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How-To: Cobb Springs and Impressions Afterwards.

45K views 97 replies 35 participants last post by  lreyes66 
#1 ·
I just put in my Cobb Springs last week, and I figured that we've been long overdue for a spring-specific How-To here in this section, since it's such a common mod that can potentially be very annoying that many people will be interested in doing. It took me roughly 7-8 hrs to do this because I was learning by trial and error, so I'm going to try to speed up the process for anyone else out there who is new to spring replacement! Special thanks goes out to blacksheepms3 for being such a good sport and helping me learn the process on the first strut!

Let's start off with a list of the tools that you will want to have handy for this:

1. Mechanics Gloves (this will really save your hands from some annoying scrapes)
2. Jack
3. Jack stands
4. Stock Scissors Jack (I'll explain later, but this is ESSENTIAL for sanity purposes)
5. Ratchet set with 14mm, 17mm, 19mm sizes.
6. Ratchet extension.
7. Adjustable Wrench
8. Torque Wrench
9. Allen Wrench
10. Breaker Bar
11. Pliers
12. Flathead Screwdriver
13. Spring Compressors (for Macpherson struts)

Here's some things that will keep you sane when it comes to removing the stuff:

1. PB Blaster Penetrating Catalyst (spray lubricate and anti-corrosive)
2. Anti-Seize (silver goop...looks like Arctic Silver...ESSENTIAL lubricant)

For torque specs, please go to this site: http://www.mazdaclub.net/mz3ws/

Make sure you torque things back to the ratings that they are specced for when you put stuff back on! Be careful about following the instructions there, because some of it is very unnecessary and will only cause you undue pain and suffering.

As forewarning: the front springs are much more annoying to replace than the rear ones, so I would suggest picking which set you want to do first based on that. I'm going to explain in the order that I did things in (front first rear last).

Let's start off with setting up for jacking the front wheels up...

1. Pull your parking brake tight and put wedges under your rear wheels so that there's no chance that it will roll away and squish you.
2. Break your tire nuts loose before jacking the car up.
3. Carefully jack your car up in the front left and right and support using jack stands.
4. Unbolt your wheels and set them to the side.

After you're doing clearing stuff out, your going to want to remove the ABS sensor as noted here with the yellow arrow:



After removing the ABS sensor, we will need to detach the brake line from where it clips onto the strut itself. This requires that we first remove the retainer clip that holds it in place and then push the brake line downwards to disconnect it from the metal enclosure it is sitting in. Here is a picture of the retainer clip you will need to remove with some pliers:



After this, you will want to disconnect the upper nut of the stabilizer control link as seen here:



Remove the metal piece that fits over the control link now that it is unbolted and push it to the side. Now, you will be removing the shock absorber lower bolt that holds the bottom part of the strut in place on the control arm. This is a 2" long bolt that is located here:



At this point, you are done removing bolts in this bottom portion of your shocks. All that remains is:

1. Detach the bottom part of the strut from the control arm.
2. Unbolt the top of the strut from the engine bay.
3. Pull the strut out of there.

In order to detach the bottom part of the strut, I tried a number of things. At first, I did what the shop manual wanted me to do, which was to bang the control arm with a hammer to break it loose and out of there. This is NOT a fun idea, and it's really not very efficient either. Here is the easy cheater's way to do it:

1. Spray the joint of the strut/control arm area with PB Blaster.
2. Let this set for a few minutes and then respray some more.1
3. Use the Scissors Jack to pry the control arm off like this (yes, this is the right front strut and not the left front like I've been showing you all along):



This part of the operation is a LOT easier with 2 sets of hands, so have someone hold the scissors jack in place (especially the bottom portion, because that tends to slip out). Carefully jack the lower control arm off the bottom of the strut and then unbolt the top of the strut from the inside of the engine bay by unfastening these 3 bolts:



Make SURE you only undo these 3 bolts and NOT the one in the middle, because that one holds the strut together, and if you undo it without compressing the springs, it's going to fly out and kill something!

