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Speaking of those top mounts, this is why we had to replace ours. Since the 3 uses MacPherson strut suspension, the strut is also the steering kingpin, which means it has to rotate. In fancy coilovers, you get a nice, sealed roller bearing to do the job. Mazda quite cleverly built a gigantic bearing into the top mount. This huge bearing distributes less load throughout the balls (more balls means less weight is going through each individual ball), which means these mounts should last for hundreds of thousands of miles. However if you are not careful when pulling the top mount free from the spring, the bearing housing (which is made of crappy plastic), will come apart. You will lose your balls and you will curse when this happens. Great for penny pinching at the factory; not so great for the home mechanic.
The mount and bearing are separate parts and most vendors will sell them separately. The mount itself has the rubber isolation bushing and will of course wear out overtime. We decided to replace our mount and bushings with new parts from Moog. We chose Moog because they were the only parts vendor we could find who sold the mounts and bushings as a pair and subsequently sold them at a much cheaper price than sourcing them separately.
The dust sleeve needs to be peeled off the top mount and reused in the new assembly. You will also need to pry out the bumpstop. Or, you could plan ahead even more and replace the bump stop as well, since it will most likely be crumbling. Surprisingly, our front bumpstops were still solid, so we reused them.
For our new swaybar end links, we again went with Moog. Mostly, we went with Moog because of the cost, but we have used Moog parts before in other cars with great success. When we received the end links, we were pleasantly surprised to find out they were thicker than the Mazda links and had larger, beefier ball ends. Best of all, they don’t use a hex in the shank of the stud, instead giving you a wrench point at the base of the ball. This means removing these in 5 years will be a hell of a lot easier than they were in 2016. The sturdier construction should translate to slightly better handling as well.
Once the top mount has been put back on (make sure you use hand tools and not an impact gun to torque the top nut or you will damage the internal valving), it’s time to rebuild. First, loosely attach the top of the strut into the strut tower. Then, slip in the upper end of the sway bar link and loosely install it, as well as the ABS wire bracket. If you install the damper first before these go in, they will not clear the fender well. Ask me how I know. Also, make sure you orient the zerk fitting so it can be easily reached. The links have a definite top and bottom side. You’ll know yours are upside down if the zerk fitting is pointed uselessly at the strut body.
5 comments
What size tires did you use? Were you able to fit 245s under it?
For Street Class SCCA, you have to run the factory tire width, so we were limited to 225s.
No, that is not the rule for SCCA Street class.
No, that is not true. You can use any size tire you want, that fits on a factory width wheel and fits under the car without any modifications. You can also alter the wheel diameter up/down an inch and alter offset by 7mm.
My real question is, will 245s fit under the fenders without rubbing?
You’re right, I grabbed the rules for wheels, not tires when I wrote this article.
I wish I could help you here, but I sold the 3 years ago and never attempted to fit anything wider than a 225 under it. Sorry.