spherical load bushings?
 

Just got my car back from the shop a few weeks ago! Its running solid. The guy who tuned my car drove it around and said I should replace my spherical load bushings. I've never hear of them? Their are 6 bushings total (3 per side). From what he told me two are found in the lower control arms, and I believe one is in the upright itself? Does anyone have any info on these bushings and where i could get some? He said i could get them from Mazda but they are $80 a peice

It would be nice to State what SERIES Of car you have in order to get an answer.

and did this car tell you front or rear?

Sounds an awful lot like the rear pillow ball bushings on an FD.

Yeah, sorry it is an FD and from what he told me it sounded like the rear.

Look up Juan Auto ( a Vendor on Forum).
He is very informative on this issue and sells the bushings you are asking about.

The shop is correct there are six pillow ball or spherical ball bushings in the rear suspension. Three on each side. With mileage they do tend to get loose and become very noisy. Even a little play in one bushing can be amplified and result in knocking. Go here for more details... Pillow Ball Replacement
In my experience it's very difficult to locate the specific offending bushing. And since if one is getting worn the other five probably are close behind. its usually easier and no more expensive in the long run to just replace all of them.
If any of the rubber seals on those bushings are bad or dried out replace them as well. They aren't expensive. And be sure to add some grease underneath the seals when reinstalling. It's not so much for lubrication but to keep moisture and dirt out.
While that link is informative personally I think you need A traditional press for them. If you don't have one it may be best to have it done professionally. You can save yourself some money by taking the individual suspension pieces off yourself.

thanks for all the help! Im almost 99% sure that was the bushings he was speaking of! Ive never heard of the being called spherical load bushings though.

If money is tight and you don't want to replace them all...in my experience it's usually the lower one on the 'I' arm that's wears out first. My replacements have lasted ~70k now and I credit that to using a needle grease-gun fitting to keep grease behind the seals.

I'm a little late to the party but clunking in the rear is usually caused by worn pillow balls (never heard them called spherical load bushings either). It's best to just replace all of them at once but like Sgtblue said, you can get away with replacing the bad one(s) if you're really tight on money. Genuine Mazda pillow balls need to be greased after pressing them in. J-AUTO pillow balls are maintenance free and don't require any grease. Grease will actually shorten the life of J-AUTO pillow balls.

Sounds like he means ball joints.

They're definitely referring to the rear pillow ball bushings since the only place a ball joint is found is at the front of the car. Ball joints don't wear out very often while pillow ball bushings are wear items.

^Which is fortunate since ball-joints can't be replaced on the FD.

Juan...if it's not dirtying up the thread too much...do you have a link or more information on your pill-ball replacements?

Sorry for the lack of responce! i did go to the local Mazda dealership and they quoted me at $550.00 for all 6! I think im gonna go the j-auto.net route! thanks for all the help guys!:icon_tup: