What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

What have I done to my 5? I Photoshopped it! 😆

Would love to have the endless funds to make this a reality!

#ripcvaxles

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Replaced the OEM battery. Put in the Walmart EverStart Maxx group 35.

Why you ask? I left the headlights on for 1.5 hours by mistake and the battery was dead when I went to start it. It was daylight and the keys stayed in the ignition, so I didn't get the usual warning sound. I am well deserving of the idiot award!

I didn't think the battery should have been dead from this so I took it as a sign of the original battery getting weak. I figured at 8 years old, it's time.

Borrowed the 12v battery out of the home alarm system and alligator clipped it to the wires as a keep-alive battery.
 
Finally decided to give the roof rack some much needed love. The basket and crossbars were getting quite rusty, so I sanded everything down and sprayed a few good coats of Rust Check Stone Shield.

The plastic fairing was also looking super rough and warped, so I cut one out of wood and threw a few coats of tung oil for shine/protection. The fairing is held on with some rust-free fasteners and some Yakima fairing brackets. Very excited to get it back on the 5!

And yes, those are bike handlebar risers attaching the basket to the crossbars!

Enjoy the attached detail shots:
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Finally decided to give the roof rack some much needed love. The basket and crossbars were getting quite rusty, so I sanded everything down and sprayed a few good coats of Rust Check Stone Shield.

The plastic fairing was also looking super rough and warped, so I cut one out of wood and threw a few coats of tung oil for shine/protection. The fairing is held on with some rust-free fasteners and some Yakima fairing brackets. Very excited to get it back on the 5!

And yes, those are bike handlebar risers attaching the basket to the crossbars!

Enjoy the attached detail shots:
|View attachment 226956View attachment 226957View attachment 226958View attachment 226959
Cool project, looks great (using wood is a nice touch)...Thanks for sharing! (y)
 
Did a quick sand and paint of my faux-EM rack earlier, and mounted a bike tray. I like the slightly more rugged look since this car is always going to look a little scratched up. Mounted one of my crappy 30-pound Walmart bikes to it and it held up to the abuse.

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Went on a 2am drive and washed the exterior while I was out.
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Then I decided to do a little lens tint. I’m not very happy with how light the tint is though.
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Here's an illustration I did of what I'd like to do to our 5! Our van is in need of new front struts (200,000km on original struts), so I'm thinking of upgrading the springs at the same time. I did some research and it looks like Mazda Tribute front springs would fit the 5's struts. This would certainly lift the front! My rear springs (off a CX7) are already showing signs of sagging, so I may add some coil spacers to help lift the rear a bit more. We'll have to see how well those CV axles hold up and if an alignment shop can get a proper alignment done.

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Alright, I do not recommend using Rustoleum Peel Coat on wheels. It ended up pulling the clear coat when I used mineral spirits to remove the Rustoleum.
 

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I ripped apart the interior to clean, install stereo system wiring and swap all instrumental, hvac and lcd screen to red led. Painting all silver trim black and also started my custom fog light mod.
 

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Also working on my custom tail light mod. First thing tho is I gotta get rid on the tint from the previous owner. Ugh! So much wet sanding!!
Going to.pull them apart and paint all chrome to red chrome to match the wheels and emblems
 

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Finally decided to give the roof rack some much needed love. The basket and crossbars were getting quite rusty, so I sanded everything down and sprayed a few good coats of Rust Check Stone Shield.

The plastic fairing was also looking super rough and warped, so I cut one out of wood and threw a few coats of tung oil for shine/protection. The fairing is held on with some rust-free fasteners and some Yakima fairing brackets. Very excited to get it back on the 5!

And yes, those are bike handlebar risers attaching the basket to the crossbars!

Enjoy the attached detail shots:
|View attachment 226956View attachment 226957View attachment 226958View attachment 226959

I love this! Would love to do a roof basket on mine aswell. Need to get the rack bars first from a scrap yard or part out as mine didn't come with them. Looks dope tho for sure!
 
2-wheel front alignment.

Just finished replacing control arms and tie rods. Time for an alignment! Even with measuring and trying to keep the new tie rods the same length as the old ones, the toe-in was still almost an inch on each side. This is not drive-able, so I found a great method on the U-Tubes to get it done myself.

The typical flawed method is to extend the rear wheel alignment to the front with a string and use that as your reference. That method will get you close and make the car drive-able, but it's not a long term solution and can cause tire wear.

This guy knows how to do it right. You can too.
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To start with, this better method starts with keeping the wheels on the ground and parking the front tires on folded plastic bags so they can pivot while you adjust the tie rods. Genius! It also uses 2 parallel strings on each side of the car, and then the centering of both axles is measured off of the string and not the other axle. This is important!

You'll need a steady handed helper to hold the tape measure between the strings and at least 10 minutes to get the 2 strings parallel with both axles centered between them. There are 6 points of measurement that all effect the others. With lots of progressively small adjustments and measuring, eventually it all lines up!

After the strings were set, I dialed in 1/16 inch of toe out, and it is great over bumps and on the highway too. I'm not sure if I'll ever pay for an alignment again.

Awesome! I'm still a little depressed over paying $85 (with discount) to my dealer years ago, and not only did they not touch camber or caster (the car still drifts to the right a bit like it did before), they gave the car back with the steering wheel pointing several degrees to the left! I've read about the string method but haven't yet gotten around to it.
 
Currently procrastinating about repairing my bad CV boots, finally hopped on here to look for some tech information. I replaced the d/s front wheel bearing ($$$!) when a weird hum started under the car and inspection showed the bearing was loose; however, the noise is still there and a closer inspection revealed visible damage to both left and right CV boots. I've been trying to drive the car very little in the meantime, so hopefully all the grease hasn't yet flown out ....

I'm not used to working on FWD stuff .... we had an '03 Cavalier for 15 years and the only front-end work we ever did was like $150 worth of QuickStruts when the front springs broke! The "5," though it's a pretty awesome car in many ways, has been something of a nightmare in the way of front end service - and it's only 8 years old. :-(

Sooo ........ I see a handful of threads on working on the CV axles that have some good information .... I think I mostly need to know whether there's a retainer I have to extract before attempting to pry the axles out of the diff.
 
Those cv shafts should just pop rite out the trans with a pry bar. Then you need to undo it from the hub. Then once off you must release the retainer that holds the cup to the shaft in order to replace the boot. Then reverse to put it all back. I hope that helps a little
 
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