I really want to get some body kit stuff for my car and since most Mazdaspeed "stuff" are color-matched, I really didn't want to have someone else install it.

Question is, how easy is it to remove/install:

1) front bumper
2) side skirts
3) Rear Diffuser
4) Wing Spoiler

I have basic tools (from work) available.

Thanks,
Alex

A friend of mine removed his front Rx8 bumper and said it took 15 minutes.

My car is at the dealer's body shop because an 80 year old lady ran her Caddy into it. The guy handling my repaid said fixing a small ding right about the grill opening would cost hundreds, because it is so hard to disassemble. I think he said he was referring to the bumper, which of course is plastic rather than aluminum, but I could be wrong.
Mitch

I removed and replaced my front bumper to inspect/repair damage to the A/C condensor.

Remove about 8 metal thread screws from the underside of the leading edge of the bumper, where the stone tray attaches to the bumper.
Open the bonnet/hood, and remove 4 metal thread bolts that attach the top of the bumper to the bodywork. Gently lift the 2 metal arms away from the locating pin at the center.
From each inner guard, remove the snaplocks holding the bumper in place (1/8th turn to release, then just pull out). You might have to hold the outer to stop it from turning. There are about 5 of these on the leading edge of each inner gaurd.
From the underside of each of the 2 side indicator units, remove the metal thread screw that attaches the indicator unit to the body work. You will have to gently pull back some of the inner gaurd (thin plastic) to get at the screw.
Gently prise the outer extremity of the bumper, where the indicator unit is, downwards and outwards. It will come away from a locating lug where the screw was.
Moving towards the center, continue to prise the top edge of the bumper away from the body work. It is clipped in, and these will release with pressure.
Repeat the above 2 steps on the opposed side of the bumper.
Disconnect the indicator unit wiring on each side. If you have spotlights and headlight washers, you will have to disconnect them as well.
The only place the bumper is still attached is along central top edge, near the bonnet catch. Gently lift the bottom of the bumper in an arc and you will find the bumper will swing up about the central upper edge, and eventually come away from the central locating pin.
Check out how ugly she looks now.

Assembley is in the reverse order.

Not too difficult. Hope this helps anyone wondering how to do it.

Cheers,
Hymee.

PS - I attempted to repair a small crack/split in the condensor with some "QuickSteel". I'll see how that goes ;)

nice instructinos
post pics if possiable

This thread should be a sticky :)

Remove about 8 metal thread screws from the underside of the leading edge of the bumper, where the stone tray attaches to the bumper.

Screws next to yellow dots. Not all screws pictured, but you'll get the picture.

Open the bonnet/hood, and remove 4 metal thread bolts that attach the top of the bumper to the bodywork.

Yellow dots next to 4 bolts

Gently lift the 2 metal arms away from the locating pin at the center.

Yellow dot next to locating pin.

From each inner guard, remove the snaplocks holding the bumper in place (1/8th turn to release, then just pull out). You might have to hold the outer to stop it from turning. There are about 5 of these on the leading edge of each inner guard.

Yellow dots next to snaplocks.

From the underside of each of the 2 side indicator units, remove the metal thread screw that attaches the indicator unit to the body work. You will have to gently pull back some of the inner gaurd (thin plastic) to get at the screw.

Yellow dot below screw. Sorry it is blurry - cheap digital camera.

Gently prise the outer extremity of the bumper, where the indicator unit is, downwards and outwards. It will come away from a locating lug where the screw was.

Moving towards the center, continue to prise the top edge of the bumper away from the body work. It is clipped in, and these will release with pressure.

Repeat the above 2 steps on the opposed side of the bumper.

Disconnect the indicator unit wiring on each side. If you have spotlights and headlight washers, you will have to disconnect them as well.

The only place the bumper is still attached is along central top edge, near the bonnet catch. Gently lift the bottom of the bumper in an arc and you will find the bumper will swing up about the central upper edge, and eventually come away from the central locating pin.

Tip: You'll need to stick a screwdriver into the bottom indicator connector and lif a small plastic lug to get the connector to disconnect.

Naked!

