Has anyone replaced these ball joints?? If so where can I get them and can I get them separate from the upper and lower arms??

 

can not be separated. must replace with the upper and lower arms.

i replaced my upper and lower in 2007. made a nice difference. i was getting a lot of cracking sounds at slow speeds as i turned the wheel and under aggressive turns. replaced them and now all is right with the world. car tracks much straighter, less wandering, much more stable under heavy braking. best repair i've ever made to the car.

i bought the uppers from Mazda Comp for $200 each. I got the lowers from a low mileage car that a respectable forum member was parting out.

 

yeah I took a look at mine today and the boot are all torn and dried out, same problems too....lots of wandering and tracking and noise. What is mazda comp??

 

however they do look like they could be pressed out with the right tool, but I didnt get that good of a look at them

 

Yeah I have the same problem, maybe they can be pressed out but where are you going to find the ball joint? mazda doesn't sell them alone from the last time i checked. just look for a parting out car should sell for 60 or so

 

Most manuf. won't sell the balljoint seperate (they make out like bandits doing so!), there aren't any aftermarket companys (moog?) that make balljoints for these cars? I'll have to look into it next time I'm at the parts store...

 

What did you guys do with the old arms? Does MazdaComp take the old ones as a core? According to their site there's no core charge...

Also, how many miles do you guys have on your cars? I have around 110k and mine and the front ball joints still seem good, but I'm about to install new bushings and I don't want them going bad a few more miles down the road...

 

I remember that Brian for M2 wayback when said you can replace just the balljoint.

 

I had ~128k miles on mine and it was tracked often.

No cores. My old parts went to recycling.

Honestly, by the time you factor in the cost of new bushings at ~$50-70 each vs the cost of the complete arm with the new ball joints, you are better off just getting the new arm for $200-250. Especially when you consider its 15 years and over 100k mileage. You're gonna have to do it sometime so pay now for the whole package or pay later.

 

good point but what is mazda comp and where can I get them

 

does someone make aftermarket lowers as well??

 

I'm having similar symptoms as you guys are listing on my 120K mile 93 FD and was wondering how or what i could do to make sure its my ball joints that are making my car make the clunking noise and loose steering in the front.

 

can you tell if the sound is coming from the back or front?? I just ordered the pillowball set for the rear from ray crowe(goodfellafd3s) cause my rear end is makin all kinds of noises

 

the front you can tell by checking the boot on the ball joints to see if they are torn, or if they are flat, I have 160k and definitely need some help with the suspension

 

You need to race your car at least twice per year in autocross or other timed events. See full details here: http://mazdamotorsports.com/
Which also means you need to be an SCCA or NASA member. Cost for that is somewhere around $50-60 per year plus the event fees. You decide on the cost/benefit of membership.

Iirc, Ray's (Malloy Mazda) price for the upper arms was $250 each which is pretty damn good. His prices are often pretty close to Mazda Comp's prices on some parts fwiw. I just checked Mazda Comp and their price is now about $225.

The lower arms are more expensive at a little over $400 Mazda Comp price.

If you want to try some low mileage used parts, I think JAPAN2LA sometimes has these suspension parts off supposedly low mileage Jap cars.

 

Goodfella is not Ray Crowe. Goodfella is Rich Farrell, a top rotary builder/specialist in the country.

Rich acts as a lieison between the RX-7 Club and Ray Crowe. You can thank him for the sales, but you can thank Ray seperately for being a huge OEM supporter of our community.