Ok I was driving down the street last night and heard click , click, click coming from the front passenger side. I pulled over and looked around, startedf grabbing and pulling suspension members, low and behold the part that bolts to the frame of the car (under the strut tower is loose as hell and no bushing. I need to know what those bushings are called so I can get the urathane bushings little by little from RB

peace

 

Sounds like you are describing either an idler arm bushing or lower control arm bushing to me.

 

Sounds like you're talking about the idler arm bushings.

 

I think it has two bolts securing it to the frame of the car then it runs down to the tie rod (I think it is , never looked at it from that angle before).

peace

 

Idler arm bushing. You'll need 2 and they are about $4 each from Mazdatrix. This is a very common part to go out. Easy to replace, just undo the castle nut and cotter pin from the top, drop the arm down, pull (or cut) off the old, torn up bushings, install new bushing on the bottom, grease liberally, insert arm into housing, grease liberally (fill that sucker up), install top bushing, install washer, castle nut, then cotter pin - and you're done.

Almost takes longer to explain than to do it. HTH,

 

thanks for the info guys just orderd my new bushings

peace

 

er--- if under the strut tower is loose as hell, what does that have to do with the idler arm? It's possible the strut bearing gave up, as that would cause the MacPherson to wind up, then give, then wind up, then give, etc. causing a 'took, took, took' sound as he turned the corner.

A worn idler arm bushing would just create lots of slop in the steering.

 

I agree - however, not to be picky, but I think it would be the spring thats binding, not the strut itself. If the bearing goes, the spring seat will bind and thus the spring itself will tend to do what Manntis described. Best way to tell for sure is if it's difficult to turn the wheel and then all of a sudden it lets loose, you have a bearing problem