I own a 2006 Miata Grand Touring which experienced a failure of a control arm in the left suspension rear OR a failure of the left rear tire. While driving at freeway speed on Monday the left rear tire exploded and we are in a process to determine if this was mechanical failure (control arm broke off and hit wheel) or something on the freeway which damaged the inner wheel and caused a blowout.

In 2005 the NHTSA issued a safety alert the companion to the recall of the 2004 Rx8 for just such a failure. See below:

http://www.autorecalls.us/aut-04/rec...x-8/12547.html

Here is my thread on the Miata forum.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...=1#post5384268

I am really interested in any person who knows something and or anything about this issue. I'm not looking into a lawsuit god forbid.
I just want my Miata to be whole again!

Thanks men and ladies.

 

I've heard about the ball joint issue, and people could see they were cracked. But I dont know of any accidents happening because of a cracked joint, just something that people saw was broken and had to get fixed. But just because I havnt heard of such a case doesn't mean it didn't happen....

Also I don't think they were a "recall". A recall is when all cars of that year and VIN range are told to come into the shop to have something fixed regardless of it it appears broken or not. At most it was a TSB (technical service bulletin) where mazda would fix the part if it was observed to be broken and/or causing a problem.

 

http://auto-recalls.justia.com/mazda...000/index.html

 

I believe RX8's share the same design so probably your MX-5 had similar problem.

 

I miss my Miata...2009 sport.

 

Bumping. Miata is at the dealer. Inquiry/Complaint filed with NHTSA. Any other peeps have experience with this issue??

 

Late reply....

There was no known recall of Miata (NC) Lower Control Arms like the early S1 RX-8, they are similar in design but are different part numbers and bushing compound.

The issue with the RX-8 was within a certain production run of these RX-8 Lower Arms.
I think around 5 (from memory) were found defective world wide.

Series 2 Lwr Arms are different.

 

Thanks for the information. This is an update:

We found upon inspection that the control arm had previously been damaged. Old rust and a flat spot was present where new impact occurred. The dealer and insurance fixed the vehicle to the tune of $2649.000. After this I had the car aligned and took it to Miatamotive here in San Diego. We found that the wheels were not compressed when the bolts were tightened so one wheel was 3 inches lower than the other. I called the dealer who did the work and they had a hard time getting their heads around this as the specs were correct. finally mechanic to mechanic they agreed to pay for the fix at the guy i trust. I also contacted the seller Biddulph in Arizona who agreed to pay my deductible of $250. as I had just bought it three weeks earlier. I also made it clear to them that they should have caught this.

Story ends Thursday when fix is done.



Thanks men for your support.