Hey all! I'm freshening up my rear suspension and trying to get my wheels in rough alignment before taking it in for proper alignment. Here's the issue, several years ago my FD got hit in the rear left/driver side quarter and wheel. The body shop didn't catch that the rear subframe got tweaked a little at the upper control arm mounts and that the entire subframe shifted about half a centimeter. I loosened all of the subframe nuts and realigned it and fixed the upper control mounts. I got the suspension all back together, but my driver side rear axle is about a half centimeter further back than the passenger side. I now took the upper control arms out to compare them and noticed that driver side arm at the wheel end is a few millimeters further back than the passenger side arm. Is this normal or is the arm bent a little? I thought the arms were identical parts, but they do have separate part numbers from what I could find. (FD3S 93 - 02 Mazda Rear Upper Arm RH&LH F123282A0A & F123282A0B).
Thanks

 

Sounds like it is bent. They are available used in the forum's marketplace. Alternatively, I think there are some aftermarket arms on rockauto.

You could probably buy a replacement rear subframe too if needed. They are listed occasionally on the forum's marketplace. @tomsn16 and others have posted them in the past.

 

We have all suspension arms and current '94 part-out car has a perfect rear subframe.
All arms are available now
Rear subframe not available until Nov / Dec.

 

I think you're right. I noticed that the different part numbers aren't for right and left, it's for Base/Touring vs R1. The R1's must have different bushings from the factory. I just ordered one from ebay.

 

Interesting!
So, they must have changed the rear upper arm sliding variable toe bushing to suit the grip of the tire the trim model was develiped/supplied with.

 

Did the R1’s come with different tires? I did not know that.

 

the inner bushing changes.
FD01-28-2A0B is for all 1993-1994's
and then for 1995 F123-28-2A0A is added for the Soft Suspension, FD01-28-2A0B is for Hard Suspension

and then its F123-28-2A0A for 16" tire and FD01-28-2A0B for 17" tire for 96+

the difference is the inner bushing, FD01-28-8C0A for the FD01 Arm, and F123-28-480A for the F123 arm

 

they did, Bridgestone S01's vs um not, lol. it doesn't say what the non R1's had

 

The R1 had Z-rated Bridgestones, the other cars were V-rated -- I saw two different brands (mine had Yokohama, I don't remember the other).