Dreaded pillowball clunking. Where are the two types located?
 

Hi,
I have a bad clunk at the back of my car, from reading the forums it appears that it may be the pillowballs. My car is an 02, and its only done 34300miles (55000km).

Seems odd that the suspension would fail that quick, but there is something clunking away back there. Its most noticable on our gravel driveway, it clunks continously when driving that, and also clunk when going through pot holes and some when cornering slowly.

Does that seem symptomatic of pillowballs? on the drive way it goes clunk, clunk, clunkity clunk several times a second.

Also, from looking at the FSM, there are eight pillowballs.
1 in each upper arm.
3 in each I arm.

From what I have read, I need to replace 6. Would it be correct that the one in the upper arm and the two close together in the I arm are FB01-26-220 and the one at the other end of the I arm is FB01-26-230? And I only need to replace the 220 ones?

Should I do the other 3 bushings in the upper arms at the same time?

Any help would be appreciated as its driving me nuts.

Cheers,
Mike.

There are only six pillowball bushings (FD01-26-220) - all the other bushings are rubber (and, apart from the differential bushings, generally last quite a while). My pillowballs were beginning to clunk at 45k miles, so 34k is low but not extremely unlikely.

Before you replace them I would make sure that it is not something that is easier to fix. Like loose anti-roll bar bushings, for example.

Use the search button, or even google.

http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/suspension/pillow_balls/index.html

FWIW, I would not use that write-up to replace the bushings. It was written before the era of cheap-but-functional Chinese presses (which can now be bought for $100 or so). Removing and installing bushings (even relatively easy ones like the pillowballs) using the washer method is a path to madness.

Mine started to go at the 30k-ish miles, so I'm not surprised at all. My first experience with this was with the dealer while under the original warranty; they could never identify the source of the clunk (or harshness as they called it--lol).

I've come to accept that these must be replaced occasionally as a wear component. Based on my experience, they do not wear evenly; rather, the first to go are the ones securing the top of the rear spindles, then the ones in the right side lower arm (pass side-usdm), followed by the left (drivers side) lower arm. I have over 200k (miles) on the chassis and have replaced some of these components several times.

As was pointed out, the plain bushings seem to have a long and normal life span. Note, however, that the toe links are pillow balls and should be inspected periodically. I have found that the inner lasts a long time, while the outer ones will need to be checked and maybe replaced at around 60k-ish miles.

Thanks, excellent answers.
Good to know that it has happened to other ppl at low mileage (well, not 'actually good' - cmon Mazda!, wtf), and that its not just me.
@moconnor, I had another look at the 94FSM, page 970 shows the other two bushings. However it calls them 'pillow ball bushings' and calls the other 6 'pillowballs', so I'll ignore the two for now.

@speedol, thanks for the tip, I'll look at those locations, but I might just do all six.

Cheers,
Mike.

Replace your solid bushings first (not sure why they are referred to as "pillowballs"), but also be prepared to replace control arm bushings if that doesn't fix the problem

Ah, ok, thats what they are called. That makes sense, as two mechanics downunder here hadnt heard of pillowballs! Thanks.

Differential bushings also go out pretty early...since they are filled with liquid and leak..

Check the center nut on top of each of the rear shocks and make sure they are torqued to specifications: 32-46Nm. Mine had come loose around your same mileage and was clunking horribly. Problem solved.

Thanks beckrx, thats the first thing I checked, they seem tight, but I havent use a torque wrench on them (because I havent got one!)

Did you click the link? It's not actually linked to that writeup...

I have heard of people having trouble with the washers and bolt method, but it worked pretty well for me. :-) I later bought a press to do the rubber bushings, and I agree that the press would be easier.

-Max

mazda elected to use spherical bearings (pillowballs/ definitely a translation error) knowing they would be a maintainence item because they wanted to deliver track/racecar performance. this was not a screwup on their part given their objective.

so skip the "come on mazda" comment and if you don't want to get properly involved w your FD buy a buick.

as to making your job easier...

w the car up in the air, enlist your crew chief (:)) to lever on the tire in all four vectors. using either a stethoscope or a short length of broom handle positioned on each rod end... listen and you will quickly find the bearing w slop. as has been correclty mentioned above not all the rod ends need replacement.

the rest of your bushings (rubber) are really not maintainence items and given your mileage it is highly unlikely they need replacement.

if you track your car there are (only) two set of bushings that are a significant upgrade performancewise... the diff bushings and the front lower longitudinal lower link... both big and rubbery. see my sticky suspension setup thread for details.

good luck,

howard

haha I love that site (lmgtfy) :icon_tup:

mine have been gone for ages havin had the money or time to fix them.
any ides where i can get a good price for the 6 cos they seem quite expensive.
after market?

This has been asked a million times and the answer is always no. Ray is your cheapest source here.

Thanks for all the replies.
Now heres the odd thing. A couple of weeks ago I changed the rear tyres back to the factory
size (255x40x17) (Yes, Type RS has 255's). And the clunking noises are 90% gone. Previously I had 235x45x17's on there. Dont know if it changes the geometry that much changing from 235 to 255. I wouldnt think the suspension on type rs would be different anyway (although the shocks are).
My mechanic says that a bad tyre can make all kinds of stupid noises, even sounding like bad wheel bearings.
So, its all good for now.
Cheers.