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Mazdaspeed Coilovers, SPC Rear Camber Arms, E46 M3 Front Endlinks

9K views 27 replies 4 participants last post by  say chi sin lo 
#1 · (Edited)


Below are the Mazdaspeed Coilovers, SPC Rear Camber Arms, Front Endlinks from E46 M3.

I am looking to get these onto my car either this coming weekend or the next. I'm very excited!






 
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#7 · (Edited)
I think I've kept you guys waiting long enough

The car is in the shop as we speak. Just out of curiosity, since these are slightly used by the previous owner, do I still need to wait for them to "settle" before getting an alignment and etc.? I'm due to rotate my tires anyway, so I'll just have the tire-shop guys to the alignment for me.

If so, how long is the "settling" period?

And a side note: I have some Enkei RSV on the way to replace my gunmetal RX-8's.

I'm having the guy install them as follows:

Front drop: ~1.0 inch (just eyeballing it for now)
Rear drop: ~0.5 inches (also just eyeballing it for now)
Front rebound/compression: halfway
Rear rebound/compression: 2 clicks stiffer than halfway
 
#8 ·
They should more or less already be broken in, but alignments aren't cheap so i'd say drive it around for a day or two depending how much driving you do, hit some good bumps, make them work, etc. Its not like a days worth of driving is gonna ruin your tires.

My brand new yellows and prokit were 99% settled after a day and a half (2 hrs of highway driving on our shitty highways). Lots of people say you need to wait a week, 2 weeks etc but i think that is internet BS that propagated around from all of the kids buying crap springs that sagged after a month or whatnot.
 
#9 · (Edited)
So, the rear of my car was loaded with stock suspension parts. That's about what, ~40-50lbs of stuff? AND I DIDN'T RUB! :)

I'm on RX-8's, 235/40/18.

Oh, and the E46 M3 front endlinks works, damn near 50miles of driving, not a single clunk/bung/bang/clink.

I had a rather long drive home from the shop, and I got a fairly good feel of what these coilovers are like. With the above settings, the ride was far more pleasant than I had expected. Is it stiffer than stock? Yes of course, but at the same time, it was much more "composed". What do I mean by that?

The stock suspension was annoying the crap out of me because the ride was like a "bobble-head". I'd take a bump, and then the car freaks out and bounces me around. Living in San Francisco, it became very annoying because I was just bouncing around on every little road imperfection. Take a bump, bounces me around left and right, up and down for a few seconds.

With the MS Coilovers set to the above settings, it's "composed" because the car isn't freaking out on bumps/imperfections anymore. It's just a simple up/down, and the car settles. Don't look at me crazy, but these coilovers provided me with a more comfortable ride. Although it's stiffer, but because it's more composed, the cabin is a much more comfortable place.

On a side note: if anyone lived in the Bay Area, I'd highly recommend HTL Motorsports in Santa Clara. His name is Danny, he's a "one-man-shop". The mechanic asked to go on a little joy ride. I don't see why not, I thought he did a wonderful job with my installation and I swear, he spent the last hour of the installation double checking stuff. He also raised/lowered my car more than once to get the height that I want.

He's never driven a MS3 before and he was like "HOLY S%^! :shocked:, THIS IS FAST!"
 
#11 ·
Here are the pictures as requested:













This is my proudest moment as a newbie photographer (sorry for the dirty car):



So, I think the suspension has settled and the rear of my car is actually ever-so-slightly lower than the front. With that said, the rear is rubbing a little on the most random ramp. I will have to raise the rear a little bit.

I am waiting for the new wheels to arrive and then get an alignment.
 
#14 ·
So, I've been driving the car for a few days and on San Francisco roads, the stiffness of the ride has become well, quite unbearable.

Front is set to halfway
Rear is set to 2 clicks stiffer than halfway

I read that the MS Coilovers are essentially KW v3 but with a higher spring rate specified by Mazda. I also read that the ride is largely dependent on the springs. Having said that, can I expect an easier ride if I dial back the stiffness on the struts/dampers?

Also, "eyeballing" failed, and the rear is actually slightly lowered than the front. And I think the suspension has settled because I'm actually rubbing in the rear on random ramps. So, I will need to raise the rear a little bit.

Thanks.
 
#15 ·
So, I've been driving the car for a few days and on San Francisco roads, the stiffness of the ride has become well, quite unbearable.

I read that the MS Coilovers are essentially KW v3 but with a higher spring rate specified by Mazda. I also read that the ride is largely dependent on the springs. Having said that, can I expect an easier ride if I dial back the stiffness on the struts/dampers?

Also, "eyeballing" failed, and the rear is actually slightly lowered than the front. And I think the suspension has settled because I'm actually rubbing in the rear on random ramps. So, I will need to raise the rear a little bit.

Thanks.
I'm no suspension expert, but I would imagine that ride stiffness depends on a few things - how low you are (less suspension travel = harsher ride), damper setting (overdamped will be harsh, underdamped will be less jolty but more floaty), and probably i think the biggest factor is springs (super stiff springs will feel like you have solid metal suspension).

You can try softening the dampers a bit and that will help for sure but with dampers there is a fine line between soft and poor performance.


