Repalcing suspension parts - Stock vs Aftermarket

[SiH]

Morning all. First of all, apologies for the long post, but i\'m trying to do this right.

At Japfest, my car just didn\'t feel right on track. Somthing needs sorting, and I\'m pretty sure that alignment is at the heart of it. Turn in was good, but mid corner it felt a bit wandery, and i was having trouble coming out of the corners. It also tramlines like a mofo.

However, I also have some knackered pillowballs - about 3 of the six on the rear have excessive play, so I figure I might as well re-do all of them.
So, first of all - best source for these? Malloy Mazda in the states? OEM the best option?
RHDJapan do the full set for £160 all in (plus taxes when they land). However, this doesn\'t include any of the seals/circlips. The circlips i guess don\'t really need replacing, is this right? I guess I\'d be daft not to do the seals though, but they are listed on RHDjapan as £10 each, and if i\'m right, there are 12 of them aren\'t they?! that\'s almost as much as the pillowballs themselves!

Secondly - the trailing and toe arms. I currently have some form of aftermarket trailing arms which have play in the ends as well. I guess this gives me 2 options - get a set of secondhand stock ones and replace the bushes, or get some aftermarket ones.
Again, the Toe arms appear to have aftermarket pillowballs in one of the ends - and i have the same 2 options.
Am i really going to notice much of a difference between the stock arms with new bushes, an aftermarket ones with pillowballs? The car is to be used for fast road and track - a weekend car, so comfort is not a prime concern. HOWEVER, I don\'t want to be doing this again, so some longeivity would be nice.

If aftermarket, I was looking at either the SuperNow ones, or the Fighters Garage ones - both come in at about £200 for the set. Has anyone got any experience of either of these?

Obviously, after these are all done, i will be taking the car for a full 4 wheel laser alignment.

Any input will be greatly appreciated. I\'ll get photos of my existing trailing/toe arms later.
Si

[SmbFD3S]

this thread may interest you
 
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19147&highlight=polybush
 
I fitted new OEM pillowballs to the rear of mine and the difference just in doing these is amazing, can\'t wait til i do the front....
 
Will you be fitting these yourself? I highly recommend either having a BIG vice or a press, otherwise it\'s a long process so i\'ve heard
 
Obv this is quite an old thread now, so not sure if they are still doing them......

[SiH]

Cheers dude
Yeah, powerflex do them ,as do superflex - but the ones i\'m after are the pillowballs and the toe link ones - i don\'t really want to get into rebushing the whole shebang
Should have access to a press, but if not, i have thrreaded bar and some sockets, and i\'m not afraid to use them

[SmbFD3S]

I\'m sure i seen a thread on here somewhere that said no-one has done a copy of the OEM pillowballs, or they\'re just not as good as OEM or something like that.
 
Got mine from RXMotors

[SiH]

Yeah, I\'m 99% sure I\'m going to go with Mazda for the pillowballs, it\'s just the trailing arm and toe link setup I\'m not too sure about

[AtomicRex]

We have in design at the moment a full set of wishbones for the front, and we are getting the lowers at the rear done too.  They will be fully adjustable, and should do exactly what you are in need of.

[SiH]

It\'s not the wishbones I\'m really after though to be honest - It\'s the trailing and toe arms

[AtomicRex]

Yep those are the items we are doing at the rear.

[SiH]

Ah cool, i\'ll keep an eye out.
These are what i currently have:


Looks to me like one end of the toe arms has been replaced with aftermarket, is that right?

[Draco]

I have just done the whole of my Fd bushes/ pillowballs... The bushes I got was DERLIN and I got my Pillowballs from RXmotors  tell ya what the differance is hmmmmmm NICE. much nicer drive I must say... Anyway in total it has cost me about £900  that is for all the bushes/pillowballs and tracking... I did remove and replace the suspension arms myself, just paid for the pressing of the bushes.

If I was to do it again I would buy some after market rear trailing arms. It would work out a bit cheaper

[memski]

Change the pb\'s and get some second hand toe links and new bushes for those. I had a complete set of pb (inc toelink extra pb), dust seals and also a rear brake seal kit for around £400 from malloy landed.

[m1tch]

I would suggest that you go aftermarket with stuff, as that means you will only need to replace them once, instead of doing it again when the OEM stuff wears out again lol just a thought

[Mazdarotaryparts]

Hi Si,

I think you have sort of answered your own questions because you really cant look any deeper into fine tuning you cars handling capabilities until you have sorted out any play you have going on and made sure all the wheels are pointing the same way with a geometry check to give you a base line,

Also have a good look at the shocks because if the are not damping properly this could cause your mid corner "wandering"

[20B_boy]

I would suggest that you go aftermarket with stuff, as that means you will only need to replace them once, instead of doing it again when the OEM stuff wears out again lol just a thought

\'Cause exposed rose-joints will wear better than a comparitively sealed rubber/nylon/steel stock unit right? :rolleyes:

[SiH]

Cheers all for your input so far
Shock are a-ok - Bislteins with not many miles on tehm - not the OEM Billies as far as i can tell
Clive - cheers for the advice - i guess what i\'m trying to avoid is having to spend money on 2 alignments, so want to replace as much as i can, hence the blanket approach with the pillowballs. I guess what i\'m really not sure about is whether to go aftermarket or brand new OEM with the trailing arms and toe links

m1tch - sorry, totally disagree there - i\'ve seen loads of aftermarket pillowballs fail, inlucing the ones on mine. The Mazda Items are a good, sealed design, well made, and long lasting (for pillowballs) as far as i can see, There are often cases where OEM quality is far better than aftermarket, and i beleive this is one of them.

Can anyone confirm if my toe links are, as i suspect, stock items with one of the ends totally replaced with a pillowball set?