OK guys, I need your help please.
I was rotating the tires on my 02 P5 with 28,000 miles and was doing my usual wheel well area check when I took the wheels off.
I noted something obviously wrong. Let me explain what I saw as best as I can. The front swaybar has the main rubber bushings clamped down by the bracket that actually holds the swaybar to the car subframe. On the driver side I noticed that there was another bushing just outside of the bracket, butted right up to the main bushing. This bushing was held on to the swaybar by a simple metal ziptie type of thing.
On the passenger side, I noticed the same busing, but the metal zip tie was broken, and the bushing had moved out of position...it was no longer next to the main bushing.
Do you guys know what this secondary bushing does? To me it seems like it might keep the swaybar from hitting the subframe under load, since the main bushing seems so soft. But this is just a guess.
I actually put a plastic ziptie on the bushing and tried to get it as close to the main bushing as possible, but it was difficult since I had the car up by one wheel, apparently compressing the swaybar too close to the subframe for me to squeeze the bushing back into place. It might be easier to butt them together once the car is up on ramps with even wheel loads. I wanted to run this shadetree fix buy you guys to make sure I'm not overlooking something.
If you can't tell, yes I am trying to avoid a warranty fix by the dealer like the plague, if I can do it myself. I absolutely hate stepping foot in any of my local Mazda shops...too many sh*tty experiences.
Any helps is appreciated.
I was rotating the tires on my 02 P5 with 28,000 miles and was doing my usual wheel well area check when I took the wheels off.
I noted something obviously wrong. Let me explain what I saw as best as I can. The front swaybar has the main rubber bushings clamped down by the bracket that actually holds the swaybar to the car subframe. On the driver side I noticed that there was another bushing just outside of the bracket, butted right up to the main bushing. This bushing was held on to the swaybar by a simple metal ziptie type of thing.
On the passenger side, I noticed the same busing, but the metal zip tie was broken, and the bushing had moved out of position...it was no longer next to the main bushing.
Do you guys know what this secondary bushing does? To me it seems like it might keep the swaybar from hitting the subframe under load, since the main bushing seems so soft. But this is just a guess.
I actually put a plastic ziptie on the bushing and tried to get it as close to the main bushing as possible, but it was difficult since I had the car up by one wheel, apparently compressing the swaybar too close to the subframe for me to squeeze the bushing back into place. It might be easier to butt them together once the car is up on ramps with even wheel loads. I wanted to run this shadetree fix buy you guys to make sure I'm not overlooking something.
If you can't tell, yes I am trying to avoid a warranty fix by the dealer like the plague, if I can do it myself. I absolutely hate stepping foot in any of my local Mazda shops...too many sh*tty experiences.
Any helps is appreciated.
