have a question i think its from suspension/steering

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Munnugles

Member

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2008 Mazdaspeed 3

• Mar 3, 2008

• #1

ok this has happened to me 3 times in the past 3 days and its really starting to bother me because i have no idea what it is, first off i have an ms3 with stock suspension,rims, and tire, one upgraded mm. now for the part thats bothering me is that once in a while when i goto park in a parking space (not parallel parking but like pull in parking) when i turned the wheel right it made a kind of grindy/clunky type noise, first time it happened i didnt think much of it, thought it was something i ran over. it has only happened when i turn the wheel towards the right and at extremely slow speed (~5mph) it also SEEMS the sound is coming from the passenger side of the car... any ideas, i will be bringing it to mazda next week to take a look unless its something i may be able to do. just need your thought, maybe something like this happened to someone and knows what it is

thanks in advance

 

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GoFast

Member

Contributor

:

2010 Flyin' Carpet

• Mar 4, 2008

• #2

sounds like the rear sway bar is loose. happened to alot of the o7s. just tighten up and it should be fine

 

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Munnugles

Member

:

2008 Mazdaspeed 3

• Mar 4, 2008

• #3

the sway bar with turning the wheel would make a noise like that? i have an 08 also im not to familiar with doing suspension stuff but is there any specific bolt on the sway bar i would be tightening or is there only one, and can i possibly reach it without jacking the car up or not?

 

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GoFast

Member

Contributor

:

2010 Flyin' Carpet

• Mar 4, 2008

• #4

yes ti could cause a noise like that. you may be able to get under there with out jacking the car up. there will be an end link on each side of the sway bar at the very end of each side. check to see if both of those are tight

 

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Munnugles

Member

:

2008 Mazdaspeed 3

• Mar 4, 2008

• #5

ok will do tommorow when there is light out... by any chance do you know what wrench or socket size it would be to tighten them..
ill also post up again tommorow if they where loose or not...
thanks

 

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GoFast

Member

Contributor

:

2010 Flyin' Carpet

• Mar 4, 2008

• #6

check this thread out it will ad some insight to what you are experiencing...
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123666162&highlight=loose+end+link

 

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Munnugles

Member

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2008 Mazdaspeed 3

• Mar 4, 2008

• #7

k thanks for that

 

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mk_slayr

Member

:

wrx, wrx

• Mar 4, 2008

• #8

I was experiencing the same thing, took it to the dealer to have it looked at, among other things, it felt like the cv boot to me but eh. They said they re tightened the suspension but it popped a few days later, i think they don't have a clue as to what they are doing....

 

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bacarl

Member

• Mar 4, 2008

• #9

If you're driving at parking lot speeds, unless you crank the wheel violently and upset the body, I don't think the rear bar would be making much if any noise. GoFast I know you have some racing history so you might have some experience, but IMO I doubt it's the rear bar.

I've had similar issues on Ford vehicles (I work as a suspension engineer) from the front strut bearings. When you turn the wheel, the bottom end of the strut pivots with the wheel, but the upper mount is bolted to the body. Hence, there has to be something that allows the main body of the strut to rotate independently from the upper mount. There's typically a low-speed ball bearing in the upper mount to achieve this, and sometimes if it gets dirt ground into it or if the bearing isn't a robust enough design, you'll get a noise just like what you're describing.

It's only audible at low speeds, and in parking lots is where you're driving slowly and turning the wheels close to lock. When you take it in I recommend suggesting the techs inspect/replace the strut bearings.

 

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Munnugles

Member

:

2008 Mazdaspeed 3

• Mar 4, 2008

• #10

k well i took a look at the rear endlinks and everything was tight no loose stuff,
bcarl - is there any way i could take a look at what you saying without taking anything apart because i have to wait till next week to go to the dealer cause i have off from school.
also while driving home i hear a sort of draging noise not sure where it came from though any ideas about that?

 

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bacarl

Member

• Mar 6, 2008

• #11

Munnugles said:

bcarl - is there any way i could take a look at what you saying without taking anything apart because i have to wait till next week to go to the dealer cause i have off from school.

Click to expand...

Probably not. I do have to admit that I don't know exactly what the design is on the Mazda, but on the Ford programs I've worked on the bearing is part of the upper strut mount, which is bolted to the underside of the strut tower; not the most accessible spot. Here are a couple pics to show what I'm talking about.

Top end of a Ford strut module:

Disassembled upper mount -- that's the bearing on the right:

So, if you know how the strut is mounted to the body, you can see that it's not exactly a part that you can get your hands on, or even see very well.

also while driving home i hear a sort of draging noise not sure where it came from though any ideas about that?

Click to expand...

I don't know about this one, could be anything. Not the strut bearing though. If it's constant, have a look at everything around the wheel/tire. Maybe a fender liner isn't tucked up where it needs to be and rubs on the tire.

 

Last edited: Mar 6, 2008