Penguin Mobile: Suspension (a newb's guide)

I've been meaning to start a thread about my journey through the suspension world for a while. I've just always been too busy, or too lazy on my days off from work. Let it begin...

I will post up useful/meaningful links as the thread elongates and becomes erect. The goal of this thread is to be a guide for Newbs to the MS3, who may not know where to begin when wanting a better handling station wagon. All of these are bolt on parts that any DIY car enthusiast with simple hand tools can install and adjust.

DISCLAIMER
I am not responsible for any dumb and/or ignorant mods or procedures you perform on your automobile. Modify your car at your own risk. If you crash it into a tree based on the crap you read on this forum and/or Internet from some stupid Penguin, that is your fault. This is simply an Internet "journal" for my endless path of financial enemas. I am in no way an engineer or racer car driver, nor do I try to be one.

Background:
I bought my 2012 Mazdaspeed3, in June of 2012 with 7 miles on the odo. 13 months later some uninsured inbred heterosexual rear ended me, (the car unfortunately). Plans for the Pu went from fun daily, to future track homo. Collected some suspension stuff, had too much beer with Nator brethren, and in early 2015 (22k miles) slapped it all on at once. Mod path slowed down due to financial burdens, and now (43k miles) slowly picking up pace again.

As brother Eddie once said, "once you mod past springs and shocks, it's like opening up Pandora's Box. It never ends..."

Installed list as of 2-10-2017:
KW v3 coilovers
Whiteline front sway bar
JBR (OG) rear sway bar w/billet brackets
Whiteline Bumpsteer spacers
GTSPEC front control arm tie bar
Whiteline adjustable front endlinks (short length)
JBR (OG) rear camber arms
Steeda rear toe arms (for Ford Focus)
Rear eccentric bolt delete
Extended wheel studs, and 5mm spacers (Front end, for wheel clearance)
245/45 Potenza S04 on 17x9 rpf1
Damond Motorsports Trilogy Engine mounts

2-10-2017 To be installed:
Corksport Camber plates
500lb Hyperco coilover springs
BMW rear weight jacks/2.5" ID conversion
255/40 Michelin AS3

I will discuss the benefits/fail of each part. If I can find suspension nudez, they will be posted. I welcome opinions and constructive criticism, but for fucks sake no arguing please. (Not because of censorship, but simply to keep the thread on topic.)

Fun Internet supplements...
Cheap VS Quality coilovers/dampers - https://mazdaspeeds.org/index.php?t...coilovers-etc-particularly-budget-setups.472/

MS3 Roll Center & Bumpsteer modification - http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/forum/f12/quest-adjustable-roll-center-162272/

MS6 Competition Suspension Building - http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/for...uspension-data-diy-bilstein-coilovers-161806/

MS3 How To: Coilover Install - http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/forum/f12/mazdaspeed-coilover-install-120509/

 

Word of warning, cutting the shock towers for camber plates pretty much sucks, I had issues with the hole saw kicking back and due to the small spaces and my laziness of not wanting to pull the hood the drill handle got a few good shots on me.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

I see good things happening in this thread.

 

Curious about a few things:
Whiteline front sway bar <-- why when you can change the balance with a RSB alone?
Whiteline Bumpsteer spacers <--never seen these, info?
JBR (OG) rear camber arms
Steeda rear toe arms (for Ford Focus) <--also never seen these, info?
Rear eccentric bolt delete <--and this?
500lb Hyperco coilover springs <--good choice. Local tracking support shop loves these and Eibach ERS, even over Swifts
BMW rear weight jacks/2.5" ID conversion <--this?

Lookin' to learn more.

 

I'm guessing the rear eccentric bolt was deleted due to adding the Steeda toe arms.

 

Very curious to see what you do with the weight jacks! Will they be the articulating variety with a swivel at the top to eliminate uneven spring loading in the rear?

 

Had a busy weekend at work. Overtime up the ying yang. Great for bills, terrible for the soul.

