Can't Find My Ball Joint

yvan · Post by **yvan** » March 23rd, 2005, 4:24 pm

here's the deal.. my 93 gs... me right ball joint pop out while i was driving over a pot hole..which cause my mx to slide and hit the curve, while doing so it snap my other ball joint and cv out too. wow unbeleivable..what a day, anyway umm who else sell em except for the dealer?

can't find the right one at
autozone,,
dvance auto..
even napa..

they all carry the overize one .. and it won't go into pivot hole.... anyone had any successful finding ball joint for our car except for the dealer>>?

mazdubber · Post by **mazdubber** » March 23rd, 2005, 5:22 pm

Napa was good for me. Bye the 'other' ball joint you mean the Tie Rod End??? Or the other side of the car???

mxmaz · Post by **mxmaz** » March 23rd, 2005, 6:40 pm

Yeah you should be able to get a ball joint just about anywhere. When i needed one I called like 5-6 shops and they all had them so i just went with the best price. Only $20 cdn. with one year warranty i found at a local parts supplier.

schuttie2002 · Post by **schuttie2002** » March 23rd, 2005, 11:21 pm

yea look online cause i just bout one from advance auto for 34$ with a 1 yr warranty.

yvan · Post by **yvan** » March 24th, 2005, 8:57 am

no way..you gotta be kidding me. i'm just gonna go to the dealer and get em.. all the parts store here don't have it. i should've taken a pic of it. i swear they got their ifo wrong.. 92-93 same ball joint # from dealer.. 94-up,, different part number..and design.. parts store give out the same bj for 92-up.. anyone feeling me on this ?

ccreech · Post by **ccreech** » March 24th, 2005, 9:06 am

I expereanced this too. I got a new ball joint for the lower controll arm from NAPA. The stud that goes into the hub on the one they gave me was larger than the one that came off my car. Apparently there was some change in design to the hub assembly at some point. I have a 1993 Gs. I have temporarily reinstalled my old one.

yvan · Post by **yvan** » March 25th, 2005, 1:02 am

yes,, you're feeling my pain man..exactly like you said it.. thats el strange man. good news, i drove out to the advance auto wharecasa, and yep sure enough i found em.. not the oversize stud one. for 23 bucks...looks cheap with a grease fitting.. so now i'm chillin till the parts from mazda match up.. if it doesn't ..i'm gonna go with the cheap one.. hate greasing em every oil change.. i also notice that the non grease oem one last alot longer then those grease type because of clearace and tightness of the design..

92GS_STL_MO · Post by **92GS_STL_MO** » March 25th, 2005, 1:17 am

there was a model split where they updated the lower control arm and such in 93. I went through the same problems myself, I just broke down and aside from aftermarket springs, struts and strut mounts I just spent the big bucks and bought every suspension and break component from the dealership, I will have my spreadsheet available sometime soon. I think I spent like $54 USD each for the ball joints.

93SOHC · Post by **93SOHC** » March 25th, 2005, 1:24 am

actually the ones you grease yourself last longer as long as you grease em'. The seal joints loose thier grease after time. Trust me on this, i've replaced hundreds of them

mrmike420 · Post by **mrmike420** » April 25th, 2005, 8:52 pm

Yeah, I just broke my left half shaft and also need to replace my lower ball joint. I can't find the ball joint anywhere...... all I find are the oversized ones... I tried Napa, Autozone, Checkers, BAP, and Pep Boys........has anyone had any luck finding them elsewhere but the dealer?

papa roached · Post by **papa roached** » April 26th, 2005, 12:03 am

i had this issue with my 92 RS i had, had them pull a ball joint for a 92 323, it was the smaller size and fit and worked perfect

mrmike420 · Post by **mrmike420** » April 28th, 2005, 8:36 pm

I went to the auto parts store to look at a 92 mazda 323 lower ball joint, and it doesn't match up. The stud is shorter than mine, almost exact. where exactly did you get yours at? In the meantime I ordered one from the dealership, I hope it matches up, because they don't give refunds for special orders..............bastards! Damn! this lower ball joint it driving me crazy.......

neverenuff · Post by **neverenuff** » April 29th, 2005, 4:07 pm

Well fellas just went through it!! got NAPA ball joints and went to change it and well as prev stated the stud was to fat and wouldnt fit in the hub. went back and was told that it was the right part. after showing them the old one and comparing it to the new one it was clear that it was not going to work. Asked them to check on a Protege balljoint and sure enough they also had the same part number but only to find out that there was also a secondary part number for a diff vin number. Meaning it depended on the vin to which balljoints you got. So after looking at the second one sure as s--- it would fit the mx with no prob. So moral of this story is if you have to do a ball joint change and while doing it you see that the stud is to fat just take it back and ask to see a protege one.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » April 30th, 2005, 5:22 pm

Completely off topic, but as i read the topic, it would have been funny if you would have called it "I can't find my balls"

Hehe, you can tell it's almost time to go home.