What have you done to your car today?

[Akagi]

Spacers should be banned in my view.

They don’t just widen the track. They fundamentally change how the suspension works. Just like the wrong offset wheels.

Hubcentric spacers are perfectly safe, no sense in banning them. Ban the cheap Chinese ones which break though, and the ones which are essentially big shims, by all means! But not because they inconsequentially affect the way the suspension works.

Are you seriously suggesting "wrong offset wheels" should be banned?

There is an unusually high poo level in here today.

 

[sideways14a]

Well this is a lot of yap isnt it?
I can tell you, after just having done a particularly spirited drive around some of my back roads that there is a massive change to the way my 5 now handles.
Now its prob the alignment going for additional camber but the front is now very secure indeed, you can chuck it at practically any apex at near any sane speed and it locks on and doesnt **** about. Of course the body roll that plagues the mk4 mx5 is now gone but i can see why mazda did it like this - the car in stock form is more accessible to novice RWD folks - maybe those coming from a hot hatch or similar background. Now its all tight and has a layer of "safeness" removed. The back can come out more readily although on steady state corners you can shove the pedal far far down before the back wants to walk... but equally a heft clutch kick or even a hefty right pedal will move the rear more than before.
But its that front end that gets me now, crikey its a much much more secure and stable car and the front end just nails it.

So its handling brilliantly and prob would still be almost as good without the spacers, however if i was doing this again i would still put 2x 20mm per axle because it feels so "right" after setup.

 

[Akagi]

Well this is a lot of yap isnt it?
I can tell you, after just having done a particularly spirited drive around some of my back roads that there is a massive change to the way my 5 now handles.
Now its prob the alignment going for additional camber but the front is now very secure indeed, you can chuck it at practically any apex at near any sane speed and it locks on and doesnt **** about. Of course the body roll that plagues the mk4 mx5 is now gone but i can see why mazda did it like this - the car in stock form is more accessible to novice RWD folks - maybe those coming from a hot hatch or similar background. Now its all tight and has a layer of "safeness" removed. The back can come out more readily although on steady state corners you can shove the pedal far far down before the back wants to walk... but equally a heft clutch kick or even a hefty right pedal will move the rear more than before.
But its that front end that gets me now, crikey its a much much more secure and stable car and the front end just nails it.

So its handling brilliantly and prob would still be almost as good without the spacers, however if i was doing this again i would still put 2x 20mm per axle because it feels so "right" after setup.

Nope, ruined, unsafe, deathtrap, ILLEGAL, dont know what you're talking about.

...

 

[sideways14a]

I take it all back, my car just broke into my house - stole some money and my tv then took a dump in the shower.

Evil horror it is

 

[Nasher]

You can fit spacers and the suspension offset still be within factory tolerance. It won't make much noticeable difference to the handling other than maybe make the steering slightly heavier.

I had 20mm front and 25mm rear Eibach hub centric spacers on my gt86 for a couple of years and had no issues. Tyres still wore evenly and bearings didn't wear. I did realign the wheels with the spacers fitted though.

 

[grudas]

I take it all back, my car just broke into my house - stole some money and my tv then took a dump in the shower.

Evil horror it is

as expected! ruined the car, sell the car and find a new hobby.

 

[visibleman]

So today was lowering day on the mx5, 15-20 mm on the springs and 20mm spacers to flush em out.

What suspension did you go for in the end? As i'm on the hunt to do the same with mine.

...

Easier to just post a link to the source... https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/why-you-should-not-fit-wheels-spacers/

 

[Simon]

You move the centre of rotation vs the centre of the tyre.

Alignment can be done without wheels on. So not sure why you need to change it when you add spacers.

obviously too big spacers will fail an MOT too

 

[Clarkey]

In reality though, changing the scrub radius has a negligible effect. Any of the nay sayers preaching against spacers ever actually used them?

 

[Simon]

No just like I haven’t drank bleach either.

 

[grudas]

No just like I haven’t drank bleach either.

Cmon!

 

[Akagi]

Lol. Running spacers being compared to drinking bleach...

I see that the last scraps of intelligence in this 'debate' have fizzled out.

Shall we move on?

 

[Simon]

Lol. Running spacers being compared to drinking bleach...

I see that the last scraps of intelligence in this 'debate' have fizzled out.

Shall we move on?

