I purchased a set of strakes from Rosenthal Mazda last week ($158 delivered, off eBay) and they arrived on Wednesday. Thursday I headed out to the garage with a bit of trepedation, but it went well. The dealers will charge an hour of time for this install, so consider saving some money and doing it yourself...

The strakes come with a single paper template as shown below. You must cut the template out yourself. I was very nervous about rippling the template, so I made several photocopies first. The side of the template with the writing is for the right side of the car; the other side of the template is for the left side of the car. I just made two different templates.

 

Next, I carefully taped the template to the car...

 

Position the tires in the direction of the side of the car you are working on to give yourself room to work and locate the four phillips-head cap screws shown. Remember, if you start the car to move the tires, let it warm up so you don't flood the engine!

 

The screws pop out by prying out the centers. Remove the small plastic piece from the bottom of the wheel well.

 

Reach your hand under the plastic wheel well housing and find the three sets of clips holding the air vent in place inside the body of the car.

 

The vent should pop off easily with some pressure from the back of the vent clips. Be patient if a clip gets stuck. When all 6 clips are released, the vent will come off easily.

 

Note that each strake is uniquely marked. They are labelled LU (Left Upper), LL (Left Lower), RU (Right Upper), RL (Right Lower). Each strake also has a mark on it indicating the side which faces down.

 

Use the screw, split washer and washer included with the strakes to add the strakes to the vent. Unfortunately, I did not photograph which hole to use, but noted that several others have suggested that the directions that come with the strakes are wrong. Instead, I used the directions given by RX8-U-UP in another post. This worked well:
"There was a major problem with the instructions. If you use the hole and row on the Air Outlet that are called out in the directions the strakes do not lay flat on the car surface for the two sided tape to adhere. I found that by moving the upper garnish (strake) on both sides from 2nd row, third from the front side, as the direction state, to 3rd row middle hole the strake lays down perfect and fits the template. Also move both bottom strakes from 2nd row, and second from the front, to 4th row from the bottom, middle and they will also line up perfect... If you install them per the directions, there are large gaps between the the surface of the car and the strake, that can't be filled by the two sided tape. It also looks very cheesy. When on right they should be tight on the air outlet and very tight to the surface of the car on both sides of the air outlet.

The following photos show the directions that came with the strakes and how it should look when it is done:

 

Check the hole placement by placing the vent back on the car without pealing the adhesive tape. If you have lined up the strakes properly on the vent, the strakes will fit nicely in the template and the strakes will be flush where they contact the body of the car.

 

Now it's time to adhere the strakes to the car. Remove the vent as before and use a cue tip or rag to dab rubbing alcohol on the parts of the car body that will come into contact with the strakes. The alcohol will remove any wax that might make the contact weak.

 

Unpeal the tape and place the vent back on the car but be very careful that the strakes do not touch the car (or the template that is attached to the car) accidentally. This photo shows the place where I made a mistake and touched the tape to the template and had to rip the template from the strake.

 

The contact points should be flush with the body of the car.

 

Once the strakes are carefully aligned within the templates, apply pressure to adhere them to the car, remove the templates, reinstall the pop screws and you're done!

The whole job took me probably two hours, being very careful and taking the photos... it should take the person of average intelligence and skill far less time. Watch the strakes and the body of the car since the strakes are sharp in places. It would help to have an extra set of hands, but it's not necessary. I was very pleased with the result.

Good Luck!

 

Awesome instructions and photos!! Thanks for the time and effort!!!

 

perfect
very nice
they look great

 

cool, thx. I saved this one for later, can't wait to install 'em on my silver 8

Lookin' good!

 

Thanks for the positive response. I wanted to try to do something like what msrecant and SLO1 did with their air filter and clear marker how-tos. Those were a great help at explaining what is involved which is great to have before taking the plunge and buying the hardware. I wouldn't have installed my clear markers had I not seen msrecant's photos which showed how easy it really is.

I wish I had a photo of which vent holes I used. It's not that hard to experiment a bit, but it would have been easier if I had just taken the picture. If anyone has a shot of the right vent holes to use, please post it here.

I also forgot to mention that it may be helpful to have a hair drier handy in case the strake needs to be adjusted. Also, I elected not to use a drop of Loctite to bond it tighter to the car as the directions recommend, since I didn't have any.

 

Thank you very much on the detailed pics and instructions, I too am going to order the strakes and wanted to the the work myself. I was a bit apprehensive, however now I feel I could save myself the $75.00 the dealer would charge.

 

BTW, they look very nice.

 

Thanks MEGAREDS for the excellent instructions! I think I am going to attempt this on my own now that someone has finally taken the time to document such a fine instalation. I just have one question, does the vent actually do anything, other than for cosmetics?

 

doh!! I wish I would have read this before so catch the hint about using different holes. I used the holes in the instructions and well the strakes did match the contours pretty well, but the damn things didn't line up with the pattern exactly... so I had to eyeball it a bit.

I used a nice little trick - when installing the stakes to the grill, first only make the screw snug. Then after you put both strakes on, pop the grill back in, use the template to line them up AND THEN *take a piece of masking tape and place the edge of the tape on the upper edge of the strake and then a piece on the lower edge of the strake*. This way you can pull the grill back of and tighten the bejesus out of the screw and be perfectly sure its still lined up properly :p


Anyway, I did it in about 20min and looks pretty good.... so much easier then the mp3 player install :o

 

good job.

 

As far as I can tell, they're purely cosmetic, but I'm not sure.

 

Excellent instructions - thank you! Now if I could just decide between polished and brushed for my Titanium...