Lower control arm failure (recall) affecting the tie rods

I had been having issues with my steering especially when making hard turns. Mentioned to my mechanic when I was having my rear and front fluids changed. He said that my lower arm controls were completely shot dangerously so and my tie rods were as well. He said the car was unsafe to drive, I felt awful as I had been driving my 3 very young girls around all over the state just days before.

He told me to bring it straight to the dealer for the recall and DO NOT put my girls in it. I drove it down and the said the lower arm controls were completely loose and about to separate, and the tie rods were shot. They were very accommodating and put me in a rental. They are going to give my car a free safety inspection and call me.

My mechanic already told me everything else looks fine except For the LOwer arms and tie rods. Also my rear shock is leaky, I'll take it back to him to repair once the dangerous parts are fixed by Mazda.

My question is the woman who took my Info does not think Mazda will pay for my tie rods as they are separate. Going through all the NHTSA statements about this recall it seem many owners had their tie rods directly affected by all the extra play and stress caused by the malfunctioning Lower control arms. The loose play put more stress on the tie rods than normal causing premature breakdown.

I am not a mechanic and wondering if this could be true. Should I push Mazda to fix both issues free of charge?
I have owned may vehicles and have never replaced a tie rod or lower arm control before.

Thanks!

How many miles are on your CX-9?
I have around 87k on my 2008, but have regularly sprayed off the suspension to get any road salt or grime off of the suspension.
All my suspension parts still look relatively new. I've jacked up the front end and felt no looseness in the balljoints (lower control arms).
I suspect your vehicle is high mileage. I wouldn't expect any suspension part to be firm over 100k miles. My personal opinion
is just that anything starting to fail over 100k miles is fair game when it comes to steering and suspension.

YEs it has 106K miles... I just purchased it. I did pay for the tie rods as I had to have them replaced, they were not safe at all. I am hoping the seller will pay for them as it was advertised as "all ready for new owner and just serviced", so fortunate no damage was done to me or the kids. They did the alignment for free as part of the recall, total was $167 for parts and labor for the tie rods. I probably could have gotten it done cheaper but I was in a bind as the car was unfit for driving. OTher than that I have a leaky shock to replace, everything else checks out great, besides 2 other smaller issues that can wait. Any suggestion as if I should put it aftermarket shocks or the original?

I just had the same issue. Brought my 2008 GT in for the recall and tie rod had excessive play. The shop had piles of replaced control arms. I have the full coverage MEPP, best purchase ever, and they are covering the tie rod ends.

If it was me, Id make the dealership cover the tie rods also. As the tie rods failed because of the failed control arm. Which Mazda has admitted responsibility for. The loudest squeek gets the grease. Sometimes you just have be a really loud squeek. haha.

mazda covered the tie rod repair.

How can one tell if the vehicle has this issue? Recently, I've been noticing a clunking sound from the front when making turns. Would that be caused by the control arms failing? I have not taken the vehicle to the dealership to perform the recall yet since I haven't received the letter from Mazda.

If you have a clunk in the front end at times, Its a sign you probably have the issues. It sounds like any other car with a bad ball joint pretty much. Or you can call a Mazda dealership, and give them your Vin. It will be in the computer if its been addressed on your Mazda or not.

Reviving an older thread. I think that I may have this issue.

I thought I was having CV joint issues. I had the telltale clunk of CV joint issues. BUT the major difference between my issue and what I've always noticed on CV joints is that I have problems when taking curves at speed. So if I am on the highway and I need to turn the wheel into a curve more than about 15 degrees (guesstimate), I get a sudden onset of oversteer. Almost like a big gust of wind is taking the car. This was a bit scary.

I am not sure how to proceed. I am concerned now with driving the car. (I too feel bad as I was driving my young daughters across the state this weekend). If it is this issue, I can see asking Mazda to have it towed to a dealer. I am concerned that it may not be this issue and then I am out the towing.

I do have a local shop I use. I could take it to them this week to have my rear diff fluid replaced (which I need anyways and I am not as concerned as they are about 2 miles away). I could ask them to look at it.
Is the problem easily noticeable? What should they look for? Tie rod, control arms, ball joint? If they see that the problem is those items, I could instruct them not to touch them as they are under a TSB? The shop owner is really cool and probably won't charge me to inspect those things if he has the car up on the lift anyways. (It is great to have a shop you can trust)

Thanks.

