Trailing arm brushings broken

[redrocket]

Wonder if anyone can help me, I went to the dealership today for an oil change and was told the rear trailing arm brushings are broken or separating ( both words were used), the right worse than the left. I was quoted about $800 for the repair. I've received insane quotes from them before (ie brake pad replacement for $500 etc). I was overwhelmed by the timing of this as well as the cost and I am not sure how to go about this. Basically what I would like to know is if this quote reasonable and where I could get a second opinion. I am in midtown Toronto. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

[MarkWB]

Go to Altech auto or Jimmy at SP (street performance), that's what everyone in this thread is going to tell you, and they're right. $800 to replace something that "bushes" something is outrageous. You'd be better off ordering the parts and getting one of the NATOR guys to help you install it, or just bringing it to altech/sp.

[Kappa]

Then go back to the dealership and do this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
and this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
then finish with this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
just as you leave turn around and do this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif

[gabbygenier]

The quote is not outrageous. That's about what they charge for those. And also markwb has obviously never read any of the threads about this issue.

It's a common thing with mazda 3s. I've had to replace mine. It's not a simple task. It does involve a lot of labour. You have to remove the whole trailing arm. Then press the old bushing out and press the new ones in. So you would need a press to do it.

The bushings are less then 50$ each if I remember correctly. If you know someone with a press you can do the labour yourself. What I did was purchased whole new trailing arms with new bushings in them and swapped the whole thing. They were about 150$ each. The only issue I had when doing it was I had one of the bolts seized in the bushing of the shock. We just cut the trailing arm to get it out since we were replacing them anyways

Search the forum. There are threads with prices of how much ppl paid at street performance. I'm on my phone so it's too much of a pain to search

[Ozil]

Then go back to the dealership and do this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
and this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
then finish with this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif
just as you leave turn around and do this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Temper-Mental/1184491084189.gif

that looks funny and painful.. lol :chuckle

[stevenma188]

They probably also quoted replacing the entire trailing arm (~$200 part) vs replacing the $35 bushing. On 04-06, they have it listed that you cannot buy just the bushing, yet if you look up parts for 07-09, the bushings are available separately. This is ironic, because the suspension for all 1st gens are the same.

[redrocket]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I think I will check out StreetPerformance as it has been mentioned in other threads about this subject.

Gabbygenier, doing it myself is not really an option as I don't know anything about cars but I like to do my research. Thanks for the info :)

Kappa, really funny, I would love to do that!

[Kappa]

if you lived in NB you could stop by my place and buy pizza and we could do it lol