Now that you have these unfastened, you can just carefully pull the entire strut out of the wheel well.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of the strut with the stock springs in it, but here's what it looks like with the Cobb spring in place:



In order to remove the spring from the strut, you will have to compress the spring using the spring compressor (which just turns out to be two sets of clamps that squish your spring together to take pressure off the top of the strut so that you can safely remove the nut holding it in place) and then remove the nut from the top of the strut after you have compressed the spring enough such that it can be shifted around in place. When compressing the spring, make sure to tighten the clamps evenly (few turns on one side and then few turns on the other) and make sure that you have compressed the springs enough.

I cannot stress enough how careful you should be when doing the spring compression and removing the nut at the top of the strut, because this is the one point in our install where BAD things can happen if you're not careful. Make sure that the top and bottom of the strut is pointed at things you do not value, and keep your appendages in safe places as you do this! (eek2)

After you have removed the top nut and then taken out the spring, the strut should look something like this:



The stock spring looks like this compared to the Cobb spring:



Now, in order to put in the Cobb spring, you do the following:

1. Compress the Cobb spring with the spring compressors.
2. Reconnect the top nut.
3. Remove the spring compressors when the nut is in place.

Be careful as you compress the Cobb spring, since you want to compress it in a way that makes it fit within the strut, so it's probably best to do the compression with the spring seated as it should be in the lower portion of the strut. When reattaching the top nut, be careful, since it requires you to use an allen wrench to hold it in place as you use a wrench to tighten it:



Now that you have the strut fully re-assembled, you will have to put it back in. Here's how:

1. Lube up the bottom portion of the strut with Anti-Seize so that it will slide easily back into the control arm fixture (wouldn't hurt to Anti-Seize this too) on the bottom.
2. Put the strut back into the wheel well and get it seated in the control arm. You will see that the control arm has a slit in it that the metal tab coming out of the bottom of the strut needs to fit into. Line this up and start the seating.
3. Bolt the top of the strut back into the engine bay...make sure that the holes line up, because it's not a perfect triangle for the bolts on top.
4. Get your jack underneath the control arm and jack it up so that you push the bottom of the strut back into the control arm.

When pushing the bottom of the strut back into the control arm, I found it really helpful to just jack up the control arm a little bit at a time and then use a flathead screwdriver to ply that slot in the control arm open a bit to allow the strut to slide in:



After the strut fully seats back in, you just have to rebolt everything in reverse order:

1. Shock Absorber lower bolt.
2. Control Link bolt.
3. Brake line retainer clip.
4. ABS Sensor.
5. Wheel.

Repeat for the other side, and you're done with the front springs!

Now, we go to the rear springs. It was starting to get dark out as I did these, so I was pretty lax with my picture taking, but I believe I took enough to get the point across.

Jack your car up in the rear:

1. Make sure the car is in gear.
2. Put wedges under the front tires.
3. Break the wheel lugs loose.
4. Jack up both rear sides and support with jack stands.
5. Take off wheels.

After the wheels are off, you will be supporting the bottom of the rear control arm with your jack and removing the sway bar link here:



In order to disconnect the link from the sway bar, you might have to play around with the level that your jack has the control bar supported at. If all else fails, you can just remove the top nut that holds the link in place.

Do this for both sides and then loosen the sway bar bushings so that you can twist the bar forward and out of the way. I don't have pictures of this, but it should be easy to find the bushings (they're just farther up the sway bar).

After this, you will need to disconnect the control arm from the brake assembly by unbolting the following bolt while supporting the control arm with the jack:



After unbolting this 2"-3" long bolt (it's a tight one, so make sure to use the breaker bar), you will likely have to knock the control arm loose with the rubber mallet. Carefully power the control arm and drop the spring out so that you can replace it with the Cobb spring. The stock rear spring looks like this when compared to the Cobb spring:



When you remove the stock spring, there will be a rubber cover over the top of it...make note of how it seats on top of the spring before removing it and putting it on the Cobb spring. Put the spring back into the spring enclosure thusly:



Make sure that the spring seats properly on the bottom and then support it with the jack as you rebolt the control arm back onto the brake assembly. Rebolt the sway bar link and then retighten the bushings.

Repeat for the other side and now you're done with the rear springs!
 
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#2 ·
With just the springs in, I've definitely noticed a number of improvements in handling and power delivery.