Back of bumper

Thanks for the instructions Hymee... made removing the bumper very easy.

Looks like it will be easy to fix a grille in place.

No problems sco. Thanks for the piccies. I only took a piccy when it was all apart. It was a bit of an experiment working out what needed to be undone. I wasted a bit of time on the stone tray underneath...

Those indicator connectors, they will come apart if you squeeze the right place at one end - that will disengage the catch.

I'm glad I wrote my instructions for a red car - otherwise it might not have worked for you ;)

Cheers,
Hymee.

Put on my front air dam today, Piece of cake thanks to you .I though this was gonna be a big job but after your pics it was a walk in the park.

Hi Hymee/sco,

from the pix posted by sco, the grille and the lower airdam seems to be connected together. Can someone verify this. Cause I'm thinking of changing the whole grille out, but if the lower airdam requires the present of the grille to be in place to bolt on together, then I'll have to make a diff plan.

Cheers.

if this pix were to help my question

They're connected... but I didn't look closely at the connectors. I'll hopefully have my bumper off again in the next few days to fit my grille to protect the condenser.. so I'll look at these a little more closely and let you know.

Thank you very much SCO, will wait for your reply.

Cheers

M-ster,

The bumper is actually a sub-assembly in it's own right. There are quite a few components connected together that make it up.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Originally posted by M-ster
Hi Hymee/sco,

from the pix posted by sco, the grille and the lower airdam seems to be connected together. Can someone verify this. Cause I'm thinking of changing the whole grille out, but if the lower airdam requires the present of the grille to be in place to bolt on together, then I'll have to make a diff plan.

Cheers.

The grill has 4 tabs with 4 holes on it that lineup with the center of the airdam, it is the same with the airdam 4tabs 4holes.They are connected to eachother with the same (allmost )push pins that hold the inner wheel well covers on.

Just took my bumper off again... ridged84 is correct -- you can separate the dam from the grille by popping out the four connectors. The air dam is attached to the red part of the bumper with a couple of screws also.

Originally posted by sco
Just took my bumper off again... ridged84 is correct -- you can separate the dam from the grille by popping out the four connectors. The air dam is attached to the red part of the bumper with a couple of screws also.

Just 1 final confirmation, am i right to say i can remove the grille totally to put on something else(I don't intend to use back the screw points for the new grille) and the airdam can be screws right back to that 4 connectors of course now without the present of the grille.

Cheers!

Hymee...

Just wanted to thank you again for the fine instructions on removing the front body work. Took the thing off this AM, couldn't have been easier. Would have been a serious pain without your ground breaking step by step help!
Tom

Tom,

No worries mate!

Cheers,
Hymee.

No worries i managed to remove the front bumper and added the HYMEE special oil cooler and condenser grill , its the easiest and most productive modification and the good part is i have no need to dyno to prove the end results .ha ha ha

Originally posted by M-ster
... Cause I'm thinking of changing the whole grille out ...

M-ster, I think I'm going to do this too. In fact, I've already ordered two 5 foot by 18 inch pieces of aluminum mesh. Not sure if I'll leave it aluminum color, or paint it black (my 8's Titanium). Plan to replace my grille, and put matching covers over my oil cooler openings.

Point being, if you (or anyone for that matter) has done this yet, I'd love to see pics of how it came out, plus discuss how you mounted the new grilles.

Thanks...

Hymee or SCO - can you tell me what the white stuff is on the front of the car, after the bumper is removed (Directly below the air intake tube)?

Thanks...

That is EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam. I believe it is there as impact absorbing material.

Originally posted by Omicron
M-ster, I think I'm going to do this too. In fact, I've already ordered two 5 foot by 18 inch pieces of aluminum mesh. Not sure if I'll leave it aluminum color, or paint it black (my 8's Titanium). Plan to replace my grille, and put matching covers over my oil cooler openings.

Point being, if you (or anyone for that matter) has done this yet, I'd love to see pics of how it came out, plus discuss how you mounted the new grilles.

Thanks...

There are 2 screw points that you could use to hold the top of your grill. My one is fixed with those 2 points, plus an additional 3 points as well.

