How to Check the PPF Alignment - ND MX-5

[@kelseyblanton9419]

Learn something new everytime I watch your channel! Great video as always!

[@DriveMX5]

Yay! I’m glad to hear that. Thank you for watching!

[@Batman825]

I thought I was going to watch a video on Paint Protection Film. I wondered what I was going to learn about aligning it. LOL! Another good and informative video.

[@DriveMX5]

Haha sorry for the misleading thumbnail! Thank you for the feedback though!

[@RichardFanders]

Did you find out where the vibration was coming from?

[@DaveSimkus]

The issue on mine is only when taking a right corner at higher speed like once the car leans enough and when reversing up a small curb while turning, there's like a rattle/knocking type sound coming from somewhere in the middle or rear of the car. Two Mazda dealerships could not replicate my issue so I'm not sure what it could be. Alignment is good. And when looking under the car everything looks normal, nothing loose. Could my differential be making this noise? It's not a limited slip though. I'll check the thing you mentioned in this video too.

[@DriveMX5]

Sorry I have not replied to this comment! I suppose it could be your diff, maybe one of the axles, or even a suspension component or bushing has gotten worn or loose. It’s hard to say without hearing the sound in person

[@fitz9806]

Would you happen to know the size of those ppf bolts? My ND is creaking under initial throttle and my research leads me to believe this is the cause, as the creak sounds like its coming right from under the car.

[@DriveMX5]

I want to say they’re 17mm, but more likely they’re 21mm since they hold such a critical component and have a high tightening torque spec

[@vincentl5363]

Glad I came across this video, I was planing to loosen the PPF to install diff bushing inserts. I won’t be doing that now. Did you ever resolve your issue?

[@DriveMX5]

No, but it turns out the ppf wasn’t the issue! It was two sets in a row of bad tires. One set wouldn’t balance right and they were egg shaped. The second set balanced okay but still vibrated and the vibration finally went away after getting Michelin Pilot Super Sports. I’m glad the video was helpful in some capacity! You can definitely loosen the ppf, just make sure it’s aligned properly afterwards

[@KuruCy]

I think I might have the same problem.I have a brand new nd2 GT that I installed progress springs on. at highway speeds it feels like the rear of the car is occasionally shimmying. I changed wheels and tires at the same time and was assuming my tires were just more squirmy than the stock Bridgestones

[@DriveMX5]

Which tires did you go with? Idk if you saw my post but the shop found out my tires were a bit out of round and unbalanced. They did some work to help fix it but it’s not perfect and still vibrates but much reduced. I’m still thinking there’s something else going on

[@KuruCy]

@@DriveMX5 Hankook Ventus V2 Concept 2 H457, in 205/50/16 I guess I can try getting my tires rebalanced

[@DriveMX5]

@@KuruCy yeah I would try that. The same shop that I took my car to recently mounted and balanced my tires. Then when I came back, they used a road force machine and it had to be rebalanced as they didn’t do it good enough the first time. I hope that’s all it is for you!

[@KuruCy]

@@DriveMX5 fyi, my tire pressures were uneven. Once I corrected the pressures all around the wiggling went away.

[@DriveMX5]

@@KuruCy I’m glad yours was a simple fix!

[@HotCarl73]

I have aftermarket wheels, tires and lugnuts. Goodwin Racing, not some rainbow ebay ones. I'm about 1 turn shy of the recommended 8 turns on a 12mm lugnut. I torque to 100 lbs-ft. I know that's more than the book. I'm aware that this might just be a problem specific to me because of my wheel/lugnut/torque/tool choices. I didn't have the stock stuff on for long enough to know if i'd have the same trouble with that. Disclaimers out of the way, to thwart the hazards of youtube commenting. I do lots of relatively high speed freeway travel between las vegas and idaho. 90 plus mph for hours at a time. I sometimes get a bit of what feels very much like a slightly out of balance tire in that speed range. I carry a torque wrench with me. It's the same wrench locked at the same setting, from my pre-trip retightening, until i'm at my destination. (I know you're not supposed to store your torque wrench set above zero. It's for 2 days and I don't want to dig glasses out of my backpack to read it. I know my phone has a magnifier. (youtube comments)) I stop and run around the car and hit all the lugnuts. There's always a couple that i can get about an eighth of a turn out of before they click. When i get going again, the vibration is gone. Not saying that's your problem, but maybe check it out.

