RX-8 Owners Club UK

Mazda Gateshead have failed the car the front suspension arms, apparently i need both. They've quoted £959.85 fitted/inc VAT

Advisory:

Oil leak apparent from sump - £396
Front pad and discs - £499
Rear pads and discs - £299
Upper arms (bushes worn) - £608

Any suggestions/more realistic options on the front arms..?

Thanks as always!

I would recommend getting a rotary soecialist to do the work (like Luke Murdoch, he's mobile and will do the work to a high standard) parts wise the lower control arms can be a pain but I'm sure Luke can replace these, he would also be able to recommend a supplier for the parts, there is access to mazda prices through the owners club, hope this helps

That’s odd on an R3.
Contact RotaryRevs just south of Leeds who are your nearest specialist. Luke Murdoch is located down in Surrey somewhere I think.
After fitting the arms the car will require the alignment resetting.

impressive for so much. Id take it to another mot spot for a comparison

£800 just for discs and pads!

Please stop taking it to a dealer. Their only intention is to squeeze you like a sponge.

I only took it to Mazda through lack of any RX8 specialist in the north east. Would look to get any work done down at Rotary revs but after speaking to bigpete it looks like the suspension arms for an R3 are hard to come by

i would be surprised if there was anything actually wrong with them.... its a rare failure. not impossible, but well worth getting a second opinion on.

But an MOT doesn't really require rotary specialization... Theres nothing particularly rotary specific for an MOT other than getting emissions done whilst the cat is hot. Which most decent MOT testers should be happy to do. I would personally find an MOT place that someone you know trusts and have them give it a look over. Without telling them what the stealership said is wrong.

Totally agree but with the computerised system wouldn't the new MOT station and the police already now about the failure...

As long as the car has a valid MOT currently and you are driving to a test centre a failure as far as I am aware doesn't over write a valid certificate? However the other test centre would be able to see the last fail actually true.

qwakers wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:33 pm

i would be surprised if there was anything actually wrong with them.... its a rare failure. not impossible, but well worth getting a second opinion on.

Can a second opinion override the previous garage on the electronic record though?

Oddly enough, when I took mine in for the airbag recall, local Mazda did a 'health check' on it for me, and said one of the drop-links was in urgent need of replacement, which they could do for about £175 (oh, we recommend you do both sides at the same time...) Also one of my tyres was at critical depth (I measured it at 3mm) and the rest were close (4mm) and they could replace all four for me for just around £500.
When it went through the MOT a month ago at a local MOTs only place, it came back with a clean bill of health! (I've replaced the tyres since the recall, but the drop links are all still original)

Alexpb2401 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:45 pm

qwakers wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:33 pm

i would be surprised if there was anything actually wrong with them.... its a rare failure. not impossible, but well worth getting a second opinion on.

Can a second opinion override the previous garage on the electronic record though?

yes, and no.

the fail will still be there but the pass supersedes that.

It wouldn't over write it. But it would show as a new test with the possible misinformed things corrected. However I would just be having them do a free preMOT test or whatever to see if they spot anything wrong.

From the gov website.

Failing the MOT
Your vehicle will fail if the test result lists ‘dangerous’ or ‘major’ problems with your vehicle. You might not be allowed to drive until you fix the problems.

You might also get a list of ‘minor’ or ‘advisory’ problems to monitor or fix in the future.

If your vehicle fails the MOT:

you’ll get a ‘refusal of an MOT test certificate’ from the test centre
it will be recorded in the MOT database
You can appeal the result if you think it’s wrong.

Driving a vehicle that’s failed
You can take your vehicle away if:

your current MOT certificate is still valid
no ‘dangerous’ problems were listed in the MOT
Otherwise, you’ll need to get it repaired before you can drive.

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle that has failed its MOT because of a ‘dangerous’ problem.

Omg rip off take car go home do the wprk your self £600 saved

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Nearside Front Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn Rear Bush Fully Separated (5.3.4 (a) (i))
Offside Front Suspension arm pin or bush excessively worn Rear Bush Fully Separated (5.3.4 (a) (i))

that's the actual phrasing on the MOT. Does it need a new arm or just bushes?

Polly bush it as mine it was the bush as i got advisory last year

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See PM for the part # and pricing you asked for.

Mazda don't do the upper arm bushes separately, only complete arms with bushes installed.

Yours is the first R3 I've heard of with even a single upper arm bush failure, let alone both

You could get the sophisticated compound bushes pressed out of the arms a fit simple polybushes instead.
This would be cheaper but would compromise NVH (noise, vibration & harshness) plus polybushes do wear out as they're moving parts.

Just one thought...
If your car has had previous work on the front suspension and it was re-assembled with the hubs hanging, rather than compressed as it should be, then the bushes would have been under massive torsional strain. This is usually obvious as the front of the car sits higher than usual but if it's not noticed and corrected then it could result in the bushes being torn. This is the only scenario I can think of for both sides to fail.

To my knowledge the car has only previously been worked on by the main dealer (had FSH when I bought it)

"Mazda don't do the upper arm bushes separately, only complete arms with bushes installed."

Do you think Mazda are saying I need new arms because they cant do the bushes separately then?

Can i inspect this easily myself (when I say myself, I mean can i take pictures to show you guys haha)

You need to know if it's the upper or lower arm they're complaining about.
From previous experience, it might not even be an arm bush they're referring to, so you need a photo with someone pointing at the specific bush(es).

The lower arm bushes are available separately, with each arm taking one of each bush.
The bushes are called "front" and "rear" but they're both for the front suspension, just the front and rear mounts of the lower front arms.

Quotes also attached here for the benefit of anyone else following this saga

Just called them to clarify... its the "bottom arm bushes". They confirmed they have to do the whole arm because they cant do bushes separately.

they will circle failures in yellow chalk in my experience,

Do they still use yellow crayon?

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Most dealer monkeys would struggle to write with a crayon