Behold! The Millenium Falcon! (Mazda5 content)

Thanks Steronz - I'll inspect those. We bought ours cheap-n-scruffy with high mileage compared to every other 5 on the ATL market, so it wouldn't surprise me I need new bushings at 138K.

Also, what are you guys using for jack points, especially in the front? The only documented front point I found was behind the freaking engine and my jack isn't 6ft long.

Jav - I see you've used a number of points, anything flat down there fair game? I'm probably Bob Costas-footing it, but I haven't wanted to damage the newest, most expensive vehicle we own.

Matt B wrote: - Anybody have problems with the sliding doors unlocking? I think the little plastic gears have lost some teeth.

Yep, passenger side only. Know of any fixes? Or should I be the guinea pig?

Matt B wrote: Jav - I see you've used a number of points, anything flat down there fair game? I'm probably Bob Costas-footing it, but I haven't wanted to damage the newest, most expensive vehicle we own.

There's notches in the unibody rockers just aft of each front wheel for changing flats, I use those.

Matt B wrote: - Anybody have problems with the sliding doors unlocking? I think the little plastic gears have lost some teeth. - I'm getting some clunking from the rear over bumps. I've heard that these had some problems with the rear oem shocks or shock mounts causing this. Anyone else?

Welcome to the club! I think our cars are twins. I've had problems with the sliding doors unlocking as well, and I think someone else mentioned it previously too. People on other boards mention replacing the rear door lock actuators solves the problem, they are about $60 parts. Here is a thread.

Clunking no. Squeaking yes. I have not investigated yet. Maybe when I get the project car sorted.

Javelin wrote: There's notches in the unibody rockers just aft of each front wheel for changing flats, I use those.

I used my hydraulic jack on one of those notches and deformed the hell out of the jacking point.

Do they have a stock rear sway bar? Mine doesn't, JBR came through though and I have one sitting in the basement to go on; installed the short shifter and have H&R springs ready as soon the weather gets a bit nicer. The short shifter is sooo nice.

Javelin wrote:

Matt B wrote: Jav - I see you've used a number of points, anything flat down there fair game? I'm probably Bob Costas-footing it, but I haven't wanted to damage the newest, most expensive vehicle we own.

There's notches in the unibody rockers just aft of each front wheel for changing flats, I use those.

Thanks Jav, I saw those, but there was a pic where it looked like you found one in between the engine and front bumper.

edit - is that on a lower arm mounting point?

In reply to bastomatic: yeah when I saw your pics I was thinking that looked damn familiar lol. Ours has a few more dents and scratches though.

Thanks for that door actuator thread link! That might be my first repair project on this thing.

Jacking: What I have done, and boy is it annoying, is to use the car's scissor jack on one of the sides to get it high enough, so that I can reach that central jacking point with my floor jack, and take it from there. I put stands under the front corner jack points.

In reply to Matt B:

Actually, I think the jack is sitting there. Notice the jack stands. I'll have to look under there again to see if I've used anywhere else.

Note that my 5 is missing the plastic undertray.

Here is where others suggest using a floor jack. Use something to protect the bolts, like wood block.

Jav - ah, ok I see what you're talking about there with the jack. You and your tricky photography.

Bastomatic - not a bad idea with the scissor jack, but does sound like a PITA. Too bad we all don't have lifts. On the other hand, I do have a couple of different hydraulic jacks.

edit- just saw your pic with the bolts. That might be a good way to get jack stands under the official jack points.

I slide my jack under he front and jack it up on the subframe using the red area circled. Then I place my stands behind the lip for the factory jack. If for some reason I'm not using my low profile jack I put the cup of the jack behind the factory jack point lip to lift and the stands on the subframe. The body is reinforced within about a 6" circle of the jack point. For the rear I just put my high lift jack in the center of the subframe where the differential mounts on the AWD models and put my jack stands on the factory jack points.

I also readjusted the passenger's side engine mount. When I installed the new mount and the new transmission mount I didn't adjust it correctly which was causing vibration in gear at stoplights.

Now I just need to get the rotors machined again because someone who is not me, not our 3 year old, & not our 9 month old has a talent for warping brakes.

