilstein are quality OEM level brands.

Shock was perfectly fine

Talked to them
They send me a new shock

Same clunk

Been dealing with it 3 months

The design on top mount is incorrect

Look at my other clunk thread. Another guy in Italy after buying B4 bilstein in rear developed same clunk


I love bilstein

All my other cars have bilstein

On my mazda5 front has bilstein
Rear bilstein on this car is problematic
 
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Probably had a defective shock- happens sometimes, regardless of the quality of the brand. I still trust Bilsteins overall. I would send it back for a refund since you've swapped to another brand. Both KYB and Bilstein are quality OEM level brands.
+1 granted I can see how it leaves a bad impression on an owner.

Also, I though you mentioned everything was working fine for a little bit until you had a rear fender bender? That's when the noise creeped up, no?
 
+1 granted I can see how it leaves a bad impression on an owner.

Also, I though you mentioned everything was working fine for a little bit until you had a rear fender bender? That's when the noise creeped up, no?

Yes. After I installed the B4, all was fine for 450 miles. After rear ender, noise came. Don't know if it was result of that, or the shock settled.

But I have tried everything since then to be fixed. New rear B4, from Bilstein, new shock mounts, nothing helped. Noise was ONLY gone, when rear shocks were taken out. Thus the new Bilsteins were making the clunking.

As you saw from other posts, guy in Italy bought the same B4, and he had same clunk from day one.


Now that I swapped KYB on OLD shock mounts, no noise. I went ahead and changed all the shock mounts anyways on the rear.
 
I can't quite make sense of this.

You put in new B4, no noise for 450 miles.
You put in replacement (but brand new) B4, noise right off the bat?


I still think knocking noise is indicative of poor mounting/mating surface. Did you have a look/compare the diameter of the B4 piston vs OEM (where it mates the top shock mount)? I wonder if the piston (or the threaded part) is too large or small, making contact against the shock mount's metal casing. I can only speculate. Glad you've moved on. KYB gas-adjust monos should be good for the rear.
 
I can't quite make sense of this.

You put in new B4, no noise for 450 miles.
You put in replacement (but brand new) B4, noise right off the bat?


I still think knocking noise is indicative of poor mounting/mating surface. Did you have a look/compare the diameter of the B4 piston vs OEM (where it mates the top shock mount)? I wonder if the piston (or the threaded part) is too large or small, making contact against the shock mount's metal casing. I can only speculate. Glad you've moved on. KYB gas-adjust monos should be good for the rear.
I couldn't make sense of it either. Almost was ready to sell the van, noise was so EFFIN annoying. Chasing it for 3 months as you guys see.

Yes Bilstein said first shocks bad, thus sent replacement, which was noisy from mile 1 (more clunky than original B4)

B4 rear piston is too small, and makes that contact, that is the issue. Its a design problem.

I prefer Bilstein for rear (as I have Bilstein on other cars and love them for over 20 years). that said couldn't live with noise. KYB (never owned these), solved it on the rear.
 
How far down did you push the strut into the knuckle? The bilstein front struts did not have an indicator of far to go down unlike my original and kyb. I have some rubbing of my moog end links again the frame of car when I turn right. The left side is fine.
 
How far down did you push the strut into the knuckle? The bilstein front struts did not have an indicator of far to go down unlike my original and kyb. I have some rubbing of my moog end links again the frame of car when I turn right. The left side is fine.

I don't recall exactly how far I pushed the strut into the knuckle. I will have to look at it again. I have put exactly 20,000 miles in 13 months since the install. Not a single rubbing. Then again, I have OEM end links on mine.
 
I don't recall exactly how far I pushed the strut into the knuckle. I will have to look at it again. I have put exactly 20,000 miles in 13 months since the install. Not a single rubbing. Then again, I have OEM end links on mine.

Here's a pic to show what I'm talking about.

One thing I did noticed was the total strut length on both of the bilstein's was longer too. Like almost 3 inches longer! I initially thought maybe my original struts had lost some of the length due to age (118,000 miles). I checked the ride height of my sisters car (same year and model and age, different tires and only 55,000 miles). Measure from ground to the bottom of the front bumper, her's was 8.5 inches. Mine is almost 9.75 inches. So definitely higher. I slid my low profile jack under and it definitely has more room.

I can't recall how far the original strut was in the knuckle but pretty sure it wasn't all the way in since there was some rust at the bottom of the knuckle and I sanded it to hopefully have it slide in easier (I did not sand enough). I stuck my finger in the bottom of knuckle (approx 1 inch) and it seems the bilstein was at approx the same depth into the knuckle as my original.

Hopefully you haven't put on your winter tires yet and can take a gander at the strut and post back ;)

Edit: attachment should work now
 

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