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.

[BCMPS]

Thanks kmh001.. Just gave a call to fulcrum this morning and sort out my misery. You are 100% correct. That was what I planned to do.

I just ordered 2 brand new upper arms from Mazda today since Mazda can not sell the ball joint separately. Along with the superpro bushes, my MPS should be alive within 2 days.... altho it hurts my wallet but I guess this may solve my recent puzzle on the front knocking noise from suspension.

I wonder how many MPS6 / Speed6 owners have this kind of cambet kit setting?

---------- Post added at 11:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 PM ----------

Kmh, I actually still not quite understand how these bushes able to adjust the camber in this double wishbone suspension. Can you plz shed some light?

[kmh001]

A normal bush looks like this

You're getting off-set (aka eccentric) bushes which look like this

Notice the bolt hole is not in the centre like a normal bush, it's off to one side. This allows the insert to be rotated to make the centre bolt hole to one side or the other compared to a normal central position.

If you position the insert so that the centre bolt is moved closer to the centre of the car, it will pull the upper control arm in which tips the top of the upright to give you more camber angle.

Hope that makes sense.

[Los Palmas7]

I wonder what's the price of just this part?

[BCMPS]

Notice the bolt hole is not in the centre like a normal bush, it's off to one side. This allows the insert to be rotated to make the centre bolt hole to one side or the other compared to a normal central position.

If you position the insert so that the centre bolt is moved closer to the centre of the car, it will pull the upper control arm in which tips the top of the upright to give you more camber angle.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks Kmh. I think that is the proper way of dailing in more negative camber. I should be able to find out tomorrow. But how come no one in the State try such thing? They all lean towards the ball joint approach...

---------- Post added at 09:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ----------

I wonder what's the price of just this part?

Should be able to find out tomorrow, or you can contact fulcrum to find out.

[kmh001]

Thanks Kmh. I think that is the proper way of dailing in more negative camber.

Correct, that's how Mazda do it on the rear end. It's inexplicable they haven't provided adjustment at the front.

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:53 AM ----------

I wonder what's the price of just this part?

I got a quote from Supercheap in May this year. $279.95 for the upper control arm bushes SPF2953K and $145.95 for the adjustable caster arm bushes SPF2958K.

Installation would probably double that figure.

[BCMPS]

I didn't know supercheap can get this part. I would get it from them if I do. Learn a lesson this time.

Finally after all these drama I had my car back with new arms and bushes. It's actually cost me $330 for the SPF2953K, probably it's because the tyre shop had to deal with the local distributor, surprisingly it's actually Tunehouse. So there must be commission in between.... Installation of new upper arm and bushes cost me around $200. I think it is reasonable for me.

Final alignment figure:
Front left camber: -2 degrees and 5 mins
Front right camber: -1 degree and 35 mins
Front left toe: +1.0mm
Front right toe: +1.0mm

Rear left camber: -1 degree and 13 mins
Rear right camber: 0 degree and 45 mins
Rear left toe: +2.1mm
Rear right toe: +0.9mm

I am actually not quite happy about the camber and toe is a bit out from left to right, but they said when driver sit and driver side, it will give more negative camber to balance out..... But what if 2 ppl on the car??

Do you guys think I should go somewhere for the wheel alignment? Especially someone familiar with this type of bushes?

[kmh001]

The front specs are not too bad, but the rear is terrible. It's not even within mazda's rubbery specification. Take it back and make them do it again. It's actually quite easy to get the specs right, the only reason they don't do it right is because they are lazy.

[BCMPS]

Even the front are out of half degree, you still think that is ok?

I just checked Mazda6 MPS spec, rear camber should be -1 degree and 37 mins, left and right for both front and rear must not exceed 1.5 degree. Do you think my rear camber is terrible or toe is terrible?

[kmh001]

The front is close enough to leave alone. But the rear toe will cause handling and tyre wear issues. Toe should be between 0-1mm in per side and camber as you say at 1.5 degrees neg.

[BCMPS]

My car exhibit some knocking sound when it goes thru bumpy road and road joint, it has been like this more than a year, would the following bushes fix the problem? The knocking sound make the car feel loose.

SPF2954K Control Arm Lower - Inner Bushing
SPF2955K Control Arm Lower - Outer Bushing

Is there any evidence to show these stock bushes are weak?