[@DriveMX5]

I'll check that out, thanks for sharing. After doing some more digging on my end, I do believe the tires are the primary issue as they were cheap and showed excessive force on a road force balance machine. Force matching them couldn't even fix it completely. I wonder if in your case, being one turn shy of the recommended 8 has something to do with your lugs loosening themselves.

[@HotCarl73]

​@@DriveMX5 I'm sure it does. It's just Konig freeforms and mcgard spline drives from goodwin, not some off the wall thing. I bought different lugnuts and even a thin walled socket won't fit down into the lug holes without risk of scratching the wheels. The key for the locking lugs fits down in there just fine. I just came up with a weird combination that i can't solve without black or open lugnuts, which i don't like aesthetically. Sometimes you gotta choose between looking cool or living longer, and i made my choice. Seriously, I don't think i'm in any danger of them actually falling off or anything. It's a very slight loosening of a couple lugnuts causing a very slight imbalance at very high speed over a prolonged distance on a very light car, that i had aligned to be as sensitive as possible.I think it would still happen even if i got that last turn that I need. I would do torques and tire pressures and fluids every morning of long trips through the middle of nowhere on a long trip no matter what i was driving, so i'm not really adding anything to my routine. I used to work on helicopters, so my stupid brain never lets me trust mechanical things to just work without falling apart. Hope you get yours sorted. Keep up the good work on the channel.

[@kothareddykrishna]

What kind of vibration is it? Check your exhaust hangers too

[@DriveMX5]

Feels like a rotational unbalance. It was like a death wobble between 80 and 90mph. Now it does feel like the tires are a bit out of round. I got the tires not too long ago and they only have about 1k miles on them so I may be able to get them warrantied and replaced

[@eliekhananya1551]

@@DriveMX5 I have a 21 nd gt and get a noise that sounds like the bearing is about to go out on the rear of the car especially when I’m turning in first gear but then i can faintly hear it on the highways so it must be on all speeds but especially when I turn and it’s super loud but than again it’s been wrecked twice badly lol

[@DriveMX5]

@@eliekhananya1551 oh dear 😅 that’s quite odd. I wonder if there’s something wrong with the diff? That would make the most sense in my opinion if there is a noise coming from the rear, especially when turning.

[@eliekhananya1551]

@@DriveMX5 ya but nobody has been able to figure it out but really nobody wants to figure it out, Mazda has been terrible so I just gave up for the moment, it’s been in the shop for the past 6 months, once I get it back I’ll try again. But I’m willing to bet it’s the diff.

[@DriveMX5]

@@eliekhananya1551 ugh, I’m so sorry to hear about that! Vibrations are hard enough to pinpoint and if you are trying to get anything done under warranty then that’s even more tough. Manufacturers don’t pay much for warranty work and often won’t pay diagnostic time so dealers don’t want to lose money doing it. I’m having my car looked at by my local Mazda dealer again for the vibration from the rear (I think my diff is the problem too) and I only hope they do take a real look at it and fix it.

[@QuadCloudNine]

the workshop manual tells you where to measure this - at the midpoint of the front bolt holes of the tunnel member. you measured too far back.

[@DriveMX5]

I used the workshop manual for this. At least the one that I was using, did not specify front of the tunnel member. It only specified the top surface of the tunnel member and bottom surface of the PPF.

[@QuadCloudNine]

Looking at your link in the description, I read step 10 as showing Axis line "A" at the midpoint of the front bolt holes of the tunnel member. I have an NC and am having difficulty determining this measurement because of an aftermarket tunnel member, so I think I'll try adjusting it and see if it helps some gear/drivetrain noise I'm getting on in-gear deceleration.@@DriveMX5