Mazda 6 camber kit and bushings from Fulcrum Suspensions

[EQ]

Hi all,

Following a lead from 2XS I spent an hour with the Fulcrum suspension boys in Moorooka assessing the MPS6 steering/allignemt set up.

As we all know the rear is excellent, toe, camber and caster - fully tunable, great work mazda.

The front...welll.....its well documented on this forum and many others that there are issues, KMH001 and his crazy tyre wear, me and my continual copmplaining about "shopping trolley syndrome" and wheel allignments slipping at a mear mouse fart. Mazda....you bad!!!!!

The guys had a quick poke around the underside and immediated remedied the following:

1. Lower arm brace bushing worn, and splitting (35000ks) = the wheel will wander due to the bushing failing and the allignment will slip becasue of said movement. Remedy - fit the poly bushes, wont wear or split.

2. Lower control arm. On mine it was ok, but the car has only done 35000ks. Again, this will add the sloppy feeling we all hate.

3. MOST IMPORTANT finding. Upper control are has no caster adjustment (which we all know) and the bushings are wearing and splitting. Remedy: by using their aftermarket bush and camber kit, we can now induce upto 1degree of camber, basically angling the top of the wheel in towards the centre line to aid handling, and more importantly....reduce outer tyre wear.

We are workiong on the final pricing, club members will get discounts from retail (deal direct with Fulcrum).

I am having my upper arm bushes/camber inducers and lower strut bushings done next week. I'll keep you posted.

Once again, 2XS - thanks for getting the ball rolling on this. etc etc

[shakespeare]

Mate that sounds fantastic, great work EQ and 2XS

Keep us posted, also WA does not have a Fulcrum service centre, but we have an authorised agent, never used them before though. I suppose we can contact them once we're ready to do the work and may be able to negotiate something for the WA members?

WA Suspensions - Osborne Park, Perth, Western Australia - Suspension Parts & Servicing

[2XS]

No problems, any more enquiries are welcome.

[nickows]

Good work EQ and 2XS. I know very little about the suspension setup on these cars so i'll follow this thread with interest

[blackbetty]

Me too, Im looking at doing handling suspension mods on my beast .... the power is more than enough to make me smile everyday, now I just have to get it handling like the Mx5 then I will be in total heaven ... ohh and a short shifter and SRI

[EQ]

Looks like next week now, car has to go back to Mazda to get rid of the vibration I'm getting from the transfer case or rear diff work....its like driving a whacker-packer!

[EQ]

Now that I've got the car back I can get on and get this done - watch this space.

[Los Palmas7]

Update: Camber Kit & Bushing Available Now.
Part Number: SPF2953K.
WA Suspension quoted between $700 - $800 including fitting.

[BCMPS]

I sent my MPS6 for wheel alignment today and found out my SPC ball joint camber kit bolt is sheared off. The mechanic can not tighten the bolt no matter how. Took it off and realise it bolt is flat, without any screw thread. He calls around with so many places and coincidently found out the camber kit from superpro. So he ordered the same part# SPF2953K. Now I have to leave my car in their place for 2-3 days...

Now I have a question in mind, this camber kit look so much different than the SPC ball joint. How could I fit it? Can I directly replace with the SPC ball joint or it has to work in conjunction with the stock camber ball joint? Can EQ or 2XS shed some light? Thanks.

[kmh001]

Two totally different things. The SPC is a ball joint, the superpro is a bush. Since your SPC ball joints are defective you'll need to replace them with OEM type units while the upper controls arms are off the car having the new bushes inserted.

However there is mixed opinion about the efficacy of press-fit replacement ball joints. With the MPS being a high performance car with higher than average stresses (witness your failed SPC's) I would want an assurance from the repairer that the interference fit of the new ball joints could not become loose. If he wasn't comfortable giving that assurance I would choose to buy new upper control arms and have the superpro bushes fitted to the new arms before they are installed.