Ideally for comfort you probably want to target a slightly under-dampened setup. I.e. you hit a bit bump, your shock compresses spring pushes it back up, it overshoots neutral by a very small amount and settles back down. Right now if you just feel that you're being slammed around you might be somewhere between overdamped and critically damped. Critically damped is obviously the 'ideal' situation for best performance, but it might not be the most comfortable.

That said, I think springs play a bigger role here than the shocks, but you have to work with what you've got.
 
#19 ·
The car is getting new wheels fitted at the moment. However, because of liability issues, they will not help me (nor allow me to) adjust my suspension there. I'll just have to jack the car up myself and do it. I can respect that, they want to run things right.

However, I realized I have lost the spanner wrench. :cry:

I've called my local dealership and they said the tools can't be bought separately. #$%^&*

I read somewhere that KW will honor these coilovers and rebuild them, think it's possible that I can get a spanner wrench from them as well?
 
#20 · (Edited)
Enkei RSV, rear height adjustment won't budge! :(

Thought I'd share with you guys, Enkei RSV, errrggg :hmmmm:, I meant Rays Mazdaspeed knock offs. :)







And here's my alignment data:



Also, I jacked the car up so I can re-adjust the rear height. I'll be honest with you guys, jacking the car up scared the crap out of me.

However, I took my 10 allen wrench it just wouldn't budge. I broke loose my RMM no problem, but this, na uh...

Any suggestions? I don't want to have to pay someone EACH time I make an adjustment. Thanks!
 
#21 ·
Depending how much height difference you are looking to do, you shouldn't need a re-alignment. Raising the car 1/4" gave the car about 0.1deg rear toe in, which isn't too insane and will not scrub the hell out of your tires.

I'd like to clear up a lot of misunderstandings going on in the last few posts... sorry for any perceived curtness.

Ride quality is determined almost strictly by the dampers for a street car on street spring rates. My car on 8k/6k springs is softer than another KW car on 6k/4k springs, and by admission of several MS3 owners, no harsher than the stock MS3 suspension -- because of very soft bump damping. Even 12k/9k springs on a friend's Camry felt acceptable after turning down the dampers to nearly full soft. You can use the rebound adjustment instead to control any "wallowing" behavior. Turn down your bump damping to 2/3 soft in front and full soft in the rear and work from there, I guarantee the car will feel so much better.

As far as theory goes, critically damped for bumps is actually overdamped if you want straight-up cornering power. Bumps are a quicker, more forceful motion to damp out than body roll, thus critically damping out bumps will be over-damped for cornering. The results from datalogging AutoXers show that about 60-70% critical damping gives the fastest results on flat road, and you can go even softer for bumpy roads. "Tune to Win" is a really good resource for this info.

Finally, less suspension travel doesn't mean a harsher ride until you actually hit the bump stops. If you're not hitting the bump stop, the only thing affecting wheel travel is still the same damper and the same spring. Barring minor causes (arm angles, gas cartridge in the shock, etc.) your ride quality doesn't suffer until you're unnaturally hitting a stop.




All that aside, aesthetically your car is good dude. You can do your own alignment with a tape measure and two very flat pieces of sheetmetal. :)
 
#23 ·
Not sure which thing you're trying to adjust... having the right tool helps though. Maybe you just need a bigger one.

...unless its overtoqued or something because the garage that installed it tightened things up too much. If this is the case, go back and complain to them and make them loosen it for you.
 
#25 ·
Dump some PB Blaster in there and let it soak for a few days. Is the rear adjuster really locked on by a 10mm hex set screw? It seemed smaller than that on the other KW car I've peeked under. Whatever size it is, get a new allen key just for this time, such that you can't accidentally strip the set screw with a worn-down allen hex.
 
#26 ·
Raised the rear by 5mm, jacking up the car still scary.

I've replaced a flat before using the scissor jack, but I've never really jacked the car up UP, you know?

First round, using "scissor jack - replacing flats" logic, I was jacking up the car ONE SIDE AT A TIME. The sight of the car seriously scared the crap out of me. After jacking the car up (again, scissor jack - replacing flats logic), I was like: "I'm not getting underneath the car, no f-ing way!". Had dinner, and then ran out of daylight. (Yes I know, the logic failed in the first place. I'll take my share of the abuse, go ahead, didn't know any better)

I decided to do some small research on how to properly jack up a car. And I learned I could raise the entire rear by the crossmember:



I figured it wouldn't hurt leaving the floor jack by the crossmember, sort of like a secondary fail safe.

I had to use a torque wrench to get the rear perch going, but it finally got moving.

The initial shop measurement had the rear perch at ~15-16mm.

I've raised to 10mm. And I'm not kidding, ride quality has drastically improved. I know I'm probably celebrating a bit too early, but I got on a ramp (to return the torque wrench to O'Reily) and I didn't rub! :lol:

Jacking up the car is still scary though... :|
 
#27 ·
You do your own work on your car using the scissor jack? You're nuts dude... go buy yourself a floor jack + stands kit. I got mine for 50 bucks and in the last 5 years I have literally used it hundreds of times. Makes jacking your car way easier.... and safer
 
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