Speaking of oil changes .. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the oil filter placement on the P5. It is so freakin ridiculous!! It took me two hours to get that damn thing off yesterday and I even got one of those filter removal tools to help me out. It just kept on slipping so I had to hammer a screwdriver all the way through the other side of the filter and take it off that way. What a pain in the F'n ***!!

 

lube the gasket with fresh oil before you put it on and you'll never have trouble getting the filter off.. no tools needed, just tighten the filter until the gasket hits and then go.. a little past that, maybe half a turn? not crazy tight at all. it'll come off easily by hand when you need to change it again. I've never had an oil change take me more than 15 minutes unless I lose the drain plug (it's happened lol)

 

Mazda has been putting the filter in that position for some time (used to have a '96 Pro and it was the same). I always jack up the passenger side of the car to get in there. Buy one of those oil filter sockets. Makes life easy-breezy (it helps having long arms too!). I also fold several paper towels and lay them under the filter so I don't have a mess when I take it off.

And I would advise tightening the filter the recommended amount after the gasket first hits (slightly more than one turn). You don't want to be able to take the thing off by hand, too much chance it could vibrate loose and then were will you be?

 

hit 111,111 miles today

I'm gearing up to replace my flywheel and clutch this weekend. I'm a little nervous about it cause I kinda need to be able to drive my car on Monday. I have a MSP flywheel and Spec stage 2 clutch and pressure plate, with an alignment tool, new pilot bearing, throw-out bearing, 2 diff seals, and 2 driveshaft clips. oh and 3 qts of Lucas gear oil. Am I missing anything?

 

You can turn it more than a full turn past the gasket bottoming out and still be able to take it off by hand 3k miles later. I've done it probably 15 times or more :P

 

you have skinny emo boi arms. i have enormous arms. its really hard for me to get my hands up there

 

The little filter socket thingy worked last time, but for some reason just wouldn't do the job this time around. It just kept on skipping like the top of the filter was stripped and it wasn't able to grip onto it properly, but the screwdriver certainly did the trick. It was a pain in the *** no doubt, but I got it off .. just really pissed me off cuz it's supposed to be a 10-15 min job instead of 2 hours!!

I'll try the lubing trick next time Kansei so I'll let you know how that works in about a month or so. Thanks mate!

 

Well you see .. our skinny emo boi arms are useful cuz they can squeeze in there but they don't work very well when you need to put a little extra muscle into stuff. So it's not as great as you think

 

you guys are wusses..I'm 6-2 , 280lbs, and I could get my arm in from the TOP to take the filter off by hand....

 

Krayzie, could be you had an older filter. I found this out recently myself, bought the filter socket to fit ones I had but when I went to use it on one I had put on my gf's car previously it didn't fit. Checked a couple of new ones I had and that was when I found out the difference. I would imagine any new ones you buy from now on will be the same.

Macdaddy, you are a monster!! Must have small hands too to get past all the crap on top, I could never squeeze around all the small hoses etc.

 

Thats weird, I have had no problems twisting it off by hand both times, has someone been wrenching it on?

 

my awr 95 durometer front motor mount is in, and the wisdom Ken gave me held true.. the more AWR mounts you have, the LESS it vibrates. Right now I just have the side inserts and the 95 duro front mount and adding the front (replacing the 75 durometer sls) added no additional vibrations.. and at first startup is when you would definitely notice it.

 

That makes sense. I might try it with 70s, but 95s? You crazy! =P

 

it really is like.. nothin worse than with my sls front and side (75 durometer) but now I have both sides and the front and you can feel that the engine is held in place MUCH better than with just two mount replaced.

I wish more steps were shared between doing the rear motor mount and the sway bar so I was more inclined to get it done. I probably will do them at the same time just because I will have sooo much stuff torn apart

p.s. there's group buy on the full set of hardrace reinforced rubber mounts: http://www.toprotege.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34164 $275CAD for all 4.. I got all 4 AWR for $195 I think from www.speedcircuit.net, but of course that's with the sides just being inserts. The hardrace ones are just OEM-ish with reinforced rubber (not solid like poly mounts)

link to very large pic of hardrace mounts: http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9...3236296fu6.jpg

no info on estimated durometer or anything though

 

Interesting that they copied the shape of the OEM mounts. A little more sophisticated than just building bruteforce mounts with hard annular polyurethane bushings.

Mazda must have determined the direction of engine torque on the mounts was different from the direction of engine vibration, hence the asymmetric rubber design.

Hardrace is capitalizing on the R&D Mazda had already done. Smart.