just had my nd serviced and mot at Taunton Mazda had an advisory slight play in rear hub bushes I was then told they don’t have to replace the whole hub they can now replace just the bushes was quoted £680. still a fair chunk but a lot cheaper than replacing the hub just letting people if they weren’t aware that Mazda now do this.
A replacement set of bearings can be purchased for around £300, so a dealer quote for £680 fitted presumably is fairly reasonable (assuming 4 bearings). I’m going to be replacing mine myself this year.
Good info. I wonder if this is for all dealerships.
I got the whole rear bush set from poly bush , there are other companies offering full sets also , the standard ones seem to wear out quite quickly .
The poly bush were good enough that I ordered a full front set even though I technically don’t need them yet .
Good stuff , also save some money and do them yourself , some elbow grease and a not small amount of swearing job done .
There is an MX-5 owner on Facebook that is in the process of complaining to the ombudsman about this issue. His assertion is that it a latent manufacturing fault that only appears after warranty expires. There is a Mazda Technical Service Bulletin 02-001/22 Ref MC-1020970 which describes this issue on MX-5 models between 2016 and 2021. I have read on some US (Miata) forums the dealerships were helping pay towards the costs of repairs (70%). It seems this is a big cash cow for Mazda and hugely unfair to MX-5 owners as the cost runs into the £thousands. It seems like exactly the kind of issue the owner’s club should help with.
Good find.
There were a few on here who got help of sorts with the cost, but if I recall, their cars were withing a couple of years post warrenty.
That’s good to hear. Maybe they hit the mileage earlier where the originals had worn out. If anyone has examples of Mazda helping with costs on this problem can you post details in here please ?
In 2024, when I was having my car serviced, I mentioned it (the bush scenario) to a service advisor (who was nice) while I was passing time waiting. He said a few had been done recently and I mentioned the ‘grand a side’ cost and whether if the worst happened, I’d get some help, given I had full Mazda service history. He said they’re generally okay up to 3 years post warranty, after that, well. Whilst he isn’t an expert on it of course, he said I guess there has to come a cut off time, not just mileage, as could someone with a 20 year, 8K miler car still expect some money off. All just probably his opinion, but it sounds sensible enough,
Rather than start a new topic, has anyone had their replacement bushings go bad? I bought the Performance bushes set in November 2024 and have just this week started to notice the tell tale knocking from the left rear over rough broken surfaces.
This was the first symptom of the originals going hand. There is a two year warranty on these replacement bushes so I will have to explore the troubleshooting options required for a warranty claim but I imagine it will be suitably awkward as the existing part will have to come out in order to determine any fault. It would make most sense to have a new bush ready to go in order to save on labour costs but I’ll have to buy that myself until a warranty claim is handled.
Just curious as to whether anyone else has encountered any longevity issues.
Why not ring Performance and find out exactly where you stand with the warranty then you know rather than imagine. Hope it goes well.
Very much the intention. I found their service to be excellent when purchasing initially. I’ll have a tiny bit of troubleshooting to do myself (namely making sure there is nothing rattling about in the boot etc) but I am due an oil change soon so will have my mechanic have a rummage while it’s up on the ramp to see if it is indeed the dreaded bushings again before reaching out.
You never forget that particular noise and sensation though. Grgh
Hope that works out. What a shocker if it does transpire that they go pop even quicker than the original Mazda ones (before they improved the part)!
I was given the same bad news about the bushes on my 2017 RF from Taunton Mazda although I already knew they were bad because of the horrible knocking noise. They did show me the bushes they used but I didn’t fancy them. They were like a polybush and I didn’t think they had the same amount of movement in them. I supplied the Performance Bushes kit and they were happy to fit them for me. I must say they did a brilliant job and I can highly recommend them.
Good info. Cheers 
I forgot to say that I also had the Mazda lowering springs fitted at the same time. They did a great job on that too, including an alignment. The car sits much better now.
A most satisfactory response received regarding my potentially faulty bushing. Buy with confidence.
Hi. Do you mean that Performance Bushes were able to offer an explanation for the return of the dreaded knock-knock (failing rear bushes)? Or that the issue is something else entirely? Or did Performance Bushes offer you a replacement set of bearings?
I bought a set of rear bush bearings from Brian McCloud (Performance Bushes) for my '16 plate ND1 last October (2025). They’ve been great so far 
Offered a replacement bushing no questions asked so that I have one to hand should my mechanic determine one of the bushings has failed.
So no fault yet been found with one of the bushings, it is just displaying the same issues that caused me to buy them in the first instance. If one of the bushings is faulty then Performance Bushings would like it returned to them for inspection. All fair by me.
I replaced my bushings in September 2024 with Performance Bushings and they are still perfect after 12000 miles. It is important that they are tightened with the suspension under load and not with it on rebound.
No need to tighten the bearings under load because they swivel unlike rubber bushes.