Loose suspension noise...

[creednet69]

Hi everyone,

In fall and all winter long, my protege5's front suspension has been making awful sounds.

At lower speeds, when I go over any little bump (or even cracks in the road), my front suspension constantly clunks (almost sounds like a loose diving board sound).

At higher speeds, over pot holes and bumps... same sound but less frequent. Still sounds like my front-end wants to drop to the ground.

When I installed my winter tires last fall, I checked the end-links and they they felt tight.

My question is, what else should I be looking at when installing my summer rims in a few weeks? Sway bar bushings?

Thanks

Martin

 

[NRRfrogmanP5]

i say just let the warm weather hit and see if it goes away..usually it does. i have alot of weird noises in the winter and when summer comes they go away

 

[creednet69]

Sorry I modified my post... the noise actually started in the fall. And even today where the temp was about 57 degrees, it was pretty much the same.

 

[Dpwhitehead1]

check your lug nuts torque.. hopefully they're alright, but that's a start.. otherwise, how many miles do you have on your suspension? it might be a bad strut mount. or loose bolts.. get in there, and check it out. all you need to do is pull one wheel off and start jiggling s*** around.

 

[creednet69]

My car has 150 000Km on it. But I changed my suspension at about 60 000km with Tokico struts, new springs and new endlinks. So I guess the mounts, bushings and stuff are still original.

 

[Dpwhitehead1]

My car has 150 000Km on it. But I changed my suspension at about 60 000km with Tokico struts, new springs and new endlinks. So I guess the mounts, bushings and stuff are still original.

hmm.. yeah could be some loose stuff. like the nut up top wasn't TOTALLY tight.

 

[creednet69]

You mean the one at the top of the strut? I wonder if I have to re-torque those... Like u said... I'll just get in there and tug on stuff...

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I'm gonna guess endlinks or sway bar mounts or strut bolts, top or bottom.

 

[sube]

Could also be ball joints, this is what it was on our 323, after swapping struts with new mounts, the sucker was still rumbling. The ball joints didn't feel too bad on the car but I changed them anyway, the rumbling clunking sound went away.

Pat.

 

[andrew2]

Mine is doing the same thing (81 000km). It does it in warmer temperature too. The dealer said it is the sway bar endlinks that need to be replaced. Took a look under to check if it was really that and everything looked fine. I'm thinking I'll just get new endlinks anyways to see if that stops the problem.

 

[fishdonotbounce]

A Protege 5 with a clunking noise coming from the suspension? cooommmeee oonnnnn, no way. lol.

Anyway, like the rest of the people said, it could be the sway bar bushings or any of that other stuff but another good place to check is your strut mount bushing. It's a little plastic piece at your strut mount and if it's broken, it could be the reason for your clunk. I had the same problem with the clunk for a year and I changed out EVERYTHING possible including the tie rod. The last thing was that bushing and it was a cheap part from the dealership (Yea can you believe that? Cheap and dealership in the same sentence.).

 

[RABID_MP5]

When you're checking things out for slop it's best to climb under the car with the wheels still on it - ramps would help a lot with this. That way the load on everything is about the same as normal. When you jack it up and pull a wheel things get loaded up by the difference between the 2 sides - especially the sway bar & end links. Just a thought.

 

[Sleepy]

One of the new noises from my 184,000km car is a worn rear endlink ball joint. Found it by hitting the stabiliser with my hand and tracing the sound to the endlink. Then found I could feel a slight movement when squeezing the end of the bar and the balljoint together and releasing. Try hittng the bar and listen for any movement, indicating worn bushes or joints.

Another problem was a seized endlink on the other side, which I lubed up ok for a while. But I still don't know what the front left and rear left creaking is from. Sounds like really strong rubber grinding/tearing at the front and a creaky spring sound at the rear. Strut mounts?

Trying to save up for a suspension overhaul. Either Htech or prokit springs on Tokico blue with all rubber parts replaced, or a set of BC coilovers for about the same price. Hmmmm...

 

[Dpwhitehead1]

One of the new noises from my 184,000km car is a worn rear endlink ball joint. Found it by hitting the stabiliser with my hand and tracing the sound to the endlink. Then found I could feel a slight movement when squeezing the end of the bar and the balljoint together and releasing. Try hittng the bar and listen for any movement, indicating worn bushes or joints.

Another problem was a seized endlink on the other side, which I lubed up ok for a while. But I still don't know what the front left and rear left creaking is from. Sounds like really strong rubber grinding/tearing at the front and a creaky spring sound at the rear. Strut mounts?

Trying to save up for a suspension overhaul. Either Htech or prokit springs on Tokico blue with all rubber parts replaced, or a set of BC coilovers for about the same price. Hmmmm...

def gonna wanna hook yourself up with the BC coilovers man.. no doubt in my mind.

 

[Sleepy]

Tempting, but I drive up to 1,000km a week, alot of which is at night on the 2nd worst highway in the state in the wettest part of the country. Potholes appear overnight and are impossible to see at night in heavy rain. I don't want to drop more than about an inch either, so I need to find out the height adjustment range, ride quality and durability of these things.

creednet69, did you find the problem?

 

[SurfsideQnK]

Mazda woes

I had the same trouble with my Mazda 626. The shop told me my compressor was bad and could possibly need a new air bag, dryer, the works!! A friend of mine referred me to a company called www.StrutMasters.com Their people asked me what was going wrong and put me into a "conversion kit". I have not had any problems with it so far and if I do, you better believe I will be taking them up on the lifetime warranty it came with!! LOL Good luck with your Mazda. Talk to them at StrutMasters and see what they tell you. They advised me of a lot of little tricks that some shops have out there to be careful of too!

Andon

 

[Psylence]

I'm getting that same noise as creednet up front. Sounds like a diving board when I go over bumps at slower speeds. I'm also getting this grinding noise on my front right tire too. I can feel it through the gas pedal and the floorboards. At slower speeds it sounds like grinding and at higher speeds it sounds like really loud road noise. On another note, I think I hear some intermittent chirping noises coming from one of the front tires...hope it's not wheel bearings!

 

[ShortBusDriver]

I have the same diving board sound. Did any of you guys ever figure out what it was? Endlinks look fine to me on mine.

I've noticed that when I push down on the the hood above the driver side wheel (where my sound is coming from) it feels softer and easier to press than compared the the passenger side. Does that point to the strut?

 

[starlifter]

The noise could be from several things to include the CV joints. Yes, they can make this type noise when worn. Usually you here them when making a turn but not always. Get a friend to physically shake the car side to side and up and down while you look and listen (hood open). Like someone mentioned before if you can have it up on ramps (safety first!) you can observe it from below while someone does the shaking. It's best to find out and fix it because Murfee's Law is it will break at the least desirable time like when your running late, in the rain at night in a bad part of town with no money etc..(boom06)