Then you need to work out a way to fix the bottom, and that will depend on your grill. I used 9 small 4g x 6mm self tappers into the "lugs" on the back of the splitter. The grill is "cut" to fit over the lugs.

I looked into expaned aluminum mesh, and decided it offered too much air resistance for the apperature size, and to get something decent looking the apperature size was too big.

I ended up using stainless steel woven wire mesh, 5mm apperature, 1mm wire diameter.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Sounds awesome... can you post a pic? And can the foam be painted so it won't be so ugly through the grille?

Pics? have a look at what the others have said - no need to sound my own trumpet!

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14249

Cheers,
Hymee.

Excellent, excellent, EXcellent!

Notice the central grille looks stock, is it? Oil cooler grilles look great too! Also, don't suppose you took pics of how you mounted those new grilles, did you?

Nice job, I'm impressed...

Great pictures to show how to get the front bumper off! but has anyone removed the following bits and how hard are these to remove!

side skirts
Rear Diffuser
Wing Spoiler

thanks!

phil

just want to know how easy it is to install rotary accents, anny drilling or is it just snap in!!!!!

bump for move

just want to know how easy it is to install rotary accents, anny drilling or is it just snap in!!!!!
The rear one just glues in place. There are adhesive strips already stuck to the accent piece -- just pull off the protective tape, and "stick" it in place.

The front one has two screws plus the adhesive. The screws are just retainers -- no need to drill any holes in the 8's bumper.

Both can be installed in less than 15 minutes total, and that includes the time to clean off the bumper(s) where the adhesive strips go.

Help any?
Bill

I did mine yesterday to install some oil cooler and condenser protection. I did it by meyself and it only too about 1 1/2 hr. to complete. Its was easy. :)

Can the front bumper be adjusted? Just got my second air dam installed(first one had paint issues) and I noticed that the gap between the hood and the front bumper is a little less than 1/8 of an inch wider than it was before. Yeah I know it's less than 1/8 of an inch but I can notice it, so now of course that's where my eyes tend to look the most. There is slightly a little play in the bumper itself, it's not loose but I can push on the bumper and push it up to close the gap a little. The play in the bumper is just because of the material it's made of.I was thinking about loosening up the top four bolts while someone pushes on the front of the bumper to try and retighten them to try to minimize the gap. Was wondering if this would work or if I'd have to loosen all of the front bumper screws to get this to work. This wasn't as noticable before the second dam was installed so I know somethings not right. I thought too that the top lip that connects the bumper could be slightly bent and thus causing the extra gap. I stopped back by the dealership after work and checked out a couple other 8's and the gap was wider on some than others but it still looks like it could be adjusted, but none of them had the air dam.
Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.

What happend to the pictures?

where did the pics go?????????

I don't know - they were attachments (not links to somewhere else). I'll have see if I can find them again.

any update on the missing pics ?

Does anyone know how to remove the rear bumper?

Does anyone know how to remove the rear bumper?
Check the shop manual. You may find it on line or you can order a CD on eBay for a few bucks.

can we get the pics back please.....

I second that. Pics please.

I third that. Gonna be taking off mine as soon as i get my air/oil cooler protectors.

Hey all,

Just so happens I copied all those posts along with the images when they were there and if you PM me with your e-mail address I'll send them to you. It will be a 700KB file.

Larry

Go48, send the piccies to ross at hymee d0t com and I'll edit the original posts

Thanks

sco

Go48, send the piccies to ross at hymee d0t com and I'll edit the original posts

Thanks

sco
Done!

All,

I've been able to edit the posts and link the pics, but I can't embed them for some wierd reason. If that gets fixed I'll go back and embed them to make it easier to read.

Cheers

sco

All,

I've been able to edit the posts and link the pics, but I can't embed them for some wierd reason. If that gets fixed I'll go back and embed them to make it easier to read.

Cheers

sco

thanks bud!

Trying to get the piccies back... ignore

Trying to get the piccies back... ignore

it worked for me on a few other threads :)

Yep.. it worked... I've removed the links I put in.

