CX5 Sleek and Modest Offroad mods

Stock. Lowering is purely for looks. Would take away from functionality on this car in my opinion
Interesting… noticed yours is a turbo model. Do you know if turbo suspensions are different than non turbo models?

Mine has massive wheel gap especially in the rear.
 
4K review. Tires are awesome. No excessive road noise over my 20s. About 1 mpg less overall. Have taken her to the dirt and snow and what a blessing it is to have awd. Last 2 adventures both times another cx5 parked next to us. Oddly haven’t seen many other awd turbo models.
Wheels model? Width and offset please 🔥
 
Rims are now in for powder coating. Should be finished in a few weeks/month.

Couldn't find a walnut blaster. Most places use cut glass or more abrasive substances to sandblast.

Chose a powder-coat shoppe that uses synthetic plastic media blasting which is more abrasive than walnut but doesn't leave the nick profiles on the rim like cut glass.

Supposedly the rim will be cured at a temperature and time that won't weaken the wheel. Wasn't told what that temperature was...
But unless you're actually there, who knows??? It'll probably be baked at 400° F and cause some aging/weakening to these used rims from a 2005 Mazda.

Taking a chance and hoping it never fails as lots of drivers have powder coated wheels that are still on the road.

Am curious as to how much powder-coat may weaken the rims.
If find a local place that can test metal hardness for under $100, will get both the virgin rim and powder-coated rim tested and post results. Or may buy a Rockwell tester for $300.

As far as color, decided to go with an anthracite gray which is slightly darker than the the machine gray.

Was going to two tone the rim barrel with candy apple red...or maybe two-tone one of the spokes with red but decided to leave the rim all one color ( anthracite gray) to avoid reheat/cure a second time as well as you can't change the colors once it's done.
For anyone considering powder coat, two toned means twice baked, possibly weakening the rim further.

Will be painting the center caps red to add some contrast.
May go back and plastic dip red onto the barrel or spoke of the finished rims afterwards to see what looks like and can always paint two-tone red over the anthracite later.

Chose the used rims for the old style rugged 5-spoke look but if had to do over again, would have just have went with new modern rims.

Cost for five junkyard rims and powdercoat came to $790. Way cheaper than a set of good BBS rims but almost similar to getting a set of new cheap rims.

Will post pics of finished rims once on CX5.
 
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Update on the above post.

Found out that it is going to be baked at 400° F but we are proceeding with the powder anyway. Couldnt find any powder-coaters that would do a low temp bake.
With millions of cars on the road and tons with powder coat wheels, there is rarely if any catastrophic failures posted online.
While it may weaken wheel, it seems highly unlikely to weaken it substantially.

Found a local place that does hardness testing but professional testing would cost $400 for 2 rims. A hardness test device only cost $300 so may purchase tester, test wheels and then resale the device, hopefully for not too much of a loss.

Would really like to know how significant or insignificant the change in hardness / brittleness is.
I'm surprised that no metallurgist has tested and posted anything online of this sort to date. One would think this information and statistics would be out there.
 
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Update 2:

Was able to find a used hardness gauge for $160 to test both the virgin rim and the powder coated rim. One of my rims will end up with a 1/2 inch wide semicircle indentation so plan to test the barrel portion.

Will finally be able to tell if the heat cure softens the rim(most likely not) or hardens the rim further making it more brittle(possibly) and to what degree.

It has been a maze to try and figure an answer to a question that no one wants to answer and indeed keep clouded in legalese.

Rim makers say don't do it as it will change the structural integrity and they have there modification disclaimers to void the warranty.

Powdercoat makers say it should be ok, but also have disclaimers warning that a person should take in all the facts and concerns before making a decision and to speak with powder-coater.

However the facts and data are not readily available and the powdercoat makers whether it's PPG, IFS Prismatic, Sherwin Williams, etc still make and supply powder coat that need to cure at 400° F.

And the actual small powder-coaters say they do hundreds of rims and no one has problems.

And the question is:

Will the heat cure at 400° F cause the rim to change so substantially that the wheel becomes so brittle that it could potentially lead to loss of life and limb.

Based on the amount of powder coat rims that are actively on the road, no first hand reports with pictures (that I can find) of rim catastrophic failures, imo, am leaning toward the conclusion that the rims are weakened and may become slightly more brittle but not enough to be detrimental to the operation of the vehicle.
 
Forgot to get the lug nuts powder coated anthracite gray with the rims.

Now trying to find matching blue center caps and lug nuts. May need to go with red or black lug nuts and center caps.

Roof rails arrived. Spray painting with duplicolor shadow chrome over the weekend and hope it looks good. If look good, may have a body shop paint the window trim and other chrome trims with shadow chrome to match and blackout the whole cx5.

