After 160.000km of road and track use, one of the XYZ Super Sport struts started leaking oil and that meant it was time for a new set. There are many options on the market for this chassis but finally we decided to choose the BC BR typeRA kit because we found it at a very good price(cheaper than any ebay-eshop on the internet) and they are serviceable by the local dealer Platanas Parts and Accessories who was also very helpfull with some installation tips.
The plan is to buy an other car for track use and keep the Mazda as a daily so we chose the factory spring rates 5-3kgr/mm. I was expecting that they had a non adjustable top mount like the XYZs had but surprisingly they came with pillowball adjustable top mount. This would be ok for other cars but unfortunately our chassis has very small holes on the mounting points which limits the adjustability of the top mount. This made the install process a bit more interesting because with limited top mount adjustability for camber I had two options, either widen the top mount holes or widen the upper upright holes on the strut in case I needed more camber.Tony M. from M2O Facebook page suggested to clock the top mount in order to gain some caster and then slot the upright bolt hole to gain the desired camber, which is also a very good idea but in this case maybe a caster adjustable bushing by Powerflex may be needed as well.
We started at the back were I had already replaced the old XYZ suspension with the OEM. First we had to remove the two struts with two 12mm bolts on top and one 17mm bolt on the bottom. After removing the struts we took the springs out. We put the new hardware in reverse order. I set the ride height about the same I had with the old suspension after corner weighting it as a starting point.
After finishing the rear, we continue with the front suspension. First we removed the abs sensor from the strut bracket and we would also remove the brake line but since we have already braided lines installed we didn't have to do so. Next step is to unbolt the suspension top mount and brake fluid reservoir as well, after placing a jack under the A arm.
With the old harware removed its time for the new shiny bits to take their place. Due to the small hole on the tower we wanted to set the adjustable top mount as far in as we could in order to achieve camber angle around 1.6-2 degrees. We had to adjust the top mount prior to mounting it because there is no access from the top.
We removed the two inner allen bolts and placed them in the middle holes to achieve more inwards placement.Then with the bolts loose we secured the strut on the car and marked with a sharpie underneath the maximum camber position.
Spring preload and even ride height were already set from the factory as I wanted. There also mounting brackets for abs sensor cable and brake lines. After putting everything back and torquing to spec it looked like this.
Our biggest concern prior to installing the coilovers was if we could achieve the same 2degr of camber as the car had before. With a ghetto way of measuring it, it looks close but it is going to be aligned and corner weighted soon anyway.
After installing it we did a test drive and noticed a clunking noise from the back of the car. After inspecting it we found out that the droop was not enough and the shock was maxing out in every turn or bump. After setting it to 17,5mm as shown on the photo below, it was solved.!
Initial thoughts after driving the car on a mountain road and to work is that it feels very well balanced and responsive even with 6 clicks on the rear and 10 in the front softest. It is also very comfortable for daily use with good damping even though more we have more road noise from the front struts that don't have any bushing on the top mount.
I will have full feedback after having the car aligned and corner weighted properly.This is how the car sits right now, not hellaflush but...hellafunctional.!!
Suspension Torque Specs :
Bonus Timelapse Installation Video :