I have a problem my screws do not seem to stay in place they always fall out. I need to replace the screws, and the syncs for them. What are the specs for them? And what Can I do so I do not lose the screws every month or so.

I have a problem my screws do not seem to stay in place they always fall out. I need to replace the screws, and the syncs for them. What are the specs for them? And what Can I do so I do not lose the screws every month or so.

which screws specifically?

if u are referring to the ones on the bottom for the front bumper that happened to me too...I"m going to use non-permanent locktight (DONT USE THE PERMANENT kind :o)

thanks

So it looks like removing the front bumper is pretty straightforward, but what about putting it back on? Any tricky "snaps" or snags to take into consderation? I've read through about a dozen or so threads but no talk of how hard it is to put back on the car, any info. is greatly appreciated as I'm tackling my AEM install today/tomorrow. thanks a bunches :)

Just don't loos any screws:) pretty straight forward re-install.

Putting it back is just as easy as taking it off...just don't forget the reconnect the fog lights. Two people make it easier, but isn't a must.

Also protect the headlights with a towel or some such item.

On or off it is much easier then you might think if you haven't done it before. I always hated the idea of taking the bumper off, but once I did it I realized how foolish I was to have waited.

bumper is easy to put on. just line it up and slide it in. then tap the corners a lil to get it to snap in. then screws and bolts bak on and ur done.

cool, thanks for the info. My previous experience was with a truck bumper on a 97 S10, talk about a pita...ugh This sounds considerably easier, can't wait to have my intake ..intaking..or whatever :D:

Putting it back on I think is easier than taking it off. It's much easier too if you have access to a lift.

Hello,

I am having a little problem takin out the screws. Is there some extra trick to take them out? Thanks in advance.


From each inner guard, remove the snaplocks holding the bumper in place (1/8th turn to release, then just pull out). You might have to hold the outer to stop it from turning. There are about 5 of these on the leading edge of each inner guard.

Yellow dots next to snaplocks.

Hello,

I am having a little problem takin out the screws. Is there some extra trick to take them out? Thanks in advance.
Read the quote you posted very carefully. These are NOT screws. If you follow the very explicit instructions in the quote the fasteners will come out. Specifically. Turn the head about a quarter turn counterclockwise with very little pressure on the screwdriver. The "screw" will then pop out slightly. Pull out the screw" with your fingernail, then pull out the rest of the fastener. Reinstall in reverse. That is, insert the fastener into the hole without the "screw". Push the "screw" into the hole and wala, it is installed.

Thanks for the help.

Read the quote you posted very carefully. These are NOT screws. If you follow the very explicit instructions in the quote the fasteners will come out. Specifically. Turn the head about a quarter turn counterclockwise with very little pressure on the screwdriver. The "screw" will then pop out slightly. Pull out the screw" with your fingernail, then pull out the rest of the fastener. Reinstall in reverse. That is, insert the fastener into the hole without the "screw". Push the "screw" into the hole and wala, it is installed.

Thanks for the great pics, I got my bumper off and installed my OEM foglights in less than 1 1/2 hrs :bowdown:

great diy!!! thanks

when you remove the bumper are all rx8's pre wired for fogs???

i just finished took me about 1 hr total time with one person helping...went alot quicker...thanks for the post couldnt have done it without the exact steps...putting it back on is just as easy

How thick is the foam behind the grill? I'm planning to add some driving lights across the top of the grill, and it would be great to know how much I'll need shim them to make it all flush, or if they're going to sticking out a bit no matter what I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAt0MhycRTU

Thanks xsnipersgox for being a dumbass, so we don't have to. ;-)

Video was helpful.

Thanks xsnipersgox for the video, it helps a lot

any one know if there is a torque spec for the bolts? or just tighten it to whatever you feel is tight?

any one know if there is a torque spec for the bolts? or just tighten it to whatever you feel is tight?


It is a bumper, not an engine!! Enough so they won't rattle out, not too much that you strip the threads. You need to calibrate your wrist :)

Cheers,
Hymee.

wow. awesome video. i can't wait to take mine off and put my tsunami on