More suspension restoration stuff.

Obviously your OEM springs & struts are shot at 125K miles, but what about the bushings ?

Well so far my original bushings and rear A-arm pillow ***** have felt pretty solid, so I was wondering what's the point in replacing them even though I'm doing it. That was until I hit the end links on my car.

NOW HERE'S SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD REPLACE, EVEN IF YOU'RE JUST DOING SPRINGS & STRUTS.

Our Series V cars have 6 end links, 2 front swaybar, 2 rear swaybar, and 2 rear subframe. Look how shot my subframe endlink pillow ***** are below.

I'm applying 2 ft-lbs of force on the old ones wheras the new ones would require 60-80 ft-lbs to move them that far.

The pillow ***** in the front & rear series V swaybar end link are fairly strong and I wasn't planning to replace them. But, after seeing how UNMOVEABLE/Ultra Stiff the pillow ***** in the NEW end links are, I'm going to replace ALL my end links as well.

These are NOT cheap, but if your doing springs & struts you should remove them and see if the end link's pillow ***** are rock solid or easily moveable. They are pretty easy to remove, so check them while you have the car on jack stands.

Besides OEM, Racing Beat/Mazdatrix sells adjustable ones that are solid metal with no pillow *****. They are more expensive, but the additional vibration from RB's solid ones vs the OEM ones going bad in another 60-85K miles might be a good tradeoff.

The other partial suspension restore you should do besides springs, struts, & end links are the DTSS elimination bushings RB/Mazdatrix sells. That requires removing your wheel hub though, which isn't too hard.

 

OK I was going to use the Mazdatrix/RB Swaybar end links which are $60/ea, but Mazdatrix didn't recommend them for a pure street car as they would clank and introduce some vibration.

Mazda ain't cheap. The dealer wants:
- Rear.... FC01-28-170....$78.66/ea x 2
- Front....FC01-34-170....$98.42/ea x 2

 

i just replaced the lower town arm thingy's but i just got mine off a used RX7 but man was my **** noisy as hell from those things being wore out. every bump or speed or body flex would make those things kreek like hell and it was driving me insane so i replaced those and it was all gravy

 

does anyone have the mazdatrix/racingbeat swaybar endlinks... and if so, how do you like them (noise/vibration/harshness) and handling obviously

 

Clayton, is the bushing for the end link in the rear sub-frame the same as the ones for the stabilizer links?
I did my front control arm bushings this week and bought the rear control arm ones as well. But I guess if I'm taking those off I might as well do the DTSS and these sub-frame end links at the same time eh?
I did the stabilizer links last year. What did you end up doing with those lateral links? And the camber link?

Cory

 

Cory,

The Series V (89-91) subframe end links (aka control links) and "subframe to body" sublink have non-replaceable pillow ***** in them, not bushings. I think it's the same with a series IV (86-88) and only the swaybar endlinks (aka camber links) have bushings on a series IV.

The joints on the lateral links between the subframe & rear A-arm were ok, I just went with Engery Suspension polyurethane boots (see pic below) as Mazda doesn't sell the OEM ones.

By DTSS, I'm assuming you're going with RB/Mazdatrix's DTSS eliminator bushings. Mazda forces you to replace the entire DTSS hub as they don't feel a hobbyist can replace the individual DTSS bushings correctly. No aftermarket version either. I'm not paying $350+ for an OEM DTSS hub, so I went with the eliminator ones.