First of all, the car definitely has less body roll on hard cornering. It's probably not as much of an improvement as if I had just the sway bars in, but it's definitely noticeable. I also noticed that the car definitely recovers from suspension compression faster. This is especially noticeable when coming out of a turn and over undulating bumps on the highway. The ride isn't terribly rougher, but I definitely can tell that I am settling after a rolling bump on the highway with a more solid "thud" than before. This means that I don't feel like I'm floating up out of my seat as much when I go over bumps. The car feels noticeably more "connected" to the road at higher (50+mph) speeds.

In addition to settling faster, the springs have also had a very good effect on wheel hop/wheel spin. I used to have really bad wheel hop in 1st and 2nd gears after switching to these light 16" wheels, but things have improved a LOT with the springs in place. The comparatively stiffer suspension in the rear shifts the weight of the car slightly more toward the front and allows me to get more traction on takeoff than I used to have. The wheel hop is almost gone in 2nd (except towards the higher rpms) and much more controlled in 1st. Wheel spin is also reduced, so I am wasting less time wearing down tires when I floor it in lower gears.

As far as comfort goes, I didn't really notice an appreciable increase in road noise, but I definitely noticed that the ride is stiffer/rougher (especially over rolling bumps). Overall, I don't really find this to be too rough for a daily driver, so I'm very happy with the tradeoffs that I had to make in comfort.

Unless something drastic happens, I would definitely recommend going with the Cobb springs if you're considering it. Not only do they improve the handling and reduce the "floatiness" of our cars at higher speeds, but they also improve the ability to put our power to the ground by reducing wheel hop and wheel spin. I can't compare these to any other aftermarket springs, but when compared to the stock springs, it's definitely a huge improvement. At $250, it's WELL worth the money, imo!
 
#3 ·
The springs still have not fully settled, so I expect the after picture to be lower by this weekend when I can take this picture again. Here's a shot of what it looked like before the springs:



The wheels are 16"x8" rx-7 FD wheels @50mm offset weighing 16lb each. The tires are 225/50/16 Michelin XGTs (all seasons). I use these wheels because they really help with ride comfort and actually handle quite well, all things considered...=d

here's the unsettled version of the after:



the 2nd pic is slightly zoomed in, but if you take things in perspective, you can see about 0.5"-0.75" drop in the front and not a whole lot in the back...=/
 
#4 ·
here's an important note about taking off the strut:

[quote author=2008jayspeed3 link=topic=101559.msg2409090#msg2409090 date=1214027406]
Once you remove the dust cover (part 6) from the top of the strut, you will see that parts: 7,8,9,10 are one assembly. DO NOT pull on part 9 or 10, where these two join is where the bearings are housed. If you, in any way, pry these two pieces apart the bearings will scatter and you will have a mess on your hands. Pull on the bottom of part 8. and the whole assembly (7,8,9,10) will come out.

Note: get all torque values for the nuts and bolts and have a good torque wrench. These two are critical when working on any suspension mods.

Here is a diagram.


Hope it helps.
[/quote]

sorry, the main post is a real pain in the ass to modify, since the forum does not like handling really long posts, so i placed it here.
 
#9 ·
[quote author=Sacrilicious link=topic=101559.msg2039611#msg2039611 date=1201878999]



[/quote]

I would also recomend being generous with the Anti-Seize on this bolt. This bolt on the Ford Focus was notorious for seizing to the steel sleve in the controll arm bushing. When helping my friend swap the springs on his focus, we had to cut the bolt to get the control arm to seperate from the trailing arm. Of course his focus also saw 4 Michigan winters.

Andrew
 
#10 ·
Great post. I also installed the Cobb springs and Anti-Sway bars myself.

2 helpful hints from my experience.

1. I used a quarter in the gap where the shock absorber guide goes in and put the shock absorber bolt in backwards to slightly open the clamp that holds the shock absorber to the lower arm. By slightly opening the clamp the shock absorber is easier to get out. (wish i could take credit for this idea but another member came up with it.)

2. I used blue thread lock on all bolts that were remove and put back on. This should minimize your need to re-torque bolts.
 
#11 ·
[quote author=toolcrib link=topic=101559.msg2039722#msg2039722 date=1201882008]
I would also recomend being generous with the Anti-Seize on this bolt. This bolt on the Ford Focus was notorious for seizing to the steel sleve in the controll arm bushing. When helping my friend swap the springs on his focus, we had to cut the bolt to get the control arm to seperate from the trailing arm. Of course his focus also saw 4 Michigan winters.

