I had a squishy noise and a clunking noise coming from the front of my car. The closest dealership to me is Dufferin Mazda so I went there to get an assessment done. After paying ~$60 for the assessment, I was told that I'd need to replace my motor mounts (cracked), front shocks (blown) and front end-links (worn).

I went home, put my car up on a jack, and looked at my motor mounts. I couldn't see that they were cracked. I also wasn't experiencing any hesitations as described on one of the TSB's. I also bounced my car to try to see if my dampers were blown. From what I could feel, probably not.

The next day I dropped my car off at Mazdee's. Long story short, the Racing Beat sway bar bushings needed lubrication. That resolved all the squishy noises. Saved me quite a few bills there. Admitedly, the clunking still persists. Dave suggests that I replace all the bushings and replace the worn out end-links. I'm currently waiting for the parts to arrive.

Overall, Dave @ Mazdee's a nice guy, no BS. The techs there were all very friendly folks. Saw one RX8 inside, two in the parking lot and one on the road near his shop. I'd say he works on enough of our cars to trouble-shoot tricky problems. Give him a try. There's a Discount Car Rental within walking distance of his shop. I dropped my car off, rented a car to drive back to Toronto.

 

Dave at Mazdee's has been working on rotaries since before most of the club members were born lol. His race experience is vast, he used to campaign an RX-3 that won just about anything and everything here and in the Caribbean!

 

Horrible experience at duffrin Mazda! Between the surly service rep and the incompetent technicians I am Never going there again! They managed to damage more than they fixed!

 

Just like to say I had a completely different experience with Dave and he tried to rip me off with my Rx-7