Steering wheel clunk

[Deathspared]

Can y’all confirm if this is a normal sound? Noise happens when moving steering wheel back and forth. Traced it down to the steering linkage near the pedals. The pictured bolt is torqued down tight.

Interestingly both my 2021 Mazda 6 with 30k and my 2016 CX9 with 100k make the same noise but I don’t remember it always being like this. I’m trying to diagnose a rattle when driving over small bumps in both cars and am wondering if is related to this clunk.

 

[GrampaSlade]

It's hard to pinpoint a noise. Can you move the wheel while the engine is off to see any slop?

 

[Deathspared]

It makes the same noise from the same location with the engine off. Just wondering if other cx9 do the same thing or if this isn’t normal.The steering itself is nice and tight.

 

[GrampaSlade]

Can you see any movement that doesn't belong?

 

[RhinoHorn]

Can y’all confirm if this is a normal sound? Noise happens when moving steering wheel back and forth. Traced it down to the steering linkage near the pedals. The pictured bolt is torqued down tight.

Interestingly both my 2021 Mazda 6 with 30k and my 2016 CX9 with 100k make the same noise but I don’t remember it always being like this. I’m trying to diagnose a rattle when driving over small bumps in both cars and am wondering if is related to this clunk.

I got a similar noise in my cx8, 2018.

This noise I found it to be most probably coming from one of 2 areas.
1. Steering rack preload nut - it requires adjusting.
2. Inner tie rod end on the driver side - slightly worn out needing change

The clunk sound over bumps was my worn out stabilizer links which I changed & that clunk over bumps disappeared.

I'll let you know when I change my inner tie rod ends and adjust the preload and see if there will be any improvements.