Didn't you get the recall letter from mazda for the lower control arms? they will replace both free of charge. To see if you have the new revised lower control arms check underneath and you will notice that these have like clips that go around where the ball joint is mounted to the knuckle. If those new control arms are bad please let us know. Those new revised control arms where supposed to solve the problem that the cx-9 had with this part.

kornholio said:

Didn't you get the recall letter from mazda for the lower control arms? they will replace both free of charge. To see if you have the new revised lower control arms check underneath and you will notice that these have like clips that go around where the ball joint is mounted to the knuckle. If those new control arms are bad please let us know. Those new revised control arms where supposed to solve the problem that the cx-9 had with this part.

Click to expand...

I don't remember a recall letter specifically for the lower control arms, but I got a vague one about a recall for a part that they didn't have readily available. The letter said that they'd contact me when the parts were in stock. I assumed that was for the Takata air bag. Even if it were for the lower control arms, I never received the second letter.
I've owned the vehicle (MY2008) since early 2012.

You need to follow up on that. The lower control arms is a safety issue. You don't want the ball joint to snap on you while you are driving.

kornholio said:

You need to follow up on that. The lower control arms is a safety issue. You don't want the ball joint to snap on you while you are driving.

Click to expand...

Sigh....I have to gear up for a fight. This is making me recall why I never take my cars to a dealer for out of warranty work.
So the dealer has had my car going on 3 days.

I asked them to change my rear differential fluid since they'd have it up on the lift anyways. They said $175. I said, no way, I'll take care of that. I just did the rear diff on my Subaru and my local shop charged me $50.

They said:
- My tranny fluid needs to be changed. (I just had this done 6 months ago)
- Some bulbs were out and needed changing. (I said, no problem I'll do it myself)
- Cabin air filter (again, no thanks, I'll do this myself)
- The Recall covered front alignment so for $59 I agreed to do the rear.

Here is where I am a bit peeved. They said that my front tires had excessive wear on the inside and needed to be replaced. These tires are 6 months old (maybe 5K miles) and I had an alignment done at that time. The alignment had no issues (A local shop I know and trust for 20 years). So if the tires are that worn, wouldn't a likely culprit be the bad control arms? (But I haven't seen the tires so I can't say if they were BSing or not)

Then they called to tell me that both inner and outer tie rods were bad and needed to be replaced as they can't align the car with the tie rods as is. They quoted me $267 parts and labor. I told them that I've seen people that have gotten their tie rods replaced with this recall. The service guy said that he'd talk to his supervisor and branch manager and call me tomorrow. I've also been totally cool with them by refusing a rental. That saved them some money. But 3 days to do this work is crazy. (and they aren't even done)

When I called Mazda USA to set up the tow, I asked the rep on the phone about the tie rods. I knew mine were shot as I had issues steering. (That is the reason I asked them to tow it) The rep on the phone initially said that the tie rods are wear items and not covered. When I pressed him about I've seen people that had Mazda cover the tie rods, he said, "well we leave it up to the dealer to make that call".

If they are jerks about it and won't cover the tie rods, I guess that I can take it to my local shop to get the tie rods replaced and then bring it back for the alignment. Honestly, if they would have said $167 as someone else mentioned in this thread, I would have said ok. But right off the bat, when they said $175 to replace the rear diff fluid (again the car would be up on the lift anyways) I was highly suspicious of their pricing.

Service manager called me and said that they don't do tie rods with this recall. The only time they've done tie rods is when the ball joints failed and caused tie rods to fail. She said tie rods are wear items and not covered. So I said, if I had continued to drive my car until the ball joint broke, then I would have the tie rods replaced at no cost?
The service manager said she'd talk to the technician in the morning to get his opinion on whether the tie rods were compromised by the ball joint/lower control arms. If the technician thought that they were, they'd go to Mazda. I am willing to go halfsies on these with them. (I haven't told them this though)

UPDATE:

I talked to the service manager nicely again today. I explained that while the tie rods can be a wear item, that the play that I had in the ball join most likely greatly accelerated their wear. The play was very noticeable. When taking a turn a low speeds I could feel the drivers side front tire move laterally.
She said, that Mazda may or may not cover it and they were still waiting on them. But she said that the dealership would pick up the cost.