Sway Bar Problems of Mazda CX9

Two weeks ago I brought in my car due to noise and steering issues. The right ball joint was found to be very loose and about to fail, so it was replaced. The mechanic looked at the left ball joint and determined it was tight and therefore did not recommend replacement. Yesterday, while driving, the left ball joint failed. My tire got wracked and locked-up sending me into a skid. I had to be towed. The axle broke, plus the sway bar, strut and control arm all need to be replaced, between the two repairs, the cost is quite high. This could have been deadly at high speeds.

See all problems of the 2007 Mazda CX9 🔎.

Went to dealership for an oil change and they stated that we needed to replace our lower ball joints, control arms, tie rod ends and sway bar links because nhtsb has been receiving complaints about 2008 Mazda cx-9s crashing due to these items failing. The dealership brought it our attention that due to safety concerns, we needed those items replaced. They scared us to death. We spend $1,125 to replace the items. I now have done research and it appears they were correct, there have been catastrophic cases where the cars crashed due to the suspension parts failing. I sure hope that nhtsb moves forward and makes Mazda perform a recall. Hopefully I can get my money back from paying for this service. My vehicle only has 75k miles on it.

See all problems of the 2008 Mazda CX9 🔎.

On 06 June 2015 at approximately 1400 my wife was making a left hand turn through an intersection at approximately 15 mph. Near the end of the turn the front passenger wheel broke loose turning nearly 90 degrees to the right and jammed itself into the rear of the fender well. The car was immediately immobilized and came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the intersection. Looking at the damage it was obvious that the lower ball joint had failed and broke completely free. This caused the wheel to turn nearly 90 degrees to the right which subsequently ripped out the cv axle from the transmission. Had this occurred at highway speeds the results could have been deadly. The vehicle had to be towed to a repair facility where the control arm/ball joint assembly, the cv shaft, and sway bar link was replaced. There is also fender well and body damage that will have to be repaired. On 10 July 2015, I noticed an unusual instability while negotiating wide turns on the highway. It felt as if the vehicle had a wheel loose. While turning to the right, the vehicle would abruptly turn even sharper to right almost causing an unintentional lane change. After coming out of the turn I could feel the vehicle suddenly correct itself. Once I arrived at my residence I jacked up the front end of the vehicle to inspect the front wheels. The front passenger wheel seemed normal (was repaired in June 2015 as mentioned above). Much to my dismay when inspecting the front driver side wheel, I discovered that the ball joint on this side is now broke. It is not separated, but is clearly broken as evidenced by the excessive movement and clunking noise when moving the wheel from side to side as it is suspended above the ground from the car being on a jack. I will be having this repaired this week once parts arrive from the local Mazda dealer. Bottom line: I no longer feel safe in this vehicle.

I heard a loud noise as I turned left into a driveway and came to a stop. The car wouldn't move forward or backward. When I got out to inspect, I found that the left front tire had disengaged. The car was towed to a non-dealer service facility, which determined that the left front ball joint had broken. The ball joint, axle and sway bar link were replaced. The next week, I returned the car to the service facility, and they determined that the same repairs were needed on the right front, as well as replacement of the tie rod ends on the left front. About a month after these repairs, I took my car to my local Mazda dealer for a full ("used car") inspection. I mentioned the repairs I'd had done, and they said they weren't aware of any problems with ball joints on cx-9s. I had been traveling on the freeway (70 mph) not five minutes before the ball joint broke. I hate to think what would have happened if it had broken at that speed.