On my car that is. I've had the car since November, but I never noticed until now that the rear wheels are about an inch closer to the fender on the left side than on the right. I had the car up on ramps trying to find an annoying squeek. I saw that my right side sway bar end-link was rubbing against the frame. I could also see shiny spot on the sway bar next to the bushings (where it pivots), which leads me to believe the sway bar has been moving sideways. Everything look straight underneath, frame, control arms, etc. I was thinking about removing the Watts link and see if that does anything. Any other ideas ?

I'm going to measure again from the inside to the tires, just to make sure it's not the fenders that are different. But I'm pretty sure it's the rear end.

 

i think mine is like that too...but it tracks well and rides great.

 

Your problem is most likely the watts linkage bushings are shot and not locating the linkage as it should be, if you remove the watts without replacing it with something ie: a panhard rod, you will have nothing keeping the rear end located sideways whatsoever.

 

Otherwise do you have the same offset wheels or same width tires on both sides or do you have any bent suspensions arms?

 

ive never owned an fb that wasent like this, im pretty sure its normal, ive owned 8 fb's btw

 

As aussiesmg said, check the bushings in the watts link. Funny thing, after I replaced my entire suspension, shock, struts, springs, bushings ect., mine does the same thing. Sits about an inch to the left. I did make the mistake of bolting everything down tight, before I had the car sitting on the ground. Need to redo that one of these days.

 

I think the Mazda engineers built this into the design to make it easier for short drivers to get in and out. Or maybe it's a cornering thing so that you can get an edge going into left hand turns, not sure. But they all do it, at least all three of mine do.

Ray

 

You have two issues that I see.

First, it looks like your getting side to side motion from the way the frame and sway bars are worn. I think aussiesimg said it first, but I think the bushings on the watts link are toast and need to be replaced. The watts is the only thing that keeps the axle squared under the chassis.

The second issue is the unlevel ride height from left to right. I have a theory on that one because almost everyone has seen it or has it.

My theory is that these cars were designed for right drive primarly ( japan) and that the entire balance of the car and the suspension was adjusted high on the right a bit to compensate for the drivers weight. Its the only theory that makes sense to me. Too many folks report this. Also, when they came to the states they swapped the brakes and other bits over to the left but never really modified the original suspension geometry. So over here they always seem to be high on the right. Furthermore, when you replace the stock exhaust with headers and a tuned exhaust the weight is further reduced on the right side, compounding the problem.

Thats just my theory, I'd love to here a Mazda engineer comment on it :-)

 

I have been thinking along these same lines. I suspect that is one of the reasons shims are offered for the front struts. I also read somewhere at one time that the oem front springs are not identical to compensate for this.