Front End Links

J

jdwk

Is there any difference between the Mazda 3 and Mazdaspeed 3 front end links?

They look identical in pictures, but the Speed3 links are a couple bucks more. Are they just stronger?

Anyone have experience with the knock offs?

Beck/Arnley (101-5086/101-5725) are just as expensive as OEM ~$27 per.
Mevotech (MS76804) are stupid cheap $10 per.
Moog (K80235) look beefy and servicable, $34, but not sure if that's each or for the set.
Duralast (SL41670) autozone brand, $38. Again not sure if that is the pair or each.
AC Delco (45G0281), $56. I sure hope that is for the pair.
Deeza (MD-L635), $30. Never heard of this brand.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
Speed3 end links have a larger diameter bolt/stud for both ends front and rear. Speed3 enlinks will not work with reg3 suspersion. I sold both the Beck Arnley and Moog chassis parts back in the day they are both solid products. Chances are they are both greasable and the others may or may not be. It has been a few years but I would still trust both companies. Chances are those prices are each since most of the time only one is replaced at a time.
 
Thanks for the info. I am putting them on my lowered MSP. The bolt sizes match the regular 3 links then. The Moogs do look greasable, pricey though.
 
I forgot another brand from Checker, Master Pro Chassis. They use the same part numbers as Moog, but are very cheap. You generally get what you pay for, but sometimes parts are parts. They do have a lifetime warranty. Although, replacing defective end links every time they break doesn't sound like a lot of fun to save $35.
 
If I had to guess, although I have never heard of the Checker brand, if they use the exact part number they could be Moog. At $35 (pair?) cheaper I would say no. If you wanted to you could always go there and look them over real good, Moog likes to stamp their name in stuff then you would know for sure. If you could get both side by side that would be a good way to compare also.
 
The Master Pro Chassis are $14 a piece. The Moog's I found on rock auto for $32, but are $47 at Checker. (The $35 came from ~($32 - $14)x2).

RockAuto also has the Beck/Arnley for $23. So only a couple bucks less than OEM from Montgomery, but it sounds like the OEM are pretty weak. My OEMs are actually just fine with 72k on them; they are just too short now that I lowered the car, and they appear to be the exact same construction and quality as the OEM Mazda 3 links I looked at yesterday.

I think the extra for the Moog might be worth it. Checker has some coming in for me hopefully today that I can look at. If they'll price match RockAuto, I'll pick them up, if not, I'll just order them from RockAuto.

Thanks for the help. If this works out, it should help out a lot of lowered MSPs and Proteges.
 
Don't buy the Deeza ones, I had Deeza Speed 3 rear endlinks on my 3 hatch with the racing beat swaybars and I broke them twice. The quality was crappy.
 
Thanks for the warning. The ones I had ordered for the rears came in, but they are they same length as my stock rear links. The fronts should be here tomorrow. I ordered two sets, on is Moog part #K80104 and the other is #K80235. Checker said they would price match Rockauto which is nice. The 104's are only $13, and the 235's are $32.

The 104's don't have a listed application but they look to be the same length and at least one other MSP owner is using them without reported issue. Seems like it's worth a shot to save almost $40. No idea how the other MSP owner discovered the 104's. Maybe he did the same thing as me and just flipped through the catalog at Checker until he saw something that looked promising.
 

I installed/converted to the Racing Beat front links on my '04 several yrs ago.
The kit came w/a bit, bit guide to enlarge the holes in the front sway bar and strut housing tab as well as new (larger) bolts/nuts. It wasn't that bad to do and the links are much stronger than the OE's. A slight, but noticeable difference in sway bar reaction.
 

The way I look at it, the ones on my '04 were as skinny as a pencil using 8mm studs. The new ones, RB in my case, are stronger/stouter all the way around. Why would you ever want to go back to OE?

 
Well, we are talking compression and tensile strength if you have the proper length links. The links themselves never break, it's the ball joints. They are plastic balls in the socket and over time the plastic wears out and shears in half.

I should be able to see both Moog parts side to side this afternoon and make a call.
 
Well the K80104 were actually only about 10" long, a little shorter than my stock links so definitely a no go with those, but they were beefy and greasable, and of course those were the cheap ones, $13 on Rockauto.

The K80235 were the Mazda3 replacements, and 12" long which is exactly what I wanted. They don't look much thicker than OEM but that ball joint looked better quality although not greasable. They were $31 or a couple bucks more than OEM online. I was eager to have a quiet car and bought them.

And so far, so good. Car is nice and quiet again. I also put urethane bushings on my rear sway bar at the same time. So hopefully, that permanently solves any clunking back there (although that hasn't really been a problem for me).

I would say the Moogs are a decent option instead of drilling out the sway bar and strut mount for the MS3 links.
 
Did you get a good look at the Master Pro end links? I am curious as to how they looked.
 
Unfortunately there were no MPC end links that matched. I did look through some the first day before I knew the reg 3's links were the ones I wanted, and they looked pretty much the same as the Moogs.
 
The reason I asked is because I am changing my stock front and rear sway bars to mazdaspeed3 bars and wanted to know what the MPC parts looked like.
 
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