I'm tired of my tire rubbing all the time, and I need to straighten out some stuff behind my front driver's side fender to make it fit right. What I need to know is if it's an "all-day, bloody-knuckles" thing, or more like "change your oil, check tire pressure, and remove fender" sort of thing.



Currently, my front left tire rubs when it's turned right, the hood looks like it slants to one side, the front of the fender flares out, and the front bumper just looks crooked.

Real easy. One second and I'll give you some more specific info from the FSM.

Well, I can't find my FSM. Someone should chime in here and mention the exact method, but I don't remember having any trouble in the past. If I can find it around here I'll let you know. Good luck.



Redwood

"Not as helpful as one would think"

its not bad. theres a row of bolts on top under the hood, with one being under the headlight. 1 bolt in the door jamb, 1 nut about 1/2 way up the door jamb, 2 on the bottom of the fender, and 4 nuts between the fender and the bumper. these last ones are hard to get at, you need looooong extensions and to use the force. after that it just kinda falls off

cool, now I have an excuse to get that extension I've been eyeing in the shop window

ytup there are a couple of bolts inside the fender wel on the other side of the door jamb and you will need a large extension to get at them, ot it i think. I Put the fenderwell back together when i realised i forgot to put that bolt back in now my fender has a slight bulge, so remember to bolt EVERYTHING back before putting the well back in

you also might want to look/make a mark where the fender aligns so you can put it back in the same place

there's room for error? I mean, you can't just line the holes back up?

You'll find out that it isn't perfectly lined up by the bolts. There's only a mm or so of play on each bolt, but that gets amplified the further you are from that point and the metal can flex so yes, there is room for error. It's not too hard without a mark, but why chance it?



Redwood

good to know, will do.

yah the holes are bigger than the bolts so theres some fudge room

baldy you can do my coachwork anytime lol



are you sure the whole car isnt bent?

if you end up breaking the bolts between the bumper and

the hood they whole piece from mazda is like $14.



soak them in some penetrating oil for a day or so prior, but

it sounds like you hit something for everything to be out of wack

like that, there is a welded support in there, hopefully you didnt

bang that up

I've looked up behind the fender, there's a triagular support that is bent out of shape. But it was too tough to bend it from under the car, at a weird angle. j9fd3s described it to me, as something that would happen if the previous owner ran kinda over/on something (wall?), as the metal supports under the bumper/headlight are all banged up too.



And no, I'm not sure my whole car isn't bent, but I figured I'll start with what I know is bent.