I really have hated KYB struts for about 35yrs. We called them pogo sticks. They'd last maybe a year. Best shock to buy for a car you are selling and don't have to drive ever again.
Thats odd, I haven't heard much other than good about KYBs. Regardless, I grabbed a set of ACDelco quickstruts.
I couldn't imagine having reliability issues with springs. I would guess that the failure mode for them is all or nothing. Just going off intuition though, I could (and very well may) be very wrong.
Yeah, if my drive to/from the grocery store this evening is any indication, I do corner aggressively, at least by the standards of an economy car. I had also been carrying around about 30 pounds of gear in the hatch (toolbox, oil, water, jumper cables, antifreeze, badminton rackets, fire extinguisher, gas can, etc.) in case of emergency. I've now removed those to aid in locating noises and because outside of the jumper cables and gas can, I've barely ever used them. (I carried that new, empty gas can around for over *ten years* waiting for someone to need it, and just in the last few months a woman with three kids ran out of gas right in front of me.
)Racing Beat or the H&R springs DD mentions below can be had for around $250, and Tokico and Tein struts have been mentioned a lot on this forum. I know you already bought a set of struts/coils/mounts but thought I'd mention those examples.
Any thoughts on Sachs struts, @Diamond_Dave ? I hear they're meant to be good.
Will do.Benji can let us know how ACDelco rides after he's driven a few thousand miles on them.
The ones I've considered most are the Tein H-Tech Protege5's. You can still find them for ~$230 on eBay and they have a pretty mild drop and (comparatively) a mild spring rate, if the numbers are to be believed.
Yes, those are the ones that come to mind. But I wouldn't consider them feasible options though if you can't buy them new anywhere (which as far as I know, you can't). But please correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah, in my limited searching I haven't come across any new struts that will work with lowering springs. I also searched for "protege monotube struts" and found nothing. I was mainly doing that for fun, since I'd be tickled to just get rid of my clunks and get the car back to factory ride quality. I would have considered a <1 inch drop if I could find the right struts as I follow the "OEM+" philosophy as well.
I had no idea that was a thing. I'd heard of Koni inserts, but didn't know you literally hacked them in.
I checked RockAuto briefly and for front QuickStruts and individual struts, the part numbers for all that I saw looked the same between the MSP and P5. It's hard to find a definitively separated MP3 vehicle in RockAuto but for a 2001 Sedan, it's the same too. Kind of disappointing if you have an MSP and want to refresh your suspension.
Yeah, you'd have to hit the Mazda parts catalog to find the MPS (Mazda Performance Series) parts and do a search for them, for example:
I replaced the driver's side LCA in 108-degree (that's 42 C for folks with more sane units of measurement). Heat index was 114 and I had limited shade. That was a huge mistake, but I took breaks and drank six bottles of water. My shirt became so heavy with sweat that it was like some kind of weighted workout jacket. Oh, and to top it off, we had a brief downpour in that 108 degrees while still in full sun. It was surreal. By the time I went back out it was a literal wet sauna. Man, everything hurts today and I had all kinds of crazy dreams waking me up last night so I didn't get a good night's sleep. Don't do this. Don't be me.
The key to successful installation *for me* was jacking up that knuckle to get the LCA completely horizontal. That allowed me to start the front bushing and the rear bracket+bolts with ease. DD, I've checked my other, new LCA and the original, removed LCA and the bolt hole on that rear bushing (or whatever it is) is boringly perpendicular to the rest of the part. So I'm not surprised that it was easy to install in my case. Now, I don't have OEM replacement parts, but some (NOS?) Beck Arnley ones, and they may be different from other brands.
My biggest problem with elevating that knuckle (which was a *requirement* for me) was that the floor jack was occupying the space where the ball joint needed to be when I'd swing the LCA up to get it horizontal. I tried turning the wheel all the way to the left or right to try and make some space, but in one of those directions, the end link contacted another piece of the suspension when I elevated the knuckle so that was a no-go.I ended up returning the steering wheel to center and went another route: Moving the knuckle fore and aft. In the end, I moved the knuckle forward a little farther than I wanted to as shown below. Hopefully I didn't hurt anything. After hours in the sun and an immobilized vehicle in my apartment parking lot, I honestly didn't care as long as I could get it moving to take it to a shop if needed. The other challenge was my not wanting to remove the cap from the ball joint boot until the very last minute. There are a lot of sharp parts down there including the knife-like disc brake shield, and I didn't want to destroy the ball joint boot.
DD, this is where I would say that removing the brake assembly, hub, and shield might help. If it allows more jacking options or keeps that ball joint boot safe it is well worth the additional minutes and bungee cord required. I will definitely do that for the other side. Also, if you're filming it like the guy in the video, it's a lot better for the viewer.
Pics:
Found out what was making the noise after I removed my wheel(yes, it was there, but it wasn't making the noises):
View attachment 311440
Knuckle shoved to the front of the car while jacked, hopefully not too far:
View attachment 311438
Knuckle elevated with plastic ball joint cover installed till the bitter end:
View attachment 311439
Captured the order of the three different bolts for that rear bracket (actual LCA bolt would go in the empty space among them):
View attachment 311441
and it seems this has gotten rid of a lot of my remaining clunks. In fact, replacing the *right*-front one almost seems to have further quieted noises from my hitting bumps with the *left*-front wheel, which already had its LCA replaced. (?!?) Is it possible that road impact to the left-front wheel is referred to the right-front wheel via stabilizer bar or body, whereupon it (previously) made a clunk?
new one has 139km I think took forever to find, new power steering pump, water pump & timing belt and cover, starter, new horn, wipers front and rear, antenna, ignition switch, rad fluid and oil change. Brakes all around and at least 2 rotors I can't recall.
Has like no rust anywhere no accidents or damage other then a some paint damage on front bumper and curbing on rims so trying hard to save it!Funny that you posted this just now. After my P5's passing inspections easily for 20 years, it failed twice last week with both CAT and EVAP monitors showing Not Ready. I didn't know these monitors even existed. I had only ever dealt with actual trouble codes like your P0300 one. I had recently disconnected the battery, but after a week or two of driving, testing the battery, and swapping out the ECU with a spare, I just couldn't reset those two monitors. I then finally followed Mazda's prescribed drive cycle steps to reset the CAT readiness monitor (Google for that) and it totally worked. That left only the one bad EVAP monitor which was enough for me to pass inspection. I imagine the EVAP monitor will reset on its own over the course of the year, but if not I may follow the prescribed drive cycle steps for its monitor as well.
Then again, they are all pretty young and don't have a lot of experience. I have to do some of my own inspection testing when I go there because none of them can drive a manual.
