I apologize if this is a repost, it's not been easy to search for. I have a couple paint dots next to each other on each of my otherwise black stock springs and I've always assumed that they designate the spring rate, and was curious to see what was on everyone else's cars.

'94 R2:
2 red dots on front springs
2 lavender dots on rear springs

I found another thread that showed what looks like blues up front and yellow or white on the rears, but doesn't mention year or trim.
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ock+suspension



What's on yours?

 

Anybody?

 

there should be a chart in the shop manual, and or the parts fishe

 

yes still looking for the same thing...

i have
'95:
1 red dots on front springs
1 orange dots on rear springs

and the next stock,
'don´t know:
1 ..don´t know... dots on front springs
1 white dots on rear springs

 

I know there are slight variations on the stock springs between models. But, at the end of the day, they're soft stock springs with a way-too-high ride height. A good set of Eibachs will trump them easily.

Dale

 

DaleClark:
yes, you´re right

but it would be good to know

 

In that case my theory is one of the jap shock machininist or what ever you would call one of them , couldnt get a baby sitting so had to bring his kid to work and putting colored dots on things was his way of not being bored.. the different colors were more then likely the child running out of the same colored permanent marker when he got to the next row of springs....


This has then caused many a confused RX7 owners , that may miss interperate the importance of a spring by its Dot .. instead of scrapping them and getting something decent !

 

a couple years ago the family trip was to pick up a Volvo in Sweden (which was great, if you buy a volvo you should let them do Swedish delivery). part of a trip was a tour of the factory.

so there is one station of the factory, there is a giant bucket of springs and a giant bucket of shocks, and one of those wall mounted strut compressors, and there's a guy who takes a spring and a shock, and just puts em together. except that that guy is doing a hundred of em in a day, the process was exactly the same as any other shop

so the dots are kind of important, because they have to get the right shock and spring together!

i assume the Mazda factory works the same way, except they might have the whole thing automated.

 

Theyre just paint marks from assembly...

 

I'm with this guy... when I used to work at Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas, we used paint pens to signify a torqued and rechecked bolt. Everyone had their own style of marking, and some used different colors (in hopes of identifying a car they assembled at some point in the future)

would be my guess anyways.

 

Mazda does that too, here and there, but usually springs have a color code so that the ***-embler can tell the front from the rear, or the protege from the Rx7

 

so they are the same,
thanks guys

 

hi,
I have some confusion about the height of my car..
If you said, the springs with the different color has the same spring rates and height.

look at this 2 photo,
this is on KYB suspension with front blue dots on spring and rear has white dot



and this one is on stock suspension with red dots on front springs and orange on the rear springs.


the first two photos looks lower as per me but the ride comfort is terrible.. the car is stuff as hell, bouncing on the bumpy road... so I swap to stock but I am not satisfied how the car look

and another question, if I pull out each 4 types of springs, is there any way how to measure their hardness?

thanks

 

There are R1 Springs which were a little stiffer then the stock touring/ basic springs I believe

 

yes. springs are measured with the amount of force it takes to compress the spring a distance.

in the US we use pounds per inch, so if you measure the amount of weight needed to compress the spring one inch, that is the rate. so if it takes 100lbs to compress the spring 1 inch, you have a 100lbs/in spring.

the rest of the world is KG/mm. the KG part is fine, but measuring to 1mm, seems like it would be hard. maybe you'd to 1cm and convert.

so really all you need is a scale, some way to compress the spring and some way to measure it.

 

hi,
my question about the height of the car was unnecessary, it need just a little ride and height seems to be exactly the same

stock