Why FSB? It wasnt about changing balance, it was to reduce roll in the front of the car. If I had to it all over again, I would upgrade the springs to a stiffer rate and leave the FSB as a very last upgrade. I'll explain more on that later.

The whiteline bumpsteer kit is 5.5 or 6mm (have to find my notes to confirm) spacers that you install under the steering rack. It lifts the steering rack up, in order to level out the tie rods to be parallel with the floor. This should only be needed if the tie rods are angled upwards while the car is at rest, usually as a result of lowering the front end.

The old school JBR camber arms, are the ones with the poly bushings, versus the new ones with the spherical bearing.

The Steeda toe arms replace the factory toe arms in the rear suspension. Rather than having a permanent length on the toe arms, these adjust in length and change the toe on the rear trailing arm, and therefore on the tire as well.

The eccentric delete bolts are exactly what they sound like. Some cars adjust alignment with offset bolts, our rear end is one of them. Since I went with adjustable toe and camber arms, I eliminated them simply to eliminate the doomsday possibility of them slipping. I threw a fat bolt on in their place, along with some mighty washers made from ancient Viking bone. I will post bolt info later.

The rear weight jacks... more info next week when I test fit them. They are from ground control. They might be a little rich for some folks, but I'll explain why I went this route when I post pics later.

I'll post links to all the parts in the OP this week, just in case anyone wants to pick some stuff up later.

Exactly. I've witnessed eccentric bolts come loose before, and wanted to eliminate them. For most folks though, going this route would be overkill. If the eccentric bolts keep coming loose, replace them with new OEM and call it a day.

Yup. I'm still waiting on a couple of more parts to come before I install them. Test fit will be next week. The bearings are stiff as hell though. Thanks for the heads up on the camber plates, I will keep that in mind.

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Believe it or not... There is actually a lot of inherently good design in the OEM suspension. More info to come.

 

Can you also give a short review on the KW v3 coilovers as far as daily driving is concerned? I'm mainly interested in finding out if ride comfort is improved over stock.

 

There are many reviews about this. It'll be interested to see what Mauro says, but the consensus I found after reading threads from many people who run them is that they drive much better, comfort-wise, than even stock suspension. The more serious trackers don't like them for auto-x, etc., because they're not very stiff spring rates.

 

Why again replace the eccentrics? Have you ever heard of them breaking or slipping if torqued to spec?

My only issue with removing eccentrics is since you added the steeda toe arm to it, you can use the eccentrics with the toe arms and adjust tire poke. Great for stuffing the 255s in there without going crazy with camber if you didn't get the backspacing quite right. With eccentrics and your toe arms, you can even adjust roll center in the rear if you want to get fancy.

 

Back in my nissan days i knew a couple of guys who had the Eibach ones slip. With south FL Nator, I knew 2 guys who had theirs slip and 2 guys who had the heads stripped off from idiot alignment shops. All user error from bad shops. Again, I'm not saying they are bad, I just chose to go a different path.

I did consider setting them out to widen the track in the rear and play with the LCA, just chose not to. I still may later on.

Alignment shops always mess with the lock out bolt even though I tell them not to. I would flip out if I had to sit there and watch them reset the track after fucking it up every time I brought it in.

 

Well don`t I have a new project to handle now.

I need about 5mm more clearance and getting new wheels for that just isn`t on the table.

 

That's funny. I usually do my own alignments, but I had this happen before. I ended up writing on the rear subframe "DO NOT TOUCH" between the bolts with arrows pointing to the subject matter. They got the idea.

 

Stuff like this is why I love that my local racing/track support suspension/alignment shop knows this kind of stuff like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein knew physics.

 

Camber is easy to set, but I don't dare mess with toe.

 

Be it luck or divine intervention, many years ago I swapped the steering rack in a mustang two days before driving back to Texas from Florida. I set the toe with a measuring tape and it tracked straight as an arrow all the way home.

 

Not too hard with this device.

http://www.longacreracing.com/products.aspx?prodid=7212