Recent content by 1987cp

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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    For the rear windows, do they get rid of that horrible pulsating resonance whenever those windows are open at all?
  2. 1

    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Though I would suggest being selective in buying replacements. A couple of years ago, I bought left and right replacement CV axles new from NAPA's cheaper line. Both had insane issues with them - one made a terrible noise whenever I accelerated, and the other made a terrible noise whenever I...
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    What have you done to your Mazda3 today?

    Brakes! Our '16 (bought NOS in '18) finally started making the wear-indicator noises, so I tore into it to have a look. Always interesting to see the new ways engineers have figured out to retain brake pads. I can be unobservant sometimes - I didn't immediately recognize the worn wear...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Good info, thanks! $15 was the right price this go-round, but yours probably rides better. :-)
  5. 1

    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Suspension rebuild a success! Car drives nice and straight and tight, better than when it was new. It's just taking a couple of tries to get the steering wheel right where I'd like it. There is some undesirable jiggling and noise from the rear that I attribute to having gotten the cheapest...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Finally got all of the new rear suspension parts installed minus the trailing arm bushings; going to move to the front hopefully today. From videos, it looks like the forward inner mount on the front LCAs has non-captured nuts up inside the subframe, so that will be interesting. Had the...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Wow, your car has a lot of miles! Mine's just over 90k, but it does see mostly town miles, and that on fairly nasty roads. I now have on the shelf: Inner and outer tie rod ends Front lower control arms Rear lateral links Rear swaybar endlinks Second rear LCA for the other side because...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    New tires are on! The MZ3 iSport-original Bridgestone Ecopias fought me coming off, though it may be more the fact that the OE steel wheels have such a pronounced ridge in the bead seat area. One of the new tires gave me a little bit of grief to seat, also. I ended up leaving the standard...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Today I received most of another RockAuto order full of yet more suspension/steering junk - minus of course the bits I think I most particularly need, which are coming tomorrow. Probably won't actually work on it tomorrow, anyway. Once I'm done with this pile of stuff, there should be no more...
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    Anyone attempt wheel installation/balancing/alignment themselves?

    Today I finally attempted a rear toe check since I was 99% sure my thrust angle was off after a LCA replacement on the Mazda IRS (and the act of removing/replacing the LCA educated me on how to actually adjust rear toe using the stock cam bolts!). I used pretty much the method described in...
  11. 1

    Wheel off center after changing LCAS

    This. Even without a test drive (which they apparently skipped), you'd think they'd have scratched their heads upon noticing that LF and RF toe were off by equal amounts in opposite directions ...
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    Anyone attempt wheel installation/balancing/alignment themselves?

    Thread resurrection! A friend from another forum posted this when I said I didn't believe he could change a tire without a machine: Fat @$$ changes a tyre Shortly after, I made my own lever type bead breaker (a bumper jack also works if you have one, plus of course something to hold it down)...
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    Wheel off center after changing LCAS

    Sure, you can adjust the toe at home. If the car is newer, the endlinks might not even fight you much (when I last adjusted mine, I used an 18" pipe wrench). On FWD cars, the info I've seen is to go for 0 degrees total toe, and then you'll have to play with it to get the steering wheel centered...
  14. 1

    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    Yay, rear suspension is back together. For now. And the clunk is finally gone. I thought all those control arms would never line up! If anyone needs to care (and I hope you don't), the outer rearward rear LCA bolt and the lower shock mount bolt are the same. Hardware store replacement is...
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    What have you done to your Mazda5 today?

    That looks nice! Might even feel better than the original leather cover on the T and GT models.
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