At $100 per Miata lower ball joint, you would think that would include a new nut.
No, nuts are $5 extra. 
Not sure if I am more pissed off that they are not included, they cost $5 or the fact that I did not notice until I got home and would have to make a return trip.
They are getting better, but its been my experience that no auto manufacturer beats Mazda at being damn proud of their parts. Its gotten better, but I still remember paying $700 for GLC struts in about 1982. Nobody else made them...
What's wrong with the old one?
Streetwiseguy wrote: They are getting better, but its been my experience that no auto manufacturer beats Mazda at being damn proud of their parts. Its gotten better, but I still remember paying $700 for GLC struts in about 1982. Nobody else made them...
You haven't shopped at the Porsche parts department very often, have you? :)
NOHOME wrote: No, nuts are $5 extra.
That's what she said!
1 word: Moog
bgkast wrote: 1 word: Moog
Pretty much got the word loud and clear, if dealing with Mazda, if you need Vaseline, you best bring your own...
Lesson learned.
Hmm. I'll stick with depreciated BMWs and parts costs.
Hi, I'm BMW. That tiny o-ring for the vanos in your car? $15, big guy. And you'll need 8 of them.
My experience. They are all bad. I universally dislike dealerships from sales to service to parts. The Germans seem to be the best at kicking you in the gonads though.
Many years ago I had a '93 MX-6 and decided to change the plugs/cap/wires. I went to the Mazda dealership and was quoted some exorbitant amount, walked next door to the Ford Parts desk and bought the same parts for a Probe at HALF the price.
Mazda is very proud of their parts!
The key with buying German car parts is buying them from certain specific dealers that do online parts sales. It's not unusual for me to be able to buy parts from Sunset Porsche for half of what my local Porsche dealer wants for them. Same thing with BMW...
Actually it's the same thing with Mazda too. There are dealers that want to sell parts and dealers that have to sell parts. If you are dealing with the former, it's typically not bad. If you are dealing with the later, you get the PN from them and find the former online if possible.
E36 M3, I have like 4 of 'em sitting around. How many do you want for $50 each?
Mazda motorsports has OEM for $48 so I can replenish my supply when I actually need one.
Swallowed hard and ordered (special order pay in advance so two trips to dealer).
Only reason these are not MOOG is because y'all dissed the aftermarket lower balljoints. God knows it was tempting at less than half the price. I will be staying away from the dealership as much as possible.
If you're on this forum, live in the US, own a Mazda and are NOT a member of Mazda's team support program - you have no reason to complain. Mazda is very generous with OE replacement parts through that program, and you qualify if you do two autocrosses or track days per year. Canada, well, that's more of a problem.
FM carries the OE lower ball joints for $69.95, by the way. And our extended ones are the same price if you need camber.
https://www.flyinmiata.com/na-nb-lower-ball-joint.html
The nuts should be reusable. Run a tap through them, run over them with a wire wheel - unless they're actually corroded away or rusted to the shaft, you can use them again.
Remember that these are parts last used on a car a decade ago, and they were only used on a low volume sports car. I'll bet the average dealership sells about two a year.
I am just really glad that I finally found a Mazda dealership in my province that actually answers the phone when I call to ask for parts. It's an hour drive, but it's also the only dealership I've had in the last three years that actually got a part into my hands.
Mazda Canada should really start looking into stuff like that, because having three different dealerships screw me over after weeks of waiting for "special orders" put me off buying a new car (or even another used car) from them big time.
As bad as the Subaru dealerships are in my town, they can at least figure out the part number + VIN combo, even if they do charge me a ton of money and take forever to get it in.
NOHOME wrote: Only reason these are not MOOG is because y'all dissed the aftermarket lower balljoints. God knows it was tempting at less than half the price. I will be staying away from the dealership as much as possible.
I call this piece, Stance, by Moog:
I'll echo what Keith said. I've technically expired this year (I didn't get in enough autocrosses in the same mazda..), but I still use it to look up parts diagrams & part numbers so I can order & search more effectively. This is a prime case where you should never assume a dealer (any dealer, not just Mazda) will give you everything you need to do the job. That's where looking at the parts diagrams will help :)
Keith Tanner wrote: If you're on this forum, live in the US, own a Mazda and are NOT a member of Mazda's team support program - you have no reason to complain. Mazda is very generous with OE replacement parts through that program, and you qualify if you do two autocrosses or track days per year. Canada, well, that's more of a problem.
Seriously, this is your answer. It took me a total of about 20 minutes to get registered with Mazda. About 10 minutes filling out online forms and another 10 looking for a few online autox results and linking them in an email. A couple weeks later, I got an email that I was accepted.
As a bonus, you can then tell people you are a "Factory Sponsored Race Driver" without technically lying. That kind of street cred is allegedly worth it's weight in gold with the brodozer crowd, flat-hatters and (I'm told), the ladies. I don't know any flat hatters or brodozers, and I'm happily married, so this is all second-hand.
Honda has the same sort of thing ... but if you admit to still driving the vehicle on the street, in my case it's an autoX and TT car ... dolly it to and from TT/other track events, drive it to and from autoX's ... was not welcome in their little club ... glad to hear that Mazda isn't like that
I used TRD's contingency program in the past. They were really good to work with. They put your CC on file and you email the part#s, then they show up. Back in 2006 when I was active, they didn't have a price list. I once asked "how much," to which they answered "It doesn't matter. If you genuinely need it, you're not going to get it cheaper anywhere else." I found that to be true. They went to great lengths to source everything I ordered in the global supply chain, even if it was NLA. If you compete, take advantage of any contingency offered.
Tyler H wrote: I once asked "how much," to which they answered "It doesn't matter. If you genuinely need it, you're not going to get it cheaper anywhere else."
Now that's a shop used to dealing with racers.
Now that the deed is done, I am over it. Lesson learned. Not like this is a 2016 contender in the first place. As to the racer discounts, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I am a builder and not all that interested in the competition aspect of this hobby. I have never been able to find my way around a cone course. Wrong brain wiring.
NOHOME wrote: Now that the deed is done, I am over it. Lesson learned. Not like this is a 2016 contender in the first place. As to the racer discounts, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I am a builder and not all that interested in the competition aspect of this hobby. I have never been able to find my way around a cone course. Wrong brain wiring.
So look at it as two sorting weekends a year to get you better part access. I don't think there's a requirement to do well is there?
Are you in the Mazdaspeed Motorsports racer net program? They're still no bargain, but they offer a substantial discount off list.
[edit] That will teach me to reply off my phone without refreshing.
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