AW11 MR2 Coilover Suspension
  - DIY Coilovers for the AW11 MR2 using a generic coilover kit

Finally! A DIY on generic "Miata" coilovers into an AW11

After long research and the fact that ST springs were on back order for the longest time, I picked up a set of Miata coilovers and decided to give it a go.

Alan

DANGER

Any information presented or implied is for entertainment purposes only. A car and related parts can be very dangerous to work around. Please exercise extreme caution when performing any kind of repair or modification. Neither I or any affiliated parties can be held responsible for any problems or accidents which may occur.

This is what came in. Always be sure you have all the parts you need before you attempt a job. The spring's rate are 450 and...

350 I promised people that I would give them all the specs I can, so here I am measuring the height. I'm pretty sure I bought the wrong set of miata coilovers because these springs were really short...

all 4 springs were the same height, 5 1/2" high I also measured the diameter of the springs from one end to the other

A little less than 3 1/2" wide Make sure the proper spring goes on the right sleeve. There is a sleeve for the 350 spring and one for the 450

The lock works by a hex screw that you can tighten or loosen with an Allen wrench. Let's hope everything works well

They make a nice room decoration too...
In any case, back to business. I'm going to skip the "taking off the strut housing" instructions. It's already available in the site archive from a past DIY.		 Get everything out, compress the springs, take the nut off, decompress the springs, slide the dust boot out, put the coilovers on and...
NO!!!! To those people [on MR2OC] that say the miata coilovers just "slide" on: No it doesn't! I couldn't get it through the gland nuts!

No worries, get that handy dandy dremel, and be prepared to waste about 8-10 cutting discs. Remember to still keep the hexagonal shape, only it'll be smaller. Wear gloves that can stand heat, goggles, a long sleeve, and get your face away (and wear proper face/eye protection) because sparks and other debris will fly all over. After cutting the gland nut, make sure you still have a place for it to grip on because you still need to tighten it on the strut

YAY! Now the sleeves of the coilovers slide right through. No more worries! WRONG AGAIN! The spring top from the coilovers don't slide on. Take that handy dandy dremel out again...and...

Grind it down!!! A comparison between the unground version vs the ground version

Go make sure it fits through the strut rod without scratching anything! Put everything back on.Start on a relatively high ride heigt setting and see how much room you have to work with. (and adjust it later)

Put it back into the car, tighten everything, torque them correctly. Do the same for all the corners.

For me, it didn't lower the car at all, in fact, it increased the ride height so I adjusted the springs... However, now I'm a bit worried because when I jack the car up, the springs would not be compressed. It only compresses after I lower the car halfway. (This is potentially unsafe, but you probably only have to worry about it if the car will take jumps...which is unlikely)

A picture of the setup I took the front ones off my car today and ground down the spring top a bit more so I could use two zip ties to secure it with the spring.
Took the advice from Bill [Strong, of the MR2OC forums.]

I dropped my car this low, not really low but I'm running 205/50/15 so I'm limited before they rub

Front Rear

Side shot, I'm going to wait a week for it to settle down.
I put two spare tires in the front to help the springs settle.