It appears the 8 has developed a new strange and disconcerting noise. I might take it to Mazda to get it checked anyway, but :

When cornering hard left, possibly in conjunction with braking but I'm not sure on this one, the a somewhat metallic repetitive clinking sound is coming from the front right of the car. I'm note sure if it sounds like it is coming from under the bonnet or from the wheel.

Has anyone experienced this or know what it could be? Steering does not appear to be affected.

 

Hi dbb,

I had what sounds like a similar thing a few days ago.

Like you, it was only on tight left hand corners, when the weight was thrown hard onto the right front wheel. I could get it to happen on demand, even at slow speeds in a car park, so long as the corner was tight.

The good news is that I fixed it. The bad news is that I'm not exactly sure how!

Firstly, I jacked the front right up and took the wheel off. This allows the suspension to hang down to its full travel. Occasionally, the effect this has on various bushes and bearings will "reset" some creaks and squeaks. My noise didn't really sound like a creak though - more of a tick, tick, tick - but jacking the thing up allows a good view of it all and it might even allow some small foreign body (stone, stowaway boatperson, or whatever) to fall out.

However this noise sounded slightly 'metallic' too (sound resonating through the back plate???), and the 'click' frequency seemed tied to wheel rotations. I checked all round the metal backing plate but there seemed nowhere that it coud be touching. I also gave the brake pads a good wobble (push?) in case anything was lodged or loose in that area. All seemed OK, although the pads did seem a little loose (maybe something trapped in that area was jiggled out - as Mark suggests in a post below?).

Finally I dug all the stones out of the tread on both front tyres (there were plenty). If one had been lodged in such a position that it only hit the road under certain conditions of tyre flex it might well have been going "tick, tick, tick, tick" as it hit at just the right angle. Never had that before with stones, but it seems at least plausible, if the right one was stuck in at just the right spot.

I know I would have felt a bit of a dill if I'd gone to Mazda in "Warranty mood" and they'd just taken a stone out of the tread or the brake assembly - so I was glad that whatever I did fixed the noise! :D

Good luck.

 

I just jacked the car up and checked. No stones, but when I hand rotated the wheel, there was a slight rubbing sound, and the wheel didn't rotate as freely as I expected. It is almost as if a brake pad is out of alignment and slightly rubbing.

Maybe I'll get Mazda to look at it tomorrow ....

 

dbb, ive had the same prob on BOTH of my 8's.

Its as if they were tied up wrong on the trucks and somethings bend/broken.

When i'm reversing and go forward i get a big clunk in the front end, felt in the steering wheel and under brakes and U turns and hard cornering. U turns are the worst, thats a big clunk. at night when this happens, my lights dim as the clunk happens. front left always.

let me know how you go. I'll be going to my dealer when I have a chance.

 

Hey guys, i got this problem too with turning left.

My car is at the service center as we speak.

Regards
Phillip

 

Let us know what they say the problem is ...

 

I hope they fixed it, Choppy. Let us all know how you went!

The other thing it could be is the wheel speed sensors. They are a different arrangement on the front, and perhaps possible for somthing to get caught in there.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Mine had a similar sound a while back. I rotated the tire and it appears the pads were rubbing against the rotor. As soon as I went home, I applied a water jet between pad and rotor, and problem solved. I suspect gravel gets stuck between pad and rotor, and make this metalic noise. Hope this helps

Mark

 

If the springs aren't sitting properly in their mounts, you will sometimes experience a strange clicking noise when the steering is turned.

This is due to the movement of the spring around the strut assembly and simply requires the spring to be relocated into its proper mounting position.

That's my opinion since it is difficult to determine without actually hearing it.

Good luck!

 

Problem was fixed.

All they did was tighten the suspention on the front right wheel.

Apprently something they do on the first service.

Regards
Phillip

 

Thanks for the posts Nojooc and Choppy,

It sounds like jacking my car up and letting the suspension hang down to its full travel must have allowed the spring to reset, reseat, turn slightly or whatever and get it away from the position that was causing the clicking.

Good to know what to look for if it happens again.

I wonder exactly what "tightening the suspension" involves? Is there a particular nut that is tightened to a certain tension or what?

 

BVD maybe best to ask one of the guys in the tech area.

Im not really sure i have not taken the car of the ground to have a good look under it.. Well the cars been of the ground but i was driving it during that time

Regards
Phillip

 

Hey guys,
Check out the TSB's on Rosenthau Mazda thread. Mazda USA just issued a fix for this. Seems it is the coating on the brake rotor. The fix is to remove wheel and sand the coating off of both the rotor and back side of wheel.

 

I talked to the service manager and i pointed him to the TBA's and he informed me that has nothing to do with cars in the AU.

They get there own internal TBA's.

I did suggest a public place we can view something like this as i believe its a good idea in order to keep us up to date.

 

Thanks DaveT, that's an interesting read. Looks like we have a few possible causes.

Here's a link if anyone's interested. It' s the one at or near the bottom, that starts "Snapping noise..."

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...ocs/index.html

Phillip, I had exactly the same response from my dealer when I asked about the oil light/new oil pan issue. They told me that was only on US cars, and most of that stuff was fixed on the Aussie cars before they started importing here. Yet there were definitely several Australian owners who reported that they did have the trouble and also that their sumps were replaced.

I think that most dealers (and Mazda) prefer to fix only when a customer complains directly about an issue. I can't see any reason why the issue mentioned in the US bulletin wouldn't apply here. I think that all dealers are still learning about this car and don't want to be swamped with nervous owners every time an issue gets raised on the net.

My car had just had its first service when the problem occurred (so if they tightened the supsension it didn't work). However I did tighten the wheelnuts pretty throughly, and changed the position of the wheel, so that might have fixed it too.

Unless it happens again I'll probably never know....

It's great that we can pass this sort of information around here though - it's good to have a few options to check when troubleshooting. Thanks guys. Cheers, Chris.

 

I have the same problem after my 10K service and a tire rotation. Took it back and they did some cleaning etc (per service bulletin 02-002/04 mentioned above I believe) and put the wheels back on - told me it was fixed. Took it out today and same problem - outside wheel on respective left and right corners (hard cornering) - metallic clicking. Frustrating!

 

ok so reading http://www.finishlineperformance.com...02-002-04.html there is nothing bad about the noise. its doing no damage. I'd prefer to put up with the noise than remove the anti-corrosion coating.

 

Z88M

what Mazda service centre do you take your car?

Give John a call at the Rockdale service centre on 8577 4222, Tell him i gave you the number (Phillip with the RX8) and tell him you have the same problem i did.

I took the car out today for abit of a hard drive heaps of hard lefts and rights and no problem it has not come back yet.

Regards
Phillip

 

Phillip,

Thanks for the contact info, hopefully they will fix it properly this week.

Cheers ... Daniel

 

No problem at all mate.

I did 200 kms this weekend on my 8 local driving and with the window down listing for noises i did not here anything out of place

Regards
Phillip