Hello all, well I’m probably one of very few 5 owners that actually wants to get a softer ride. Current car bought with Eibach 30mm springs on original Bilsteins. All aligned and great round corners. However where I live in Sussex the A and B roads are terrible and making the driving not much fun, plus bottom out occasionally. So here’s the predicament, what are my options for returning car to original ride height and getting a better more comfortable ride. Thanks in advance.
The options would be, find some standard springs to fit back on the Bilsteins. Fit standard suspension as would have been on you non sport models as an example.
Those two options wouldn’t give you the lowered and in my opinion a better looking stance for the car, ok if you not worried about the latter.
Of course apart from the comfort and looks of the car there’s another factor, budget.
If you can afford to my third option would be coilovers or as I’ve got fitted MeisterR’s.
You will have the adjustable ride height plus adjustable damping, soft/hard or something in the middle.
If you are going to keep the car long term then go straight to coilovers, money well spent.
Thanks for the reply. I will probably go down a set of original sport springs as may look to sell after Christmas.
If your dampers are OK, you should be able to pick up a second hand set of springs cheaply enough. Lots of people fit lowering springs, so I would post a ‘wanted’ add on here somewhere, or keep an eye on eBay.
But if your dampers are the original as fitted in 2007, I would expect they are past their best (Any MOT history of oil misting on the original dampers? This is normal, but in my opinion if they have been misting for 14 years, then that is a lot of oil mist lost.) A cheap set of OE equivalent replacements from Autodoc or similar will give you new performance for around the £400 mark including new springs. Or just get replacement springs for a quarter of that,
Meisterr will be about £800… But twice as good and will add value when selling the car if you choose to do that.
Pays your money and takes your choice.
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Thanks McTrucky, cars done 106000 and had 100% MOT history apart from one fail and that was just a brake light bulb! Only ever advisories on tyres, brakes and drop links and these were always changed immediately. It’s been well looked after. The struts have never come up and upon a close inspection seem good apart from usual surface rust. So closely watching EBay for a set of springs, however I will replace any spring seat bushes etc whilst there apart. Would be interested to hear what mileage fellow 5 owners got out of there Bilsteins. Cheers.
I took them off my ‘new to me’ 2008 car at 72000, there was ‘Advisory’ misting reported on the mot, and to me it felt a bit unsettled on country lanes.
Replaced with a Bilston B12 kit, but was too low for me (had -35 springs), so I replaced them with MeisterR.
Having wasted cash on the B12 kit I decided to bite the bullet and buy what everyone else said was the best option, and I do not regret that decision.
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I have to admit I’ve just spent the last hour on the interweb! and agree I should go for MeisterR. The car wants for nothing apart from a decent suspension setup. Where did you get yours from please.
Bought mine direct
https://www.meisterr.co.uk/car/suspension/mazda/05-14-mx-5-nc/
You can get them slightly cheaper elsewhere, and most places give a 5% discount if you mention Owners Club, or MX5NUTZ as a discount code. But I had a few questions quickly answered by meister.co.uk, so they got my business. I did haggle for a free pair of the adjuster extensions that make life easier.
