The Culprit Of The Clunk!

I often wonder when I hear people talk about Cold weather effecting if their talking about the same thing. Because my clunk is actually WORSE in the summer time because of rain. Although, in the winter, because the roads heave a lot here, and ice build up, the bushings take more abuse ( more bumps ) and wear faster. Did that make sense? Basically they make the noise in summer as well, new bushings or not.

The bushings make 2 noises from my experience.

1. When Cold, they make this crunchy sound, like driving over a coke can every time you go over a bump. This is actually pretty normal for high end suspensions and i've never really made a big deal about it.

2. The over-discussed clunk noise which aint normal.
 
I don't even mind the clunk as much as the terrible squeek of the struts in the cold.
 
the squeaks are the front bushings!...they'll fix them for you too...you should only need a new set of them every year or so though... sad really that its become this common of a topic...
 
Has anyone contacted Racing Beat about upgrading the production cars?
 
I'm in talks with Racing Beat now. It's sounds promising, but I haven't heard anything concrete in about a week or so now. I'll try to contact them again and get an update.

And it's the front bushings for the front swaybar. Much harder to change then the rear.
 
scott42 said:
the squeaks are the front bushings!...they'll fix them for you too...you should only need a new set of them every year or so though... sad really that its become this common of a topic...

not really,
They changed my front one too, but as i was driving out of the dealer ship it started to squeak...........
 
kepone, that's great news. If I move into the speed, I'll order some as well if needed. But that's a few months away.


Keep us up to date
 
But what about the urethane bushings? I'd be excited if those were available aftermarket. Just upgrading the endlinks is like doing a puzzle with a piece missing.

Newf - has there ever been an attempt made to do a survey of all the people who's bushings have failed? Such as typical weather conditions in their area, mileage when the bushings failed first, # of times replaced, etc.
I could put something together if you think it would help.
 
Grimace, why don't you start a new thread(cause there's never enough on bushings:D )....make a short list of questions and we can all try an answer them:cool:
 
Ok, I think I know a list of questions to ask, but I'll ask the expert (Newf) if he can think of any I shouldn't leave out.
 
Think of all the questions and I'll create a new website with web forms and a database. This data can then be presented back to Mazda NA and Canada.
 
expert????? Boy I got you fooled!

(rofl)

Sounds like an idea though. I think something was done a LONG time ago like this, but not quite the same. There are a lot more people around now so it should go better this time


Go for it!

I must say, more people are stepping up to the plate lately and really contributing. We are almost there guys. Various solutions on the horizon, Mazda ,hopefully near to the point of being some sort of help.

If we can all start .... ummm....bitching all at once right now. I am sure something will be done.

Mazda called my dealer today again, and asked again to have my car shipped to TO. They are VERY serious about it. I'm feeling out some more options before doing so.
 
Does the 2003 Protege 5 still have this issue with the same bushings or did they Mazda finally fix the issue ? What is this clunking caused by ?
 

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