Andrew
[/quote]

lol...i actually put locktite on this bolt because i'm paranoid about the idea of it ever coming loose. it is, after all, the only thing holding your spring + control arm to the brake assembly...+_+;
 
#12 ·
[quote author=di66er link=topic=101559.msg2039775#msg2039775 date=1201883181]
1. I used a quarter in the gap where the shock absorber guide goes in and put the shock absorber bolt in backwards to slightly open the clamp that holds the shock absorber to the lower arm. By slightly opening the clamp the shock absorber is easier to get out. (wish i could take credit for this idea but another member came up with it.)
[/quote]

now, THAT is a cool idea! :D it's definitely a more graceful way of doing what i was doing with that crazy prying with a flathead screwdriver thing! :x although...i have to admit...the screwdriver is a lot faster to do...=d
 
#14 ·
[quote author=Sacrilicious link=topic=101559.msg2041696#msg2041696 date=1201969258]
[quote author=toolcrib link=topic=101559.msg2039722#msg2039722 date=1201882008]
I would also recomend being generous with the Anti-Seize on this bolt. This bolt on the Ford Focus was notorious for seizing to the steel sleve in the controll arm bushing. When helping my friend swap the springs on his focus, we had to cut the bolt to get the control arm to seperate from the trailing arm. Of course his focus also saw 4 Michigan winters.

Andrew
[/quote]

lol...i actually put locktite on this bolt because i'm paranoid about the idea of it ever coming loose. it is, after all, the only thing holding your spring + control arm to the brake assembly...+_+;
[/quote]

After having 2 Focuses and doing a total of 3 suspension swaps on them, I can tell you with near certainty that if you ever want to change your rear suspension again that decision will haunt you.
:lol:
 
#15 ·
[quote author=slikshoes link=topic=101559.msg2043354#msg2043354 date=1202061395]
Have you guys gotten your alignment checked yet? I have roughly 300 miles on the springs and have yet to get it re-aligned. As of now, it doesn't pull at all to either side, but I do realize that I should probably take it in for the sake of completeness.
[/quote]

from my understanding, that the drop from these springs are within alignment specs. but iuno
 
#16 ·
[quote author=slikshoes link=topic=101559.msg2043354#msg2043354 date=1202061395]
Have you guys gotten your alignment checked yet? I have roughly 300 miles on the springs and have yet to get it re-aligned. As of now, it doesn't pull at all to either side, but I do realize that I should probably take it in for the sake of completeness.
[/quote]

i'm still giving it time right now to settle. as it stands right now, i see no reason to get it aligned, since everything seems to be rolling straight as an arrow still. if i start drifting to the side, i'll get it aligned, but if not, i'm just going to call myself lucky and save myself $90...:D
 
#17 ·
[quote author=Nliiitend1 link=topic=101559.msg2044307#msg2044307 date=1202097654]After having 2 Focuses and doing a total of 3 suspension swaps on them, I can tell you with near certainty that if you ever want to change your rear suspension again that decision will haunt you.
:lol:
[/quote]

haha...advice noted! i'll take care of anti-seizing those two bolts next time i get the chance to jack my car up...=d
 
#18 ·
Honestly, you should get it aligned.

Your toe settings are most likely out-of-whack, especially the rear. The "control blade" design of the rear suspension on these cars inherently causes pretty drastic toe changes with any ride height change, and your tires are SURE to wear quite a bit faster without getting your toe settings reset. Do what you want, but don't claim that nobody warned you when it's time to replace your bald rear tires....
 
#19 ·
I just installed my Cobb springs yesterday. Great write up you have here, otherwise I would post my own. I do recommend one change, and that's how to remove the strut from the control arm spindle. Here's how to do it in 30 seconds or less:

Put a 1/4" adapter on a 3/8" drive rachet. Stick it in the gap on the backside of the spindle and rotate it 45 degrees. Push down on the caliper/control arm and the strut will slide right out. After you swap springs you can slide the strut right back in, and just rotate the rachet another 45 degrees to remove it.

 
#21 ·
Nice write up Sacrilicious, and good job with pics of everything!

