Rear Suspension Bush Replacement Options

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
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  1. My model of MX-5 is: 2017 ND RF
  2. I’m based near: Portsmouth
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Rear Hub Suspension Bush Replacement

Hi all,

Looking for advice on which way I should go on replacing the rear suspension bushes which have suffered 35k miles. Unfortunately, the latest MOT was done recently and I picked up an advisory on the “Suspension Arm Ball Joint” having play on the rear offside. After further discussion with the garage we agreed the tester was actually referring to the spherical bearing in the rear hub. Not surprised it’s finally been brought up as on the first main dealer service when I brought the car, it was picked up as both sides not being in great condition however the car behaved great and I did not notice any knocking so I left it. That was about 16 months ago.

Main questions:

  • I asked the garage for a rough estimate to replace both the bushes in the rear, using the IL Motorsport rear hub bush replacement kit off MX5parts and they came back with a rough quote of 300-400 labour per side to press all bearings out and put the new ones in. With a cost of 185 per side for the bushes, it seems awfully close to just being cheaper to replace 2x rear hubs at 440. Is the garage quoting a fair price? It doesn’t seem difficult to take them out but I don’t have the facilities at home to press them out myself.
  • Is the IL Motorsport rear hub bush replacement kit even the kit that’s best for a daily driver usage mostly on A roads? I see there is the polybush replacement kit however it works out more expensive than 2 off IL kits (370 vs 580). Are there any other bushes being sold that will work well for my usage?

Thanks guys in advance.

2

I know you are a bit far from South Yorkshire, Roddisons can replace these at a decent price, well last time he quoted on the forum.
If you’re up for a road trip get a quote from him first.

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Have a look here 4 x Mazda MX-5 Rear Hub Spherical Bushes | Performance Bushes £275 with a free tool for you to do it yourself or let your local garage do it.

There is a video Fitting Videos | Performance Bushes that shows how easy it is to do. If your local garage is unsure let them see the video so they can see how simple it is.

:heart:

1 Like
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I am thinking that the kit would be money well spent as a bit of future proofing for my 2021 GT, or as an upgrade now actually, assuming they are better than the Mazda originals.
Thanks for the link. :+1:

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I’ve used Brian McCloud of performance bushes and oddly, the initial replacements needed changing again after 18 months 25k miles) but he kindly replaced them FOC although it cost me 2 hours labour for them to be changed. We don’t believe they’d developed a fault, more likely the garage hadn’t torqued them up under load as requested/required the 1st time.