What have you done to your P5 today?

Washed, vacuumed, and a quick spray wax. I need to really get a good polishing and glaze on there asap. Other then that:

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Got the alignment done, the toe was off by almost a degree on both sides. The steering feels better now, and at least I won't be ruining my new tires :)
 
Anyone running HID headlights and fog lights? i'm curious on your setup. What fog bulb are you using? Are you using a power harness on either setup? Any problems?
 
Anyone running HID headlights and fog lights? i'm curious on your setup. What fog bulb are you using? Are you using a power harness on either setup? Any problems?

I actually have an H3 kit from Kensun that I bought on Amazon, BUT, the bulb is too long and hits the deflector plat in the housing itself. I was informed to just bend the deflector up/down to provide clearance, but I would assume that would change the beam pattern. Here's the thread I got my info from...

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123812906-Fog-light-HID-s

... they mention something about an H3C bulb, but question the reliability.

I've actually been looking at some PIAA sets as replacements, but I'm skeptical on the bulb clearance in those as well.
 
Oh, and I forgot to mention that when attempting to do the install, I plugged the kit in and no light. I saw something somewhere about changing to a different fuse, but I can't remember where I saw it.
 
i wonder what size spacers would be nice to run with my ms3 wheels

Get a scale/ruler/tape measure and put it against the tire and look down from above the fender. This will give you a good idea what you need to get close to flush.

Anyone running HID headlights and fog lights? i'm curious on your setup. What fog bulb are you using? Are you using a power harness on either setup? Any problems?

I ran 5000k in my headlights and 3000k in the fogs, regular HIDs. There is a bit of modding to do to the fog in order for them to fit though. Some run extra harnesses, I didn't.
 
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I ran 5000k in my headlights and 3000k in the fogs, regular HIDs. There is a bit of modding to do to the fog in order for them to fit though. Some run extra harnesses, I didn't.

Were they just plug n' play? I'm starting to think I got a bad kit.
 
Sometimes you can just switch the plugs on the ballasts and they will work. At least that's what I had to do with my DDM kits. Check your fuses first though.

Crappy pic but this car just doesn't show up at night.
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finally accepted the fact that i have a clunk in the front end.
i lifted the car today to poke around and couldnt find anything out of wack.
im quite frustrated, the only thing i've done to it lately is put in a stiffer front motor mount, but i've had that one in before and never had any problems.

has anyone ever had a front end clunk?
im really bummed out :(
 
finally accepted the fact that i have a clunk in the front end.
i lifted the car today to poke around and couldnt find anything out of wack.
im quite frustrated, the only thing i've done to it lately is put in a stiffer front motor mount, but i've had that one in before and never had any problems.

has anyone ever had a front end clunk?
im really bummed out :(

It's kinda hard, but check your front sway bar bushings. I've had 2 brackets snap and i got a clunk. Also, may seem silly but just double check to make sure your lugs are tight and haven't backed out at all.
 
well i did new struts and springs a few months ago and also put on ford enlinks. none of them are snapped but i have yet to try to re tighten (since i doubted that they would loosen up after months of not having problems).
i always torque, then re torque lugnuts to 68ft/lb.

clunk is kind of random and difficult to recreate with. as long as the car is moving and there is small about of bump or even going over the little bumpy things in between lanes might or might not make it clunk.
it does feel to be on the drivers side and will occasionally sound on the passenger side.
the wheel can be straight or in motion when it occurs.
can someone do me the favor and check if when your in the car (with it running) at a stand still turn the wheel left and right rather quickly as if you were going through cones, is there any kind of clunk or tap in the steering wheel?
i dont remember if my car has always done that or not. (my car wont clunk at the wheel if its in the air)
 
^ omg right there same thing in dealing with on the driver side!!! Replaced the links with escape ones and still a clunk will check seay bar tomorrow
 
well i did new struts and springs a few months ago and also put on ford enlinks. none of them are snapped but i have yet to try to re tighten (since i doubted that they would loosen up after months of not having problems).
i always torque, then re torque lugnuts to 68ft/lb.

Did you change the strut mounts as well? If they're still the original ones that could be it. You *might* be able to recreate the sound by finding a fat guy to bounce the front end of your car.

clunk is kind of random and difficult to recreate with. as long as the car is moving and there is small about of bump or even going over the little bumpy things in between lanes might or might not make it clunk.
it does feel to be on the drivers side and will occasionally sound on the passenger side.
the wheel can be straight or in motion when it occurs.

If it does it over small bumps that might be a good thing, something would have to be fairly loose in that case. My left control arm ball joint used to make a clack sound sometimes when entering my driveway (I have to drive over a ~5cm bump). I couldn't diagnose the sound using the normal method because the ball joint wasn't loose enough. However, I recently changed my control arms and sure enough the left hand side ball joint was much looser than the right.

If I were you I'd start by doing the test I linked to to check for any slop in your tie rods and LCA ball joint. If that reveals nothing, then try removing the front endlinks and see if the sound goes away. If that doesn't help, I'd pop the LCA ball joints from the steering knuckles and check for excessive play (the ball joint stud should be relatively hard to move). If all of that checks out ... then I don't know what to tell you.

Front end clunks could be caused by the following (off the top of my head):
  • Bad struts
  • Strut mounts
  • Stablizier end links
  • Inner/Outer tie rod ends
  • LCA ball joints
  • Loose mounting fasteners
It shouldn't be too much work to rule most of those out...

can someone do me the favor and check if when your in the car (with it running) at a stand still turn the wheel left and right rather quickly as if you were going through cones, is there any kind of clunk or tap in the steering wheel?
i dont remember if my car has always done that or not. (my car wont clunk at the wheel if its in the air)

That's normal, I have brand new inner and outer tie rod ends and it still does it. I think that noise comes from some slop in the steering rack, but you really shouldn't worry about it. This isn't the noise you're hearing while moving.

One last thought: have you played around with your motor mounts recently? A loose mount could cause a clunk but you should be able to correlate it with hard acceleration/deceleration. Perhaps you should check those bolts as well as any other bolts related to your suspension to make sure everything's good and tight.
 
The clunking def sounds like your sway bar bushings. I had one separate thanks to a oil leak and it would clunk every bump I hit.

Took her out last night and embarrassed a few people. First up was a mazda 6 with dual fart cans and some stupid as resistor mod that he added to the maf plug. I told four people to hop in the car and row the boat if he starts to pull on me. Well, I finally let off when greyhound bus lengths could be counted. He wanted to go a few more times and it just never helped him much. Also ran a mazdaspeed miata. Pulled a fender on him from a 30 roll (6 speed>5speed), then from a 40 roll, I put at least 2 cars on him since I could see him in the rear view. All in all, it was a good night of closed course racing.
 

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