{"id":2336,"date":"2021-05-05T16:13:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T16:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/?p=2336"},"modified":"2021-05-05T16:13:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T16:13:59","slug":"mazda-3-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/2021\/05\/05\/mazda-3-suspension\/","title":{"rendered":"Mazda 3 Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mazda 3 is a popular car and here I’ll describe a suspension setup that really transforms and improves its handling.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like to tweak things, but I also believe in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Last year I installed a stiffer rear swaybar<\/a> in my 2014 Mazda 3 (3rd generation) to reduce understeer and improve handling. It works nicely. Later, when replacing the tires I discovered the left rear wheel well had a film of greasy oil. This often indicates the shock has failed and is spewing its internal oil. That was all the excuse I needed to replace the shocks & springs<\/p>\n

Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mazda 3 has lots of suspension options: shocks, springs, coilovers and sway bars. Many of them are not focused on performance, but appearance — e.g. lowering. For example, the Eibach springs sold by Tire Rack are actually softer than OEM! I wanted the car to be firmer than stock. By that I mean less body roll, and to a lesser extent, less squat and dive. But I did not want to change the car’s front to rear balance. I already had a stiffer rear sway bar that effectively reduced oversteer. If the car ended up a bit lower, that is OK if the difference is an inch or less, but lowering is not my goal.<\/p>\n

Springs & Shocks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Racing Beat has a set of springs that +20% stiffer than OEM, front and rear. From what I gather, the OEM spring rates are about 138 in-lb. front and 174 in-lb. rear. The Racing Beat springs<\/a> are 162 front and 211 rear. And they are bright red in color. That may be a pro or con, depending on your perspective.<\/p>\n

I opted for Koni Yellow shocks<\/a>, which are adjustable. The fronts can be adjusted with a simple knob turn while installed. To adjust the rears, they must be removed from the car, fully compressed and rotated. The softest setting on these shocks is firmer than OEM. I set them “blind” at 1\/3 of the way up from the softest setting, so just below the halfway point. This turned out to be perfect.<\/p>\n

The car sits about 1\/2 inch lower in the rear, 3\/4 inch lower in the front. Not a big difference, but you can see it if you look for it.<\/p>\n

Installation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The job took all day but it wasn’t hard. The only special tool you need is a spring compressor. These aftermarket parts fit perfectly like OEM, and their quality was OEM or better. After completing it, I took the car in for an alignment check. It was still perfect – swapping the shocks and springs did not change the alignment.<\/p>\n

Test Drive<\/strong><\/p>\n

I quickly realized that the car was transformed. It wasn’t as stiff as the RX-7 and Panoz Roadster that I used to race in SCCA. At high speed, like cruising down the freeway at 80 mph, the car feels as solid as a brick house, like a Lexus or Mercedes sedan. In the corners, it’s a precise steering flat-tracker with eager quick turn-in. Typical of FWD cars, it has throttle-off oversteer and throttle-on understeer. It’s very street-able yet with more responsive handling.<\/p>\n

I set the adjustable rear swaybar back to its stiff setting (3x the stock rate), and it was even better. With the OEM shocks & springs, this gave the car an unsettled dartiness so I kept the swaybar on the soft setting (2x the stock rate). But with the new suspension this was completely gone and the car is absolutely perfect on the stiff setting.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have a Mazda 3 this is a great suspension setup for performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary The Mazda 3 is a popular car and here I’ll describe a suspension setup that really transforms and improves its handling. Background I like to tweak things, but I also believe in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Last year I installed a stiffer rear swaybar in my 2014 Mazda 3 (3rd generation) … Continue reading Mazda 3 Suspension<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2337,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2336\/revisions\/2337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mclements.net\/blogWP\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}