[quote author=SLS MS3 link=topic=101559.msg2062203#msg2062203 date=1202746954]Put a 1/4" adapter on a 3/8" drive rachet.  Stick it in the gap on the backside of the spindle and rotate it 45 degrees.  Push down on the caliper/control arm and the strut will slide right out.  After you swap springs you can slide the strut right back in, and just rotate the rachet another 45 degrees to remove it.[/quote]
Now that's a pretty brilliant idea...!

A comment about alignments: generally, anytime you change something in your suspension (like unbolting a dozen fasteners and changing out springs ;)), alignment should be checked.  There's a lot more to an alignment than how straight your car tracks.  As was mentioned, toe can be affected as can camber, both of which affect tire wear and handling characteristics (I don't know off the top of my head how much adjustability is built into this suspension for toe and camber).  To say that the drop from these springs is "within alignment specs" isn't quite true -- your alignment is probably out of spec (or at least way off nominal), but what is true is that alignment can be brought back into spec without the use of additional parts like adjustable camber plates.  An alignment shop or dealership can almost certainly tweak the settings back in.
 
#22 ·
Camber on the front is not factory-adjustable.

The rear really isn't either, but changing the toe settings in the rear affects the camber a small amount. (meaning camber is not independently adjustable in the rear or the front)

Toe is quite adjustable on both ends, and I'm sure that it can be corrected back to where it's supposed to be no matter what suspension setup you choose.

:)
 
#23 ·
ok, so the final conclusion i came to from examining a bunch of stock MS3's on my dealer's lot is that the stock rear camber on the MS3 is very noticeably negative, which means that the camber with cobb springs look (visually) the same as stock. the only thing i'm gonna bother doing now is get an alignment, and then i will wash my hands of the situation...:D
 
#24 ·
Keep in mind though that you WILL be disrupting the factory front/rear camber bias, since it seems that the camber gain on the rear is more drastic than it is in the front when you lower these cars.

It shouldn't really adversely affect tire wear (as long as your toe settings are set correctly) but it will make the care more prone to understeer than it would be with the camber links installed and everything else being equal.
 
#25 ·
[quote author=Nliiitend1 link=topic=101559.msg2067591#msg2067591 date=1202887464]
Keep in mind though that you WILL be disrupting the factory front/rear camber bias, since it seems that the camber gain on the rear is more drastic than it is in the front when you lower these cars.

It shouldn't really adversely affect tire wear (as long as your toe settings are set correctly) but it will make the care more prone to understeer than it would be with the camber links installed and everything else being equal.
[/quote]

wait, so did you install cobb springs too, because as far as i can tell, the difference in camber between stock and having cobb springs looks so small that i definitely can't see it visually. the front looks to still have neutral camber, and the rear looks as negative as stock camber is.
 
#26 ·
[quote author=Sacrilicious link=topic=101559.msg2067717#msg2067717 date=1202910396]
[quote author=Nliiitend1 link=topic=101559.msg2067591#msg2067591 date=1202887464]
Keep in mind though that you WILL be disrupting the factory front/rear camber bias, since it seems that the camber gain on the rear is more drastic than it is in the front when you lower these cars.

It shouldn't really adversely affect tire wear (as long as your toe settings are set correctly) but it will make the care more prone to understeer than it would be with the camber links installed and everything else being equal.
[/quote]

wait, so did you install cobb springs too, because as far as i can tell, the difference in camber between stock and having cobb springs looks so small that i definitely can't see it visually. the front looks to still have neutral camber, and the rear looks as negative as stock camber is.
[/quote]

I don't have an aftermarket suspension on my MS3, but had multiple setups on my two Focuses (whose C170 platform shares it's basic suspension design architecture with the MS3's C1 platform). I'm not only applying what I learned with my Focuses, but I'm looking at alignment sheets from both stock and lowered MS3s that have been posted on this and other sites.

The nature of the suspension design in these cars causes the amount of rear negative camber to increase disproportionally to the front. When you lower both the front and the rear of the car the same amount, your camber changes more in the rear than it does in the front. This has to do with the fact that it uses a MacPherson strut front setup and a dissimilar "control blade" multilink setup in the rear. What this all means is that your static camber bias from front to rear will change when you lower the car ANY amount. Either front or rear (or both) static camber correction is necessary to retain this bias.
 
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