2004 to 2020 Mazda 3 Forum and Mazdaspeed 3 Forums banner

2022 upgrades

6.6K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  n3rd_gen  
#1 ·
Hello

Im looking for some insite on improving the suspension and handling on my 2022 mazda3 hatch. I understand it has a rear torsion beam suspension, and i dont know much about those. Can i still put on coilovers and imrpove the handleing and feel or does the torsion beam limit me. Looking for any advice
 
#2 ·
Coilovers would still just be a shock and spring in the rear so they mainly improve the fronts. So, setting aside for now that the fronts would be true coilovers, the rear torsion beam is just a simple beam that goes across to both wheels suspension and can at least "flex" somewhat independently but nothing like having multiple points of a true IRS multilink setup, which actually does have a few cons of its own too, like getting camber just right and cost/complexity for limited improvements over torsion beam. You might be surprised to hear even the Civic Type R is torsion beam, remember unlike a solid-axle in a truck, they have advanced to where there is some independent flexibility and handling doesn't suffer much, but ride quality over rougher roads you will feel the whole rear shudder sometimes.

Anyway, there are plenty of lowering springs out there and some Japanese companies like Auto Exe have lots of bracing, suspension bits and a front sway bar etc, but are not exactly very inexpensive. I have found that meatier tires help with the cheap feeling rear torsion shudder as well by simply helping to absorb the vibrations. But if you want to do lowering springs or coilovers, yes, they still help tremendously, the rear torsion beam just doesn't have quite of a refined ride of full IRS.
 
#5 ·
Most off the shelf coilovers are actually a downgrade to handling as they only offer a higher spring rate on the front. On a fwd you want a higher spring rate on the rear so the car actually rotates instead of inducing more understeer. The torsion beam is actually a plus as it already acts like a sway bar. If you can get coilovers with custom springs rates, that would be the way to go. A nice daily driver setup would be 4K front 8k rear. You could go higher but sacrifice ride quality. Stiffer doesn’t always mean better either


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk