Guys my car has the common clunking problem so I'm about to order pillowballs or traction kit to fix this problem. Which one of the following should I go for?

A) OEM Pillowballs + dust seals approx. $450 (18pcs full set)
B) RP Traction kit (trailing arms, rear toe links, solid diff mounts) $490 + Rear lower trailing arms $135 = $625 total.

I'm no expert but to me option B sounds like I get more with little difference in price however I don't know the longevity of either one of the options, also I'm not sure if I go for option B, if I'll need to do something about the control arms still.

[activate/] flame suit

 

Option B does not replace the pillowball bushings. If your clunking is coming from the pillowballs, then option B will not fix it.

 

Oh This is from another thread of mine:

A: Well if you replace the trailing arms they come with pillow *****. So you get an aftermarket piece and pillow *****
Q: Well I will be buying RP Traction kit (trailing arms, rear toe link set, solid diff mounts). Sorry for asking too many questions but does that mean additionally I just need to buy RX7Store rear lower trailing arms to complete the set and not need oem pillowballs?
A: Correct

 

Well, take a look at this:

http://www.rx7store.net/product_p/me...ing%20arms.htm

and then take a look at this:

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

 

option b will only replace one set of pillowballs on the trailing arms. you still will have the pillowballs on the outer ends of the control arms

 

How many more pillowsballs on top of option B do I need to replace all? Without option B it is 6 pcs afaik. How many pcs with option B?

 

I don't think there are 18 pillowballs in the FD suspension....

Rear Upper Control Arm
There are 2 pillowball bushings on the rear upper A arm which you can see in Max Cooper's thread that Mahjik linked to. The inner bushings rarely go bad. Mine are still in good shape after 145k hard miles.

Buy 4 of those to cover both driver and passenger side.

Rear Lower Control Arm
The pillowball bushings in the lower rear control arm rarely go bad especially with low mileage. There are 3 bushings in that arm but I think Mazda only sells the outermost pillowball bushing which I believe are the same as the the bushings in the upper arm. Mine has 145k hard miles on it and still in good enough shape that it doesn't make noise.

Buy 2 of those if you feel the need to.

Toe Links
The rear toe link bushings are wear items. It might be easier to buy the whole toe link unit than the individual bushing. Labor to press in might be more than the whole toe link.

2 bushings for each side.

Rear Diff Bushings
These go bad eventually. If you have the time, money and inclination, it can't hurt to replace them. They OEM bushings are liquid filled. Pettit and RX7.com sell a few different options of varying stiffness polyurethane.

2 bushings.

Beyond that, the trailing arm bushings rarely go bad. So no real reason to replace unless you want it for the "traction" effect advertised by rx7.com and pettitracing.com.


Front suspension
The front suspension bushings don't fail as often as the 2 pillowballs in the upper rear control arm or the toe links. I wouldn't bother replacing anything unless the front end is making noise. If its low mileage, you may be able to get away with replacing just the bushing. If its high mileage, it might be best to replace the whole upper or lower front control arm b/c the ball joints are not serviceable (meaning you need to replace the control arm to replace the ball joint).

http://rx7.com/store/rx7/fddrivetrain_rearend.html
http://rx7.com/store/rx7/fdsuspension.html
http://www.pettitracing.com/rx7/index_suspension.htm

 

Sorry my mistake, I meant 18 pieces including dust seals etc.

And thanks to all of you for your help.

Normally I should read more and digest but I'm on a time limit. My friend from US is coming for a visit so I'm trying to order as much as I can as fast as I can cause I live overseas and normal shipping can get stuck at customs sometimes, for additional taxes etc.

 

I know. That is why I spent the time to write that.

You should be OK ordering that stuff from Ray at Malloy Mazda and RX7.com. Neither of them have ever let me down in a time crunch.

 

how much does everything come out to? all bushings plus anything you need from ray? i want to get mine done and the only bushing i ever changed were my diff.

 

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Ordered OEM pillowballs instead of traction kit + pillowballs. I will now order solid diff bushings and that should be enough to fix the clunking and loose feeling.

The reason I didn't order traction kit is that my friend will be bringing them in his luggage, and the other reason is later on depending on the need I can order trailing arms, toe links one by one instead of a kit.

Again thank you all for your help.

 

i have some clunking too... i swapped ALL my bushings with super pro bushings less than 10k miles ago.. im wondering could it be my suspension going out? or pillowballs? i know dave at kdr said mine were going out but not crutial to change... could those cause the clunking? (suspension is stock, super pro bushings, 94 stock struts w. eibach springs)