has everybody who have lowered their car changed their struts as well. because i was thinking of getting the h&r springs but i dont want to cange my struts yet (money shortage). will staying with the stock srtuts make a significant impact. if you did cance the struts what kind did you use? if i do i will get Tokicos. any sugg.

 

shawn, there are plenty of people that did not change their struts....but they all either found out the same thing or are going to....

the stock struts are not properly valved for the stiffer spring rates and it over works them....and in about a year your struts will be totally shot. SO, either you can just save up the money and change them both now or a little later when the cash flow is right, OR you can do the springs now...and somewhere down the road do the whole job over again when the struts are shot. YOUR choice. your choice of replacements is a good one though.

 

What he said.

 

I concur with the Above i have had my Racing Beat Springs installed for just over a Year and my Front Struts are blown. My Car is in the shop right now getting new struts ill do a new post about those but here is the info THERE ARE KYB GR-2 STRUTS available for our cars. I have a P5 and i will get the # on them and post it for everyone.

Aight just got a call from my boy in the shop he said he just found out that they are actually KYB GR2 Struts for the MP3 but he is modifying the problem with the End Link so i don't have to spend more money on other probs.

 

how do you like those racingbeat springs. i wanna drop it but not too much and the racingbeat's drop it less than an inch. i personally want a 1 inch drop. i thought the racingbeat's might look stock though. do you have any pics. thanks

 

well i have had my car sitting side by side of an MP3 and it was sitting lower than the MP3 Stock quite noticeably. They are stiff though my front struts were blown but you couldn't tell by just pushing down on the car. I will look for pics and upload the ones i find

 

If you are on a budget, just get the struts. the handling will be improved much more than you think- especially with a good set of struts like mazdaspeed or tokico adjustables.

 

Need some help out there. I have a 2002 Protege LX 2.0 and want to upgrade the suspension. While Eibach and Racing Beat both have spring kit upgrades there are no shock and Strut upgrades available that I've found. In my discussions with Racing Beat I've learned that the suspensions on the MP3 and MP5 are totally different than the standard LX sedan suspension and the parts just won't work without major modifications and upgrades. There was rumors about Tokico coming out with aftermarket shocks and struts for the LX sedan but there is no word as yet. Does anyone out there know of a strut and shock upgrade that would work with an upgraded spring kit on the market. Please let me know. Gene

 

No, no, no. Any strut that will fit on an MP3 will bolt right on to ANY other 99+ Protege. DX, LX, ES, SE, P5, MS, it doesn't matter. The ONLY suspension change that you have to worry about is the endlink mount on the front struts, and this has been discussed many times before.

Also, the P5 uses the EXACT same suspension as all other 01+ 2.0L sedans. The "MP5" moniker is a confusing misnomer that needs to go away.

 

Hey thanks for the inputs. Guess I've got some misinformation. Still not sure how the endlink mount on the front strut factors into easily adaptability. Perhaps it is related to aftermarket swaybar fitments. I've read some stuff on the Racing Beat page but that leads me to believe it wasn't easily adaptable. I don't want to screw up the suspension, just make it handle much better with my 17 inch wheels and 205 Yokes. Forgive me. I'm new to this and don't want to screw it up and spend lots of bucks on stuff that won't work correctly. I'll read more of the FAQ pages, there was lots of stuff there. Lots of folks tune hondas and mitsubishi cars, few to Proteges. Thats the big benefit I think. Thanks for the help. Stay in touch. Mean Gene

 

OK, here's the news about the endlinks. I've posted this before, but what the heck.

In late 2000, Mazda moved the swaybar endlink mount higher up on the front struts and started using a longer endlink. However, for some reason, the MP3 still used the early, short-endlink setup. To swap the short-endlink MP3 struts onto a later car (or vice versa) you simply need ro obtain a set of endlinks that match the struts. I suggest calling your local late model import salvage yard.

The suspension "changes" that Racing Beat may be talking about are reinforcements that were added to the MP3's endlink mounts so that stiffer swaybars can be used. However, the mount locations and sizes are still the same, so any swaybar will fit; you just run the risk of breaking the endlink mounts if you use big swaybars with the small non-MP3 mounts.

 

Thanks guy,

Been talking to Tokico. they have completed all the testing on the new struts and shocks for the sedan but have no clue when they will go into production for later distribution. Could be some time. After reading some other posts, I think using the standard struts with the higher rate springs is a bad idea. Not to mention that the handling will probably not be balanced. If I go to the bother of new springs and struts/shocks I might as well go all the way with the bigger sway bars. So I may just wait till tokico gets their stuff together. Good input on the bars though. Thanks for the help. Later, Mean Gene