New suspension for mk1/NA, road use
Discussion
I have just done the coilover and bushes on my NA.
Original plan was for Meister R ZetaCRD coilovers and the IL Motorsport bushes - however both were out of stock without definitive dates for either.
I was offered BC Racing BR Series coilovers in place, so took a punt understanding that the spring rates were a touch firmer.
Bush wise, I did a fair bit of research and concluded that not all polybushes are created equal and the vary in price and quality accordingly. I eventually settled on superpro which are well rated and apparently are designed to fit right and retain grease.
Had the car back a week, and while it still needs setup I'm very happy with it - not crashy, overly harsh or squeaky at all.
Original plan was for Meister R ZetaCRD coilovers and the IL Motorsport bushes - however both were out of stock without definitive dates for either.
I was offered BC Racing BR Series coilovers in place, so took a punt understanding that the spring rates were a touch firmer.
Bush wise, I did a fair bit of research and concluded that not all polybushes are created equal and the vary in price and quality accordingly. I eventually settled on superpro which are well rated and apparently are designed to fit right and retain grease.
Had the car back a week, and while it still needs setup I'm very happy with it - not crashy, overly harsh or squeaky at all.
Any new suspension unit will feel night and day better over an old tiered unit, so of course everyone says their choice transformed the car.
When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
What are the after sales and customer service like.
I have always purchased from a manufacture rather than a trader as I want to speak to people who can fix/make decisions if and when an issue arises. I have never purchased a set of Protect shocks, but I was told a story by a chap the other day where he had a weep from a 5year old set and the factory repaired for free his unit out of warranty and without asking.......I am mightily impressed with that kind of customer service
lastly, do you need coilers? the OEM suspension is to put it simply bloody excellent. If this is a road car and adjustment is not needed why spend the cash on units that you will not use the 1 element they offer over OEM....I would be minded to look at OEM if honest.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
What are the after sales and customer service like.
I have always purchased from a manufacture rather than a trader as I want to speak to people who can fix/make decisions if and when an issue arises. I have never purchased a set of Protect shocks, but I was told a story by a chap the other day where he had a weep from a 5year old set and the factory repaired for free his unit out of warranty and without asking.......I am mightily impressed with that kind of customer service
lastly, do you need coilers? the OEM suspension is to put it simply bloody excellent. If this is a road car and adjustment is not needed why spend the cash on units that you will not use the 1 element they offer over OEM....I would be minded to look at OEM if honest.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
You can replace the P5 pigtail springs with standard 2 1/4" straight springs available from places like Merlin - they will seat themselves in the standard mazda topmounts (or you can get spring locators if you want) and won't move at full droop. After speaking to Phil about it he confirmed they are/were linear springs - 350/250 F/R rates. I can't remember what lengths I ended up with but they work as well as the pigtails did before 3 of them broke..anonymous said:
[redacted]
Thanks for the info on IG Racing / Ian Gardiner Racing.Please may I just confirm if it is Protec or Protech dampers you are referring to?
This looks like the website for protech:
https://www.protechshocks.co.uk/products/mazda-mx5...
and that logo is on the IG Racing site:
http://www.igracing.co.uk/dampers.html
so I was assuming Protec was just a typo.
Edited by RSTurboPaul on Wednesday 13th October 01:13
random_username said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
You can replace the P5 pigtail springs with standard 2 1/4" straight springs available from places like Merlin - they will seat themselves in the standard mazda topmounts (or you can get spring locators if you want) and won't move at full droop. After speaking to Phil about it he confirmed they are/were linear springs - 350/250 F/R rates. I can't remember what lengths I ended up with but they work as well as the pigtails did before 3 of them broke..I was going to ask about the spring rates - the internet archive mentions 350lbs/in front, 250lbs/in rear:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120302191253/http://w...
Do we know what the standard setup rates were?
markcoopers said:
Any new suspension unit will feel night and day better over an old tiered unit, so of course everyone says their choice transformed the car.
When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
Having to get shocks rebuilt every 2 years is a bit poor isn’t it? I’ve got lightweight bilsteins on my Griffith that have been done twice in 16 years. When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
A periodical spray with something like ACF50 keeps surface rust at bay I find.
If you look at the design of the BC Racing Shocks ( & most meisterR) the ride height is adjusted by altering how deep the shock is run into the bottom cup, therefore the suspension travel is preserved. I have never hit the bump stops on my BC Racing shocks & I do run it quite low for sprints + hillclimbs.
Edited by griffdude on Wednesday 13th October 10:49
RSTurboPaul said:
I was about to ask who Phil was but a small bell in the back of my mind rings and tells me that he was Phil at Performance 5?
I was going to ask about the spring rates - the internet archive mentions 350lbs/in front, 250lbs/in rear:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120302191253/http://w...
Do we know what the standard setup rates were?
Sorry - yes, Phil @ P5. The archive above is for the later in-house SportDrive setup, but the spring rates for the earlier PureDrive setup were the same. I used Faulkner race springs of the same poundage and it all worked out fine.I was going to ask about the spring rates - the internet archive mentions 350lbs/in front, 250lbs/in rear:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120302191253/http://w...
Do we know what the standard setup rates were?
random_username said:
RSTurboPaul said:
I was about to ask who Phil was but a small bell in the back of my mind rings and tells me that he was Phil at Performance 5?
I was going to ask about the spring rates - the internet archive mentions 350lbs/in front, 250lbs/in rear:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120302191253/http://w...
Do we know what the standard setup rates were?
Sorry - yes, Phil @ P5. The archive above is for the later in-house SportDrive setup, but the spring rates for the earlier PureDrive setup were the same. I used Faulkner race springs of the same poundage and it all worked out fine.I was going to ask about the spring rates - the internet archive mentions 350lbs/in front, 250lbs/in rear:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120302191253/http://w...
Do we know what the standard setup rates were?
griffdude said:
markcoopers said:
Any new suspension unit will feel night and day better over an old tiered unit, so of course everyone says their choice transformed the car.
When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
Having to get shocks rebuilt every 2 years is a bit poor isn’t it? I’ve got lightweight bilsteins on my Griffith that have been done twice in 16 years. When looking at the suspension units I would suggest the following as good advice.
Are the units rebuildable, what cost to rebuild and how regular to rebuild?
Gas are quite cheap and easy to rebuild, but I was finding that they needed a rebuild every 2years namely as the adjuster was seized. The Gas and others that have base adjusters always corrode where as the units with top adjusters are protected from the worst of the elements and to me a better design.
What is the corrosion resistance like.
Here we have salt on the roads and many of these aftermarket alloy units corrode with salt and especially where they touch steel parts.
Lowering the car......are you sure. All this does it miss place the damper rod in the shock so that you run out of suspension travel easily.....this is especially true in a Mk1. Running out of travel will mean you hit the bump stop with disastrous handling consequences. Aftermarket units normally have raised top mounts to allow for this, but even so running out of travel is all to easy on a lowered car.
A periodical spray with something like ACF50 keeps surface rust at bay I find.
If you look at the design of the BC Racing Shocks ( & most meisterR) the ride height is adjusted by altering how deep the shock is run into the bottom cup, therefore the suspension travel is preserved. I have never hit the bump stops on my BC Racing shocks & I do run it quite low for sprints + hillclimbs.
Edited by griffdude on Wednesday 13th October 10:49
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