stoko

I was driving back to work today and I took a corner about as fast as I usually do, and I noticed my tire squealed pretty loudly. After that I had to get on the highway, and I noticed that the rear end was walking around quite a bit whenever I switched gears or let off the throttle. The steering wheel was also not positioned like it usually was (the top was at about 10 o'clock rather than the regular 12).
Well I made it back to work. When I got out, I decided it would probably be a good idea to take a look at the rear wheels to see what exactly was going on. The drivers side looked normal, but the passenger side not so much.


So I have been looking around a little, and it sees pretty likely that it is a wheel bearing, but I am not really sure right now. I didn't notice any abnormal noises, but I have a Corksport single exhaust, so it is honestly a little hard to hear much over that roar. I was also under the impression that wheel bearings didn't make it get that far off.

I tried driving it around a little and it seemed to move around and squeal a bunch when I turned abruptly, lending more to the conclusion it is a wheel bearing. It was never pointing in the same directly it had been before, so it isn't locked the direction it is facing in the picture.

It was unfortunately too late to take it to the tire shop nearby get them to jack it up so I could take a look, but I am going tomorrow at lunch.

Am I right in assuming it is a wheel bearing, or is there something else that would be causing this to happen?

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

could be your rear steer DTSS bushings took a crap or the bolt sheered off.

Spazz204

Two things, we used to have matching wheels.

And, jack up the rear and try to move the wheel back and forth. If you get movement, replace your bearings.

Good catch, Karack. +1 on that

stoko

I can't say that I know a whole lot about the DTSS system, but from what I can see it looks like that might be the issue. I luckily have a full rear end that I should be able to pull the bushings from (assuming I can get them out without tearing them apart) if I need to. Thanks

t24todd

iTrader: (7)

replace them with solid mounts if your already in there. if your replacing ur broken ones with other 20+ rubber bushings guess what can happen??? double check the wheel bearing first.

rx7racerca

iTrader: (1)

The DTSS bolt/bushing is the front lower of the three that position the floating hub (which the brakes and your wheel in turn attach to). Sounds very much like a loose/broken DTTS bolt - had this happen to me once. The bolt faces out and down, IIRC, and should be torqued to ~90ft/lb

I don't think a bad wheel bearing would let your rim turn in that much; does the rim turn out if the car is rolled forward? I second that if it is the dtss bushing/bolt, good idea to get dtss eliminator bushings (reasonably inexpensive from RB or Mazdatrix, I believe) and be done with the factory ones. If the bolt's been loose or broken, it may have chewed up the bushing anyway, so if it wasn't bad before, it's more likely to be now.

stoko

So I went out and jacked it up on my lunch. It was wobbling WAY more than a wheel bearing would allow, so I took a look underneath and noticed that the nut on the lower bolt had come off. Luckily the bolt was still there, so I was able to get a co-worker to drive me to the parts shop to get a replacement. I guess that'll teach me to have my 15 year old brother help me with replacing the diff :P

Well, I really feel like kind of an idiot that I didn't stop and check it when I first noticed that something weird was going on, but I suppose I should be glad that there isn't any real damage to the car.

I am still probably going to take a look at the DTSS bushings to see how they are, in case I need to replace them, since they are pretty cheap on mazdatrix.

Thanks for all of your help guys.