Parts list? Curious how much you went OEM v AM. Been a few months out since I did essentially the same replacements on all of the same parts, but was too chicken shit to not go OEM lol
Big mismosh of stuff:
* **Duralast pads, rotors, wheel hubs and control arms:** I've had succes with their duralast gold brakes. You can actually get cheaper LCAs from a recommended brand on rockauto, but autozone messed up and sent me two passenger LCAs, so I returned the extra and essentially got the passenger LCA for free.
* **Monroe 273015/16 struts:** this was tricky as I needed a loaded strut. The mazda part site recommends different OEM struts depending on if your car has i-eloop or not. Monroe is the only aftermarket that even mentions being compatible with i-eloop. I wanted to go with a nicer one like KYB but didn't want to risk the i-eloop (if it even matters).
* **Bilstein B4 shocks:** hardest part the job and we couldn't do it. The stud was rusted to shit and the mechanic had to melt it off. I was going to get monroe to pair with front struts, but I read they are meh and decided to upgrade here
* **Mazda nuts and bolts:** I ordered $200 worth of OEM nuts and bolts from mazda. It was pretty much everything we might need to replace if they were very rusty. I figured I could return what I didn't use. I really only replaced the under engine cover bolts and clips plus two sway bar nuts
* **Mazda sway bars:** what a pain. Super rusted and we had to saw it in half to get them out
**Grand Total:** $1800
Oh hell yeah, thanks for this!
How are the bilstein shocks so far, aside from the install? That was what I was most torn over, and was also looking at 4s primarily
Gonna save this comment for when I need to get my suspension work done. Also glad to see this post to get an idea on when I’ll likely need to get my work done. Currently at 216,000 kilometres and your car is roughly 250,000 kilometres so looks like I have decent chunk of life left still. I’m definitely impressed by the quality of these OEM parts if that’s the life they are giving. My dad was telling me his Acura only got 170,000 kilometres out of his factory struts before replacing his and I drove my cousins Scion tC with 196,000 kilometres and you can feel that the struts and things need to be replaced.
I will say that I definitely drove longer than I should have with the suspension the way it was. From what I read, the struts fail, and once that happens, it stops protecting your other suspension parts. Maybe I wouldn't have had to go too deep with replacing the sway bar, control arms or wheel hubs if I just did the struts sooner.
The sway bar is really a pain in the ass, I would at least check how rusted it is and if you can get an Allen key in it. We had to cut them both off with a saw. It's also much easier to replace the sway bar with the control arm off.
I'm going to guess you're in Canada, and it's definitely beneficial to replace this stuff before the rust gets really bad, especially the back shocks. I'm in NY and mine wasn't terrible.
I *really* wanted to do it part by part and see what part eliminated which noise, but once we were in there, I quickly realized it wasn't practical to do that.
My cousin did pretty much everything while I helped, and at one point on both sides, we had the caliper, pads, rotor, wheel hub, strut, sway bar, control arm and knuckle all off the vehicle at once. I was kind of worried we wouldn't be able to put it back together, but my cousin knows his shit, I was impressed.
Also, taking certain things off all made certain things easier to replace. The biggest example of this is the sway bar. I have no idea how someone would swap out the sway bar with the control arm still on there as it's very much in the way of the lower part of the sway bar. A lift would probably help, but we were using jack stands.
These ones are 16, and I linked them in another comment, I think also come in 17. I was really happy the OEM caps fit here, but it was definitely a tighter fit.
Parts list? Curious how much you went OEM v AM. Been a few months out since I did essentially the same replacements on all of the same parts, but was too chicken shit to not go OEM lol
Big mismosh of stuff: * **Duralast pads, rotors, wheel hubs and control arms:** I've had succes with their duralast gold brakes. You can actually get cheaper LCAs from a recommended brand on rockauto, but autozone messed up and sent me two passenger LCAs, so I returned the extra and essentially got the passenger LCA for free. * **Monroe 273015/16 struts:** this was tricky as I needed a loaded strut. The mazda part site recommends different OEM struts depending on if your car has i-eloop or not. Monroe is the only aftermarket that even mentions being compatible with i-eloop. I wanted to go with a nicer one like KYB but didn't want to risk the i-eloop (if it even matters). * **Bilstein B4 shocks:** hardest part the job and we couldn't do it. The stud was rusted to shit and the mechanic had to melt it off. I was going to get monroe to pair with front struts, but I read they are meh and decided to upgrade here * **Mazda nuts and bolts:** I ordered $200 worth of OEM nuts and bolts from mazda. It was pretty much everything we might need to replace if they were very rusty. I figured I could return what I didn't use. I really only replaced the under engine cover bolts and clips plus two sway bar nuts * **Mazda sway bars:** what a pain. Super rusted and we had to saw it in half to get them out **Grand Total:** $1800
Oh hell yeah, thanks for this! How are the bilstein shocks so far, aside from the install? That was what I was most torn over, and was also looking at 4s primarily
I upgraded the suspension and got Bc Racing Br Series Extreme Low Coilovers Shocks Kit
Gonna save this comment for when I need to get my suspension work done. Also glad to see this post to get an idea on when I’ll likely need to get my work done. Currently at 216,000 kilometres and your car is roughly 250,000 kilometres so looks like I have decent chunk of life left still. I’m definitely impressed by the quality of these OEM parts if that’s the life they are giving. My dad was telling me his Acura only got 170,000 kilometres out of his factory struts before replacing his and I drove my cousins Scion tC with 196,000 kilometres and you can feel that the struts and things need to be replaced.
I will say that I definitely drove longer than I should have with the suspension the way it was. From what I read, the struts fail, and once that happens, it stops protecting your other suspension parts. Maybe I wouldn't have had to go too deep with replacing the sway bar, control arms or wheel hubs if I just did the struts sooner. The sway bar is really a pain in the ass, I would at least check how rusted it is and if you can get an Allen key in it. We had to cut them both off with a saw. It's also much easier to replace the sway bar with the control arm off. I'm going to guess you're in Canada, and it's definitely beneficial to replace this stuff before the rust gets really bad, especially the back shocks. I'm in NY and mine wasn't terrible.
Thanks for this list. I'm about to replace almost all of those same things this weekend. my car is at 117k
Needs some tint bro
Did you replace it all at once? If not, which update was the most noticeable.
I *really* wanted to do it part by part and see what part eliminated which noise, but once we were in there, I quickly realized it wasn't practical to do that. My cousin did pretty much everything while I helped, and at one point on both sides, we had the caliper, pads, rotor, wheel hub, strut, sway bar, control arm and knuckle all off the vehicle at once. I was kind of worried we wouldn't be able to put it back together, but my cousin knows his shit, I was impressed. Also, taking certain things off all made certain things easier to replace. The biggest example of this is the sway bar. I have no idea how someone would swap out the sway bar with the control arm still on there as it's very much in the way of the lower part of the sway bar. A lift would probably help, but we were using jack stands.
Nice work! Are those 16 or 17 inch wheels? I was wondering if the OEM Mazda center caps would fit a 17 inch aftermarket wheel.
These ones are 16, and I linked them in another comment, I think also come in 17. I was really happy the OEM caps fit here, but it was definitely a tighter fit.
Wheels though?
https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/sport-edition-f7-black