Coming home today, I made a turn and heard sort of heard a clinking/banging noise from my front passenger side. My steering got really loose, but not heavy like there wasn't any power steering. Continuing my drive home, it would sound like a banging noise if I hit a little bump. Is this my steering rack or my tie rods, that have gone bad?

 

Anybody?

 

Did you even look at the car? How are we to determine what's wrong by a sound. It could be a wheel bearing, tie rod, ball joint, lose strut bolts. Damn near anything. Jack the front up and shake the wheel.

 

Anything in specific I should be looking for?

 

yeah take the wheel off and see if the hub goes in and out. it shouldn't move at all. that sound you here kinda seems like its either a ball joint thats shot or a outer tie rod. my honda has bad ball joint and a bad tie rod on the passenger side. and if i hit a bump is clunks. most likely you problem is a ball joint. if you have large channel locks you can try and push the ball joint down.

if it goes down you should replace it. same with the tie rod

 

Ok I'll try that. Shook the wheels and nothing happened.

 

Shook the hub. It was solid. Nothing seemed like it was out of place. The noise only really happens when the wheel is turned. I'm taking it to a shop tomorrow and going to see what they have to say.

 

Well if you are gonna take it to a shop..I'll Guess,,broken strut mount!?..Let us know what the results are,just to Inform the forum members Kinch,Ok?Thanks Man.STYX.

 

Yeah I definitely will, taking it to a shop monday.

It won't hurt if I have drive my car right? Just to getting me around, no tracks or anything.

 

Maybe you could pull the wheel off and take a pic behind the rotor of hub. We can give you better advice, man.

 

my guess is broken sway bar link

 

Well I'm taking to get it fixed monday. So I'm just going to let the shop take care of it. But I'll take a picture.

 

Took it too the shop today, said my wheel bearings are shot. With ordering the parts and the labor they say it's going to be about a week.

 

Damn i was gonna guess strut bearings.

 

I was wondering if he had the "stance pillow ball bind" issue when I read this thread.

Kinch, are they putting new hubs in or actually replacing the bearings?

 

Just replacing the bearings I believe.

 

Got a call from them today, they're replacing the entire hub.

 

That's because Mazda didn't make a way to remove the inner races and they don't know how to get them out. You're getting shafted.

 

Damn it! So there's no way around it?

 

You can weld a piece of metal across the race and hit it out with a hammer. Mazdatrix sells the bearings. I'll take pics when I do this on saturday.

 

even the fsm says to replace the bearing the whole weld a bead on the race trick does work but a shop will replace the hub based on the fact that alldata or any other service manual they use will say to do so. so your not necessarily getting shafted by the shop but by mazda more so. this is also the reason that when i go to junk yards i find good hubs and take them. if the inner races are not scored then they are fine. just a question you said you messed with the hub and nothing seemed out of place. did you try and move them in and out. if there was any play then yeah they could be bad. and if you are missing your dust caps then it could have just dried out.


i hate when i leave long post sry

 

Sry to hear that. I had a similar problem as a matter of fact, now that it turns out to be your bearings... https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/good-reason-why-we-should-check-our-bearings-781525/
Theresvavgood pic of a fucked race, lol

I removed the races myself, I drilled holes in the sides of the hub to punch it out and it works like a charm. Since I run big spacers I check the outer bearings every couple of weeks.

 

Damn, I dont think mine are that bad... I hope...

I figure that it'd better to have it all replaced, it'll be worth it in the long run.

 

yeah much better to replace the whole unit. but replacing the outer bearing races in the hub is fine as well. unless the hub is screwed up

 

I forgot to take pictures today but I had no problem replacing the hub bearings. Welding a piece of metal across them worked like a charm except it was hard to get good penetration because the races are so hard.