Topic: Mazda5 Suspension: stock or upgrade?
We're at 130K-ish miles on our 07 Mazda5 minivan daily driver we've had since new. We fit a lot of the common problems: Front rotors warped right away. turning them lasted about 3 weeks. Finally replaced them. Rear brakes have massive squeal in the morning when cold especially wen backing up. I "custom random-slotted" the rear rotors with a flap disc on an angle grinder. The stock thermostat stuck so we fixed that. Transmission had wrong fluid put in at a valvoline oil change place so it judders while idling at traffic lights when D engaged. Sliding door latch doesn't always want to work so we stopped using one of the sliding doors. Rear strut (or both) were replaced while under warranty at dealer because of faulty weld blob or something like that mentioned in a TSB that some mechanic at the stealership finally remembered after the Service Manager berated my wife for "hauling hay bales" in it or "your husband must be carrying bricks" after the replacement strut also broke (we'd parked ONCE in a grass field at a Halloween pumpkin patch and apparently a blade of straw was pinched in the suspension when it went to the dealer for recurring suspension noise). Massive uneven rear tire wear (on the inside). Even with a new alignment on this last set of tires, it's gobbling up the rubber. I've rotated and now had the tires flipped on the rims and we're under 30K miles on them, probably under 20K. Oh, there's also lots of spring noise in the rear but we've figured out that's just crappy design and the rubber pads aren't doing their job any more and the tires are cupping so the dampening is gone.
I did a quick search and it seems that the rear suspension is same-ish as the mazda3 and there are adjustable aftermarket camber arms we can put on. So, if I go that route and we're needing to replace the dampeners, should I go with some custom suspension, maybe something a (dare I say) little sporty? I'm definitely not modern car literate, but I am willing to learn but slow to put out the effort to learn.
Can anyone hit the EASY Button for me and say something like, "Buy these front struts, rear dampeners and these camber arms"? Or narrow down my area of focus/consideration?
(FWIW, we're possibly one good insurance claim away from this maybe turning into a Lemons car in the next 5 years)