I'm late to this, I have a 08 3 Touring, The timing advance mod works well, its easy. But you have to run mid grade in the summer

In reply to Blitzed306: Turn the distributor? Does it work another way? Is my head stuck in 80's ignition tech?

In reply to BAMF:

Sorry for the 3-month delayed response. Here's a link to the thread I followed when I did the spin-on oil filter conversion on my 2.3 Mazda3:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/showthread.php?t=339596

At the time (3 years ago) I was able to find the part from a Mazda dealer. Installation was very easy and oil changes are cleaner now.

helpful response:

I heard there was a reason you could not convert the Mazda5 to a spin-on filter, but don't remember why or where I heard it, probably Mazda247 boards. Take that with a pound of salt.

Matt B wrote: - I'm getting some clunking from the rear over bumps. I've heard that these had some problems with the rear oem shocks or shock mounts causing this. Anyone else?

There are a few TSBs about this - It's probably either your swaybar body bushings, or blown rear shocks (the OEM units seem to have a very short life). My mom had an '07 for about 5 years and 80k, and the only real issue they had with it was squeaking/clunking from the rear suspension. They had one pair of shocks and one set of swaybar bushings replaced under warranty and they probably both needed to be done again when they traded it. If I owned one of these I would probably just install Konis and greaseable Energy swaybar bushings and not waste time with the OEM parts.

I went a step further and went to heim joint endlinks.... I believe the ones from the ms3 should work in the rear. AWR makes a good set.

Matt B wrote: In reply to Blitzed306: Turn the distributor? Does it work another way? Is my head stuck in 80's ignition tech?

Its been years since I did it, But you go in the passenger wheel well and move the crank trigger pick up down I think

In reply to Josh: That's what I thought I had seen somewhere. Gracias on the confirmation. Good excuse to buy some FSDs?

Blitzed306 - Thanks for the tip! I might try that.

Another observation - the car is ridiculously easy to chirp the tires or induce wheel hop in wet conditions. I think a lot of it is the extra low rolling resistance Pirelli all-seasons that came with it, but my clutch habits may to be to blame as well.

Anybody have a favorite tire yet? I don't really have to worry about snow, just ice a few times a year. I originally told myself I wouldn't worry about putting sticky summer rubber on this thing, but I'm starting to consider it just to improve it's road manners. Ideally, I'd like it to be as versatile and safe in all conditions, since the other two cars are on summer tires. That said, I'm a little dubious about the value of "performance" all seasons.

In reply to Matt B:

I get wheel hop bad as well, the 5 could really use a LSD and some better front suspension tuning for performance drivers!

Don't ruin your car with No Seasons! I run Hankook i-Pike's right now (still winter for us) and will switch to a Max Summer tire soon. Possibly the V12 Ventus, though part of me really wants to slap a set of R-S3's on this thing and go autocrossing...

Agreed - the thing needs an LSD worse than most sports cars. It's not in the cards at the moment, but I'm wondering if the MS3 transmission bolts up? Depending on the price, it might be around the same as buying an aftermarket unit and paying someone to install it (just one of those jobs I'm not going to do myself). You'd get an extra gear to boot.

I also want to autocross it, just for the lulz.

edit - used MS3 trannies seem to go for $800-$1200 on ebay. Not cheap, but not terribly expensive either.

Tackled the sliding door actuator problem today - my rear doors were not locking or unlocking reliably - took about 3-10 tries each time.

Ordered the parts - C23572350 for the right, and C23573350 for the left. Those parts are different if you have an anti-theft system. Follow these directions and you're home free.

The whole process took about 30 minutes for the first door and maybe 15 for the second. Pretty simple, and the locks work perfectly now. The actuators themselves are dinky little plastic units, so I am not surprised they tend to fail.

I also changed my cabin air filter, as the one I was running was probably original from 2006. Simple enough - two small plastic panels with clips, and one access cover held on by four screws. The screws take a bit of contortion to remove, but it was not too terrible. You can see the location of the filters below, it's under the left kick panel on the passenger footwell.

Now, the door locks actuate properly, and I can breathe easy.

In reply to bastomatic:

Dude, you are my new hero! I'm getting a passenger actuator now...