Dammit... I had to take out my front strut bars to adjust my GC coilovers (I think they got jammed with sand and oher particles so the nut wouldn't move up the thread easily enought to do with the strut in place) So, when I was done adjusting, I had a friend of mine put the front suspension back together while I worked on the rear, and all of a sudden I heard....

*Clunk!*
"uh-oh, that aint good.."


So, he had the front sway bar control link still bolted to the strut while he was swiveling it around trying to get the studs through the 4 holes on the top. He ended up popping the ball join out of it's socket, and I'll be damned if I know where the ring went, so now I called around to mazda dealers in my area, and no one has that part in stock, they all have to order it, and it takes 4-6 days... in the meantime, I'm without a driveable car, cause it makes all SORTS of CLUNK-ING CLANK-ING noises whenever I move.

I might try taking off the link rod on the other side of the car, so that both are off and the sway bar would essentially be dead weight in the meantime. And see if I can atleast drive around.

Any suggestions???

 

The point that the joint meets the ball joint (say that 3 times fast ) is separated, the rod itself is still intact, just not attatched to the strut anymore...

 

Damn, it's hard to explain...

There's the sway bar (that's fine) then there's this rod that connects the sway bar to the strut. (that's intact also) It's just not connected to the strut anymore, and I can't reconnect it, so it's just flying around inside the wheel well. I'll take a pic of it tomorrow when it's light out.

 

yeah I know what you are talking about , amazing that is connected to the struts on the third gen , on the secon gen that is connected to the A arm ,,, well you may be able to get one from auto zone or any of the shops like that , cause you may only need the end link , also you should call up mazda auto recycling , the link to there site is on my links section on my site , where you can find a link to on the bottom of my sig in this post ,, they should have something for you and at a fraction of the price that you would pay the dealer ,, check it out
Bruce

 

The moral of this story is.... DO IT YOURSELF!

The cost of the part isn't a problem, it's only $26, but no one in my area has it in stock, it's 4-6 business days to get it.

I was looking to go over to Tower Shoppes tonight with some other friends of mine, but if I can't get my car moving then it's a no-go..

Do you guys think if I take the end link off the other side (basically disconnecting the sway bar) I can drive it?

 

Yes, you can. Remove the broken end link and leave the other side attached. The front sway bar won't be working until you replace the broken end link, but the other end link should keep the bar from hitting other suspension components. The stock end links can be pretty weak if twisted in the wrong way. You should see some blue plastic on the broken end of the end link, that's what holds the bolt ends on the end link.

 

Yeah Eric,

At the end of the end link, there's a blue plastic hole like thing (more like half of a sphere) that the strut fitting goes into (when intact )

I drove around my block (very slowly) with the broken end link just sitting in the wheel well and there was all kinds of clunking noises going on but it didn't seem to come from the left side (where the broken link is) it seemed like it was coming from the right side if anything. So, I'm gonna take off both end links and see if it's driveable.

 

Seems a little hokey on Mazda's part to make a endlink so fragile as it could break with bare hands...especially for a suspension component that is under stress....Now, i'm sure in it's normal operation it probably wouldn't twist as it did by hand, but still....i wouldn't want ANY part of my suspension to be hand breakable...

As Eric said, just remove the broken endlink and drive...If the broken side does clink around, zip tie it down for the few days.

 

Going to perform the surgery now....


Zip Tie it...



Ghetto Fabulous!

 

I ended up just twisting the end link off of the sway bar cause I couldn't get the bolt off, lol.

Either way, the car is driveable now and I made it to the car show.

Next thing to do is order that part.

 

order the new carbon bar from ARD while you're at it.

 

i read the posts on the mp3 board and i thought they said that they were offering sway bars as well and i said to get the bar while he was at it....that would mean in addition to me. He gave some approximate pricing either on this board or the other board....jeez....chill out...

 

Noticed that sway bar knocking around underneath the car today, probably because the right side is still attatched to the right strut, and nothing is attatched to the left.

If I can take the end link off the right side (those damn nuts are on there good man!) I'll do that, otherwise I'll have to park my car until I can get the part replaced.

Or....

I'll bring the disconnected end link with me to my local Mazda service center, and see if they can reattatch the end link, cause it doesn't look like anything's really broken just not connected.

Gotta wait till monday tho

 

The endlink is a MUST to change in our Pros

 

dood ur car is tight, nice tint and rims.
just wanted to throw my opinion out there