Learnings from messing with my 2018 KF CX5

[ColoradoDriver]

My opinion is that its your car, do what you want with it. I think plenty here do different mods to theirs. Just don't be surprised if there are other folks on here who don't.

Personally I'd never put 20's on or even 19s as we have too many potholes and rough roads around here. I personally really like having 17s on my CX-5. Plus the cost isn't too bad when it comes to new tires time vs the 19s.

 

[Robbo]

Smaller wheels will lead to tires with increased sidewall height. While it could definitely soften things it will not help with handling in any way and will more than likely make it feel a little looser. The tires will have more side roll so emergency maneuvers could be negatively affected. So tire selection will be an important factor to help with this. Softer suspension would again reduce the handling of the vehicle.

I feel that Mazda uses smaller wheels to hide its lack of sound deadening too! As soon as you switch to bigger rims you get so much extra road noise.

 

[Robbo]

My opinion is that its your car, do what you want with it. I think plenty here do different mods to theirs. Just don't be surprised if there are other folks on here who don't.

Personally I'd never put 20's on or even 19s as we have too many potholes and rough roads around here. I personally really like having 17s on my CX-5. Plus the cost isn't too bad when it comes to new tires time vs the 19s.

Yep bigger wheels definitely come with compromises. For some it's a trade off worth having for the improvement in looks.

 

[Robbo]

I was mainly starting this thread just to help anyone trying to modify their KF CX5, because it has been quite tricky and expensive, with many lessons learnt. One thing was upgrading the factory stereo in the KF Mazda CX5 (non Bose) is quite tricky. I started out with an underseat sub, 2 x 50w amp and front Focal components with tweeters in the factory Bose position. I have run a similar set up before and it sounded great, but alas this did not sound good at all.

The Bose the CX9 is as good as I really need in a car stereo, I am not super fussy, but the factory set up, then the aftermarket set up I tried were both such rubbish.
It turns out the factory 'head unit' is the culprit - you can't just run an amp directly off it - you need a sound processor to get a good sound.

(The factory 'non bose' speakers were the nastiest things I've ever seen too. They were probably 50 cent items)
I ended up with a sound processor that puts out 4 x 50w, with the focal components up front, and a set of cheaper pioneer rear speakers.
I also put heaps of sound deadening in all four doors to improve sound quality and reduce road noise.

It now sounds about as good as the Bose in the CX9 without the sub, (but has much more bass than with the previous sub I had) I can add a proper sub back in at any time now, but I will probably do more sound deadening if I was to do anything. Oh one more thing, I learnt that you can't put the Bose speakers into non Bose cars as they are wired into the ECU!

 

[Robbo]

Lowering a KF Mazda CX5 is a bit of a tricky process. Personally I believe the car sits just a little too high from the factory, and a small drop in ride height was an attractive proposition for an improvement in looks and handling. The only springs you can really buy off the shelf are Corksport or H&R. The Corksport ones are too low for my liking and require a camber kit. So I went with H&R despite knowing that they advertise a 30mm drop at the front, and a 45mm drop at the rear.
(Interestingly AWD cars sit 10mm higher from factory)

With the H&R's installed the car had a terrible ride - mainly in the back - and it looks stupid in my opinion. The ride was improved a little by cutting down the 'bump stops' on the OEM shocks as far as they could go, but it was still pretty bad.

At one stage I was going to take the springs out and return them to stock, it was such a headache, I literally took the car to the shop, but forgot to put the OEM springs in the trunk, so the shop couldn't do it that day. I took this as a sign to persevere, and I finally found a local place who said they could make me some custom springs. They were in a different city and everything had to be posted, which led to its own issues, but ultimately the result was perfect. They made me a set of rear springs which ride pretty much the same as OEM, whilst giving me only a 30mm drop, making it even with the front. I decided to leave the H&R's in the front, as they are totally fine. You can read all about the hassle's I had here: H&R Lowering Spring Issue

I love the way the car looks now, and it doesn't have too much camber on the rear wheels now too. Handling is vastly improved, with the ride being much the same as stock, perhaps a little firmer but not by much. Me and my partner do a lot of driving on twisty roads, so handling is massively important to us and one of the reasons why we chose this car over the more 'floppy' AWD versions in the first place. (although if I had my time again, I still would've bought an AWD car with the bigger engine and more bells and whistles, then maybe lowered it to improve handling)
Will post a few pics once I have a clean car to photograph. (it's winter here atm so the car is permanently dirty.

 

[Robbo]

With constant wet weather this is the best shot I could get of my little car lately. I haven't done much to it aside from get an ECU update from Mazda to try and fix my CEL issue. (from installing a SRI) I had to change the airbox back to stock to get them to do it so haven't got around to trying the SRI again with the new software. I have bought a SRI and 'Boost Tube' for my CX9 too so will install these soon.

The CX5 just isn't the same without the SRI, I don't care if I keep getting CEL's, I will put it back on as it gives it just that bit more power and torque and makes it a lot more fun to drive.

I think I will try get rid of the CEL via an aftermarket tuner if it comes back again.

I haven't been driving the car much as I've had to drive my 2021 Mitsubishi Outlander instead for complicated reasons. The Outlander was $10k cheaper to buy than the CX5 and is worse in every single way, aside from having less road noise, a better factory stereo and more low down torque from its bigger engine. It uses nearly as much fuel as the CX9 though, despite being only 1400kg.

 

[7eregrine]

You have a 5 a 9 and an Outlander? Bro... "

 

[Robbo]

You have a 5 a 9 and an Outlander? Bro... "

Yes but not all for me lol. My partner hoons around in the 9 and our nanny drives our kids around in the Outlander usually. Just love black Japanese SUV’s lol.