With Rev_2_9K's help (many thanks BTW) we installed the Mazdaspeed springs and shocks in my car. The install was rather uneventful, but as I was driving home I thought of a few things. First off, the car seems to handle great thus far, so I don't notice any issues or noises. That said.....the following two questions/issues were bugging me.

1. Shocks - The shocks have some serial number stickers on one side, now the shocks appear to be unidirectional, that is it does matter which side the sticker faces, in or out, in my case we installed them facing inward, I'm not sure it could be done another way, but i wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be an issue if they were some how reversed. I can't see how there would be a problem, but I wanted to ask anyway.

2. Bumpstops - I cut my bump stops about an inch, front and back, given the drop in ride height. Some one mentioned that you don't/shouldn't cut them. Cutting them is not in the package instructions, but I can't see how you can drop a car almost an inch and not cut them. For those with the MS suspension, what did you guys do?

thanks for the insite, I'll post a revierw of the setup after its had a week to settle in, thus far is seems to be great.

 

1. the fronts were identical. So it didnt matter which was left our right. The rears, they would only fit according to which side. So you prob got it right. I dont remember where the stickers are.

2. i left mine alone since cortc said we didnt need to. My ride dropped around .7. didnt really measure, but did the finger test.

How much did ur car drop brillo, and did u acually follow the torque specs. i need to torque mine when i get some time.

 

I have a set of torque wrenches so I did torque everything down to spec. The rear shocks looked the same to me too, now the rear top plates are definitely specific to each side. I should also point out that our roads here are pretty harsh where I live, therefore I sould end up hitting a bumpstop more often

 

Make sure you get a good 4 wheel alignment. Your camber will be off now that the car is lower and you'll wear your tires out faster on the inside edge.

 

wait a few more weeks for the suspension to settle.... I got mine done 3-4 weeks after I installed my Tein Lowering Springs. The toe was off but the camber was fine.

 

I seem to have shaken out all of the kinks save one, my right rear is making a funny noise over bumps at low and medium speeds. it sounds like metal flexing, which makes me think the spring may not be set right.

I took the wheel off and re checked the torque on the lower control arm, the endlinks and the shock nut, all of which are fine. I also double checked the upper mounts in the trunk as well. All of this didn't seem to help the issue. We torqued the top shock nut as tight as possible before reinstalling it in the car. I don't see to have an issue with the left rear and we did the exact same thing there as far as torquing and installation.

So I'm kinda at a loss, I guess I'm going to have to pull the shock unit out and take it apart and re-assemble it, to see if that helps.

One stupid idiot checking question, the shorter springs go up front and the longer ones in the rear right? I can't see how it would work the other way, but I'm just going through any possible screw up at this point. thanks for the help.

 

bump