Rattle from Rear when going over small bumps

I have a loud rattle coming from the rear of my 2005 Mazda 3 when going over bumps (anything bigger than smooth new road). It sounds like metal on metal rattle.

I've had 3 different people look at it and they all say different things. Mazda says replace the endlinks for $1000 because its worn bushings, other garage says bushings are fine and they dont know what it is.

What's strange is that if i apply the brakes, even just a little bit, the rattling doesnt happen at all, which leads me to believe its not the endlinks.

Anyone have any experience with this issue? It's really annoying/embarrassing...

any help would be really appreciated.
 
Well take a look for yourself, the endlinks are the knobby things that stick out down below the sway bar when looking under the rear of the car. The socket could be broken causing the stud to move around in the socket which sounds kinda like what you are saying. They are a really cheap and easy fix to do yourself. If they are what is broken I would say it is about a 10-15 min fix and should cost about 30 bucks.

You may also want to make sure that your rear shocks are tight. I have had mine come loose from their mounts and sound loud also when going over anything that isn't prefectly smooth.
 
Thanks, I'll check that tomorrow when its light out... I dont trust the Mazda guy here at all, they made up a whole bunch of stuff for my car last time i took it in and i took it to another garage with the list of "problems" guy actually took me out and showed me how everythign they said was broken was actually in good shape...

Regardless, would those kind of links stop rattling when i put on the bakes?
 
Ok, so i went and looked.

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for but nothing, to me, looks broken. I could be wrong tho.

I also took it out for a drive on a VERY bumpy road that under construction, engaging the brakes at all, even so the car barely slows, completely stops the rattle.
 

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Have you changed your brakes recently? I had that too, annoying metal sound going over the bumps, apperantly my mechanic did a poor job on brakes, so when it was time to change them again, after the work, the sound went away
 
The endlinks appear fine, the big thing to check if you want to would be to make sure that the socket, the round part doesn't move around on the stud that goes into the swaybar. I had mine broken on my car more than once and you can't see them being broken, you have to actually push on them to see them move.
 
I just checked and the plastic cylinders around the shocks are loose, I can push them around and make a clicking sound ..sound is similar to what I'm hearing...are those supposed to be loose?
 
Please post a picture of what you think is loose, if I am understanding what you are talking about, it is the sleeve that goes on the rear shock. That will most likely be loose as it just fits on over the shock. But you should check the shock mount itself. If you take off one of your rear wheels you will get a very good look at one of your rear shocks. At the top of the wheel well you will see the shock mount, then the shock. The shock is attached to the mount via a nut that is hidden by the mount. You will have to remove the two nuts holding the mount to the car, then at the bottom of the shock there will be a bolt holding that one. Remove that bolt. Then push up on the bottom of the shock and compress it so the bottom of the shock comes out of the lower shock mount. Then lift the shock out of the mount and drop it back down at an angle so the top mount clears the wheel well. Once you have the shock out of the car make sure that the nut that is on the top of the shock mount is tight. You will have to use an adjustable wrench to hold the tab at the top of the shaft and a combination wrench to tighten the nut. Mine were loose after I had my Koni Yellows installed, it made a rattling noise when I went over bumps. I had to go in and tighten them again. Just be careful not to break the tab off on the top of the shaft.

Good luck,
Josh
 
Here's the thing, you're right, its the plastic sleeve around the shock.

I'll take a look at what you mentioned tomorrow. I'm going to try to replace the brakes too, since the rattling stops completely when I put on the brakes, I feel like it has to have SOMETHING to do with that.

Thanks for all your help, i'll see what I find out tomorrow :)
 

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Yeah, that is the plastic sleeve. Hmm, on my old honda civic that had rear drum brakes, I had a problem with the brakes that made it sound like I was dragging chains behind me. The problem was little pieces of metal from the drum falling off and getting between the drum and the pad. But your three probably had disk brakes in the back as long as it is a hatch or has the 2.3l motor.
 
Replaced the brakes, rattling stopped.

The inside pads that were on the car didn't have a little spring on them that the new ones had. Seems those are what were moving around when going over bumps.

I'm surprised at how loud of a noise they made, but, seems they were the problem!
 
its weird that you have this problem, i just happened upon this thread and found the same problem that i have been having with the rattle in the back end with small bumps on the road! i recently just had my rear brakes done as well and am now thinking that they must have done an ass job, will check it out thanks for posting this info!
 
it was the brakes after market brakes dont have a shim with them where the factory pads fit the caliber properly! made the shop pay for my new pads for all the aggrevation, thanks for the post(nana)
 
I need to replace rear brakes and rotors, plus rear shocks... I hope my rattle goes away too. Quick question for you. When pulling out the shock absorbers, do we need to compress the coils with a spring compressor? I have not gotten under the car to see, but it looks as though the shock absorber is inside the coil, which leads me to believe I need to take the coil out too?
 
I need to replace rear brakes and rotors, plus rear shocks... I hope my rattle goes away too. Quick question for you. When pulling out the shock absorbers, do we need to compress the coils with a spring compressor? I have not gotten under the car to see, but it looks as though the shock absorber is inside the coil, which leads me to believe I need to take the coil out too?

On the rear the shocks are outside the spring coil, and they come out easily without removing the springs.
 
We just purchased my son a 2012 Mazda 3 and have the same rattling sound that everyone is describing. 3 mechanics haven't been able to figure it out. I found this on the Internet and will check and advise. . . I had rattling noise coming from the rear of my Mazda3 on road bumps and rough road since I bought the car used with 71K miles. At the time I thought the plastic spare tire cover was making this noise and there was nothing I could do... Fast forward 24K miles and 2 years, I realized it was not the cover making the noise, but a worn rear sway bar link. Replaced it at the Mazda dealer (after they replaced the rear strut which did not solve the problem). 10K later - this noise again. Now I new where to look! Helpful tip: To identify the bad link, use the bottom of your fist (preferably, in the glove:) to hit the end of sway bar where it attaches to the link. If the link is bad, you will hear the same noise! $30 OEM link from Ebay and 45 minutes of work - noise is gone!
 
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