$400 for rear endlinks?

[SciFiMan]

Dealer says my 2003 LX (132K miles) told me I need new rear endlinks, for about $400. The clunking in the back has gotten fairly noticable on bumps. Will aftermarket (such as protegegarage.com) fit that I can put on myself and save a ton of money? Or even AutoZone or Napa? Other than a floor jack and common tools do I need anything special to install?

Do endlinks just stay noisy or will they actually fail and cause an accident or stranding?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[martispeed]

that is insane!!!!! Yes do it yourself and save a ton of money.

 

[aMaff]

holy crap. I could make you a pair of endlinks from race-spec parts for cheaper than that!

 

[MaxPower]

New endlinks cost about $90 and take about an hour of labor to install (~$80).

Installing new endlinks on my Protege didn't make the clunking go away however.

 

[Joost27]

the endlinks will eventually brake entirely, which is where the ball separates from the joint. This wont cause your car to be stranded, however if you happen to be cornering hard when it breaks then u might experience a weird response from the car. If you just drive it normal u can drive around without the swaybar connected at all(i did it when i snapped the bracket for one of the bushings) you will just experience more body roll, so just take it easy on corners. I just bought a set of "Oem" style ebay ones for i think $45 and they had lasted a few months just fine and thats with a racing beat rear swaybar stressing them out, probably still fine, just that I had an accident so I dont drive that car now.

If your endlinks arent rusted then you may be able to remove them by inserting the hex key into the end of the endlink and using a wrench to turn the nut however, usually they are seized and/or rusted.

Best bet for removal at that point, is a torch/hack saw, or you can simply pry the part that connects to the strut and sway bar away from the vertical bar that connects them and then use vice grips on the ball side and then use a ratchet and i think 14mm socket to remove the nut.

Diagram I just made to try and explain what I am talking about.

 

[SciFiMan]

That's awesome! Thanks everyone.

 

[MazdaSpeeder]

You could also get a nutcracker from autozone for about $10...you loop it over the nut and tighten with a ratchet, driving a chisel through the nut until it splits. I think it's how I will do my links.

 

[SciFiMan]

new struts?

I just remembered that my LX doesn't have the welded tabs for the end links. So I will need to acquire OEM endlinks I guess? Or maybe a salvage yard would have rear struts from an ES? Or what about replacement with something like Tokico Blue? It has 132K miles but the drive train is like new, and the rest of the car is in great shape so I expect to keep it another year or two most likely.

 

[MaxPower]

2 rear OEM endlinks will cost about $80-90. Try onlinemazdaparts.com for a discounted price.

If you're replacing the rear struts, don't bother with used. KYB GR-2 can be had for about $50 from rockauto.com and even OEM struts are only about $60 at onlinemazdaparts.com. The DX, LX, and ES all share the same struts.

It might be worth it to you to put in a little money to keep the car going. To compare, I've got 146k on my Protege and plan to keep it for another 4 years.

 

[E21BIMMERHEAD]

I dont know about you guys but......when I went to replace my end links I actually find the best price at my dealer for $30 each. All 4 took me just under an hour to replace in my driveway.....

 

[joe_mn]

i have a front end rattle. just changed balljoint. it was way loose. still have front end clunk. shop said i need 4 end links. i will start with the front 2 this weekend. they said struts look ok but the car has a lot of miles. i hope struts are not next.

 

[joe_mn]

front ball joint was loose. changed that. still had clunk. changed front links. front is quiet now. but rear is making same clunk. just ordered rear links. sometimes its a combination of worn parts.

 

[joe_mn]

ordered parts monday. just came today. are they high quality? hard to say. look like the ones i got at napa. who makes napa stuff? turns out they have cheap stuff and pricey stuff. 24 each or 44 each. will they last 1 year? i hope 2 years since the car will be gone than. at least i hope the bolt threads last 2 years so i can unbolt them if they fail. the threads were very rusty on my 2k car. 9 years of mn salt spray will do that.

 

[mechead11]

3/4 of my endlinks fell apart. I zip tied them back together. (hand) the handling feels 100x better. god, I suck. hahaha it'll work till they dont work, or I replace them. you can find front ones on ebay for around $40 and rear ones for around $35.

and did you find just joints, joe-mn?! or you had your shop do it? I cant seem to find just the ball joints. everywhere wants to sell me control arms and ball joints.

 

[joe_mn]

had to get a new control arm. $100 at napa. could not find a balljoint for a 2k car. the control arms are fairly cheap online. around 60.

 

[slavrenz]

had to get a new control arm. $100 at napa. could not find a balljoint for a 2k car. the control arms are fairly cheap online. around 60.

That's because the ball joints themselves are not serviceable on the 3rd Gen Proteges. You gotta replace the whole control arm. F**king Mazda design team...

 

[joe_mn]

i see the 2k arm has a vertical bushing in the rear while the 98 has a horizontal bushing. not sure why they changed that also. the 2k rear clamp looks like it could bolt into the mounting holes for the 98 style. close but not quite. i think the 626 cars use the rear horizontal style bushing too. i think the engineers change things to improve the performance/reliability of parts, not just to make life harder for owners.