Can't find any pics of anyone that's shadow chromed a Mazda. While it's not black paint to match the other window trim, the black chrome cant possibly look any worse than the regular chrome.
 
Forgot to get the lug nuts powder coated anthracite gray with the rims.

Now trying to find matching blue center caps and lug nuts. May need to go with red or black lug nuts and center caps.

Roof rails arrived. Spray painting with duplicolor shadow chrome over the weekend and hope it looks good. If look good, may have a body shop paint the window trim and other chrome trims with shadow chrome to match and blackout the whole cx5.

Can't find any pics of anyone that's shadow chromed a Mazda. While it's not black paint to match the other window trim, the black chrome cant possibly look any worse than the regular chrome.

You could probably just mask off the chrome trims, scuff them with a Scotch pad and clean, then paint them yourself, if you can do the roof rails. I had plans to either spray the chrome trim pieces of my CX-9 in black chrome, or wrap them in a transparent vinyl with a smoke-grey tint. Might still happen but its pretty far down on my list these days.

The only way it would look worse is if it is applied poorly.
 
Picked up powder-coated rims today.
Way better than the aftermarket and got the 5 spoke look was looking for.

The Mazda tribute 16" rims with anthracite powder look great. and matches the CX5 machine gray. The chrome lug nuts for the CX5 and Tribute rims are both conical m12 x 1.5 with 21 mm hex but the chrome looks awful.

The problem is there are no aftermarket black (or blue) m12x 1.5 in 21 mm... Only 19 mm hex.
While wrench/socket size is not a concern, whether the cone portion will have enough width to hold wheel is a question?

Is anyone using aftermarket 19 mm hex lugs with their stock cx5 wheels ? Does the cone have enough bite?
 
Three(3) different big box auto stores and Napa. Nobody stocks nothing anymore.
Plenty of air filters, oil filters and oil. No black lugs for Mazda or any lugs for Mazda , no duplicolor shadow chrome, no ceramic anti-sieze. Then they complain they have no business. should call them Filter stores.

So roof rails, new tires/wheels install and window trim projects on hold until next week. Ordering everything online.
 
I have a CX-9, but the titanium lug nuts on my 22s are 19mm while the OEM nuts are 21mm (I think). Everything works great.
 
I have a CX-9, but the titanium lug nuts on my 22s are 19mm while the OEM nuts are 21mm (I think). Everything works great.
Thanks Smike. That opens my options for blue or black nuts. Funny thing is they didn't have the 19 mm M12 x 1.5 conicals in stock either. No 21 mm nor 19 mm in stock. So I'm still gonna need to online order. But 19 mm opens up alot of options.
 
To give everyone ideas of auto store online programs pricing:
Advance auto
20 black mcgard lugs for $106
NAPA
20 black mcgard lugs for $50
Amazon
20 black mcgard lugs for $80
Amazon
20 "white knight" black lugs for $ 63
Amazon
24 dynofit black lugs for $19 reviews state mis-threads and rusted new
DP driven product
24 black lugs for $40

Napa has cheapest price for Mcgards.

DP driven looks good for 24 lugs for $40 but company unknown.

Buying the Mcgard from NAPA online for $50.
 
Crazy how much the price for the McGard nuts varies, depending on retailer.
 
Took a long time searching but finally found a Mazda service bulletin that shows the correct torque for the tpms nut to be between 67 and 75 in lbs. Found another spec chart that verified torque to be 71 in lbs.... Only confusing part is the bulletin says once tire filled with air, the torque SLIGHTLY decreases to between 17 and 26 in lbs. They call that big drop a slight decrease.
So now the question is does one torque to 71 in lbs then air up and decease torque to 20 in lbs???
May just torque it til it's snug...if it's snug at 20 then stop, if not keep going til it's snug
 
and here's the specs for the BHA4-37-140 tpms sensor torque values:
 

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before and after:
stock rim and powder coated stock rim

There were like thousands of colors to choose from.

For anyone looking to powder-coat, the rim on the right is crystallized anthracite:

Can't wait to get mounted.
 

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Took a long time searching but finally found a Mazda service bulletin that shows the correct torque for the tpms nut to be between 67 and 75 in lbs. Found another spec chart that verified torque to be 71 in lbs.... Only confusing part is the bulletin says once tire filled with air, the torque SLIGHTLY decreases to between 17 and 26 in lbs. They call that big drop a slight decrease.
So now the question is does one torque to 71 in lbs then air up and decease torque to 20 in lbs???
May just torque it til it's snug...if it's snug at 20 then stop, if not keep going til it's snug
A drop of 26 in Lbs is only ~2 ft Lbs. Most regular torque wrenches are barely that accurate.
 
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