There has been one poster who has written credible information who got ripped apart by those who said it’s ok as they had no issues.

now I’m being told you can only have an opinion if you have tried it. So I used the bleach analogy. Sorry I had to explain it.

when you understand the fundamentals Oi don’t need to try things. I mean people even put spacers on BMW M cars cars that engineers have setup with completely unique suspension and wider track. Yet forum boys think spacers improve stance so fit them. The only credible reason is people who track and want wider wheels but can’t get the offset to avoid inner arch fouling. But that’s race car setup and really they should just by the right offset wheels.

 

[Akagi]

Anyway...

I found the source of water ingress in my BMW after 3 years of half arsedly trying to figure it out, its a couple of big O-rings that go around the vents behind the rear bumper. I had to sit in the boot of the car while it was raining and investigate with a torch to figure that one out... Amazing how a little trickle can result in 10 litres of water in the boot after a few weeks of rain!

Replacements ordered from BMW. Only a couple of quid each. Nice.

Once thats sorted I'll be able to paint the inner boot pockets!

 

[Phemo]

Retrofitting front parking sensors onto my F30. No, I can park just fine without them but it's a nice to have especially when I need to park as close to a wall as I can at home sometimes. BMW charge silly money for the parts, like £115 for a cable that runs from the boot area to the bumper and I managed to make my own for under £20 by just buying 6 lengths of 22AWG cable, the terminals and the connector plug. First step is painting the PDC sensors - found a random piece of plastic, drilled some holes in and taped the sensors up. I'm crap when it comes to painting but I figured even I wouldn't be able to go too far wrong with something as small as PDC sensors.

I was partly right, 3 of the 4 there are looking decent enough but 1 ended up with a bit too much clearcoat on so I had to start again. All looking ok now though Now I just have to wait until I can be bothered to pop the bumper off.

Anyone done PDC sensors before? I've done a sanding on each sensor with 2000 grit paper, 1 light coat of primer, 2 light coats of paint and 1 clear coat. All looks ok to my eyes but I've heard of people putting too many layers on and messing up their sensor sensitivity.

 

[sideways14a]

What suspension did you go for in the end? As i'm on the hunt to do the same with mine.

I got the springs, which are eibachs from one of the many MX5 mod suppliers out there, it was last year and i cannot remember where i got them.
However they are the exact same set as to what mazda now puts on its options sheet for the ND - absolutely identical. Mazda just must have went to eibach and asked for a set for "spirited drivers" or some guff like that.

So when i bought my ND the options list of stuff you would actually want had only a sports back box.. not even a full system and that was pretty much it bar some visual tat.
Now you can have the eibachs when you buy it, although i hate to think how much they want for that pleasure. The back box was 700 odd quid and i got a 4 pipe straight through system with a new rear diffuser for that and it takes out the main cat.
Now this 16plate mk4 is up to about 185bhp (from circa 160 odd) with its sgt2 tune as well - goes like the new 2020 mk4+ with its 180bhp motor.

 

[Meaker]

Put the engine back in.

 

[Cookeh]

So, you're trying correct tuck caused by lowering a car to the extent it affects suspension geo? Roll centre adjustment was literally designed for this purpose.

I've no desire to start the spacer debate again, because this is the internet so personal experience trumps actual engineering knowledge. All I will say is to look into roll centre adjustment, sideways. You may find it improves your handling further (ymmv).

 

[sideways14a]

I am simply following the recommendations on the likes of miata.net and other places, lots of folk have or are doing the same thing and suspension mods are part n parcel of enthusiast mx5 ownership.
Yes your actual engineering knowledge might say XYZ while i follow ABC but its ABC that folk are recommending based on experience and experience trumps books any day as far as i am concerned.

....and yes there may be more to gain with more mods, i ran 3 different suspension setups on my S14 200sx and the final one had the ability to modify or change almost every suspension parameter you could think of - all it led to was me tinkering with it constantly seeing what this and that change did. Did improve my quarter mile time though.
Cant be bothered with that now, just want to drive.

 

[ShiWarrior]

Ordered some tyres for the Focus - going to try the new Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2 (as not a huge choice of "good" tyres in my size 215/55R16).

Currently has Dunlop Bluresponse which are the "sportiest" thing I have found in this size (due to a stiffer sidewall), but wet grip as others have mentioned is probably not as good as it could be.

what ! theres a TWO now ?

i had dunlops before , love my Michilin Tyres, had them on my clio RS too, still much better than Dunlops!

Think i may have had Goodyears on when i bought the car 6 years ago, didnt like them as much as michilin