My Clunk is NOT the Sway Bushings.

[JonnyMiata]

I am not sure if I misread the posts in the past but I thought this mysterious clunk was coming from the sway bar bushings. That is NOT the case with my car. I took my MSP over to a local tuner shop and asked the owner and friend of mine to diagnose the problem. He is a suspesion expert and has been racing for more years than I know about.

I took him for a short drive around the business park with him in the trunk. He found out where the noise is coming from. It is coming from the top of the shocks. We put it on the lift and then lifted up the rear wheel and you can feel the play when you lift it up. We then took the seats down in the back and took the plastic plugs out of the plastic in the back shelf. We could then see the top of the shock tower. He pulled up on the wheel and I could see the play at the top of the shock. It is not much but it is enough to make a clunk.

He didn't do anything to the car. He suggested that I take the car to the dealer and ask for them to fix it. He suggest putting a spacer in the top of the shock tower but he didn't know how that would affect alignment.

Was everybody else finding this problem or is this another problem altogether?

Seems to me that it would be an easy fix. What do you guys think?

Jonny

 

[Newf]

back last year, Mazda suggested that this would be the case with my car. They said, stick it on the ramp, and grab the shock, if it moves around, then that's what they were talking about. Apparantly there was a TSB on this for the MP3's, all though I've never seen it.

But, my shock doesn't have any play in it at all, doesn't move around, and the clunk is indeed the bushings. Once the clunk is at it's worse, you may even be able to grab the sway bar and move it around with your bare hand.

 

[MikeBlueP5]

thats a pretty good thought. My p5 was fine until i put the coilovers on and now there is a clunk on the back pass side over small bumps, but on the bigger bumps like say for instance a pothole it does nothing. I checked the collars of the coilovers and they are nice and tight, the exhaust clears and everything guess its back to taking out the plastic to check this, along with a few other things like the jack and some other stuff. Lemme know what you find out.
Mike

 

[Dexter]

i dont know what it is, but i dont think it can be the bushings. i think i heard it driving over a small bump. it sounds like it comes from the trunk. i have less than 100 miles so how can the bushings be deteriorated already.

 

[JonnyMiata]

Newf,

It sounds like we have two different clunks going on here. We checked the bushings for the sways and there is no play. It is very tight.

I am going to drop off my car to the dealer this week. I will kep everyone posted. It seems like the master tech at my dealer is very interested in working on my car and getting things working.

Jonny

 

[jroof]

Well, I suppose that's another place to look as well. I had an appt with the shop foreman this morning. He could hear the damn thing driving in the parking lot. Mine has gotten pretty bad. I'll have them check that out if he doesn't find anything with the bushings. It was encouraging when he said..."Yeah, this isn't acceptable at all." My feelings exactly.

 

[twiztedjeckel]

the guy actually rode in your trunk. that could of been fun