Help! Lowering springs too loose in rear.

[booom]

As the title reads, seems like the tien h.tech springs I've installed don't want to stay put in the rear top mounts.

Previously, I had espelir springs with tokico hp blue struts which served me well, with the axr clunk fix bracket and racing beat rear sway bar, for over 125k miles accumulated over a decade. It was a great setup.

Recently, I updated the suspension to soften the ride to be more OE for my newborn child with tien coil springs paired with kyb gr-2 struts including new sets of top mounts and endlinks. But now I've been troubled with having to realign the rear coils into the top mount rubber isolators multiple times because they keep popping out. I think my driveway is the cause of this because it's quite steep and I requires me to exit at an angle, to avoid scraping, turning onto the street either left or right. Either way I turn the car is momentarily a tripod with one rear wheel dangling in the air with its suspension uncompressed. This is when I suspect the spring pops out of the top mount. Obviously, this unmounted coil is causing a lot of noise back there and it's really frustrating.

This never happened with my previous setup so I'm also suspecting the kyb struts or perhaps the tiens.

Is there anybody here who has faced this issue and come up with a solution? Balls!


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[MrGiggles]

Sounds like the strut may over extend, leaving the spring loose in the pocket. This should have been evident if you put the strut assemblies together yourself.

I've seen some offroad rigs that use a piece of heavy chain to limit the suspension from overextending, so that could be a quick and dirty fix for your issue.

 

[Maxx Mazda]

Your springs are too short for your struts. You need lowering struts such as the Tokico's which are about 1" shorter in travel IIRC. Those KYB's are stock replacements. Please get this fixed ASAP. Having an unseated spring is extremely dangerous.

 

[booom]

That could be it, Maxx. And it's been the rear Tokico HPs that have been nonexistent lately but suddenly I see them in stock on the racingbeat website. The car is garaged for now since I walk to work. Might get some Tokico struts on order.

MrGiggles, thanks for the idea but I don't think I'm going to escalate to that solution. I've seen what you're talking about but with webbing/seat belt. Yeah, when I assembled the spring in the strut there was barely any pressure holding the spring in place and I suspected they might wiggle out. I was thinking about adding rubber spacers between the coils in effort to fill in the pocket more but that really defeats the lowering effect. Either I put a taller spring in, stock or maybe racingbeat, or I install the tokico struts that which I know will solve it but want to make do with KYB struts.


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[i12drivemyMP5]

yep

 

[Valk]

You have to make sure you buy p5 struts and springs. I don't think you can interchange p5 rear struts with sedan springs ect. Certainly not msp springs.
Might be your problem. Just put the old stuff back in til you have a solution. Or stock.

 

[booom]

@Valk The tien h.tech are P5 specific. Also, the Racing Beat springs you can buy off their website are not the same spec as those that were implemented for the mazdaspeed protege. It explains this on their website that they were intended for the mp3 but you can install them on a P5. Anyway, I installed those back in 2004 and they were compatible with the OE strut. So, I just purchased another set of RB springs and can confirm they are compatible with my new KYB struts.

 

[booom]

I finally figured this out.

Problem: There weren't enough threads on the end of the strut piston rod ends to tighten the assembly up properly. Or the rear strut mounts are slightly shorter than the factory mounts. In any case...

The noise I was hearing initially was a tapping noise. That turned out to be the bump stop's metal cup/cap tapping the under side of the rear mounts when going over bumps. This is how I discovered the problem. No matter how much I tightened the nut on the rod end that metal cup was still loose because there weren't enough threads on the rod for the nut to move down and pull assembly all together securely. So, that allowed the rear coil springs to wiggle out from under the top mount, too. I resolved to doubling up the keyed bowl washer on the rod end before tightening the top nut which compressed the assembly sufficiently to pinch the metal cup against the underside of the strut mount which likewise compressed the spring into the rubber insulator. I also resolved to use a pair of OEM mazda spring insulators for the lower spring seat. Those are about 1/4 inch thick compared to the KYB insulators at 1/16 inch thick. The thicker insulator also compresses the springs a bit more and now I'm relieved to report the rear suspension is silent and the springs aren't popping out even when I drive out of my steep driveway at an angle, which lifts one of the rear tires off the ground, to avoid scraping the front air dam. Finally, it's done done. I'll also attribute a silent rear suspension to the AXR clunk fix bracket still doing its job well along with energy suspension greasable sway bar bushings. One more thing to be sure of is to torque down those endlinks to the strut tab and the sway bar end. I had enough threads to put two nuts on each side to prevent the first nut from backing off.

Final note: aftermarket struts/mounts/parts may not be made to factory spec so watch out for that and be prepared to adapt and find a solution.