Tony Yayo

Since last weekend, I have noticed that n both hard left and right turns -- on the street -- it feels and sounds like the loaded tire is pushed up in the wheelwell and grinding up against the fender liner... intermittently. It's like running over very hard "stay-awake grates"... but on off ramps!

Coincedentally, it happened after I had my two front tires replaced. However, the tires are round, balanced, and with even tread wear. The car has under 17,000 miles on it, and is literally bone-stock suspension-wise. There are no dead shocks or anything loose or disconnected up front, according to the dealer. I will check it myself tomorrow.

I know my alignment is all over the place. This or next weekend that will get taken care of. BUT, I took it to my friendly Mazda dealer and they could not duplicate the problem.... the only thing they can think to do is replace the steering rack, they said they think it's "shifting". Replace the steering rack?? WTF??


I'm autocrossing it for the last time this year on Sunday. It's gonna be interesting if I have this problem in the street turns, what it's gonna be like to autocross.

Anybody had this problem?

Go48

Is this happening at slow speeds? If so, check out this service bulletin:
http://www.finishlineperformance.com...2-04-1301b.pdf

Obvious stuff:
Does this happen at speed? If so, it could be the ABS attempting to counter push/understeer, but I assume you know what ABS activation sounds like.
Are the new tires over sized? May be rubbing as you postulate.

zoom44

the dealer couldnt hear the noise? did you drive with them?

Tony Yayo

Moot point as to what the problem is now...

apparently problem got worse after dealer said come back sometime next week to replace the steering rack. still "shuddered" in high-G turns, also now "clunked" in low-speed high assist turns.

does NOT happen with the brakes applied; in fact every time it happens, I am using no brake whatsoever.

did NOT sit with the dealer in the car; I just dropped car off with an explanation of what was happening. I think they were too lazy to take it the 1.5 miles down the road to the highway to get some time with on- and off-ramps.

saturday night, checked alignment: camber was same side to side (-1.75 f, -0.5 r), caster was +1 higher on L side but I got both sides to be +3.75 caster, and the camber was b/w 1.50 to 1.75 side to side. Toe was unknown, as it was a freezing, torrential downpour and I was lucky I got that far. Based on the lack of abnormal tire wear, it does not look to be significantly toed-out or toed-in, front or rear. after the caster adjustment, seemed to be a little more 'calmed down' on the highway.

Tires should NOT be so big as to rub; I have 18x8 +38mm offset rims all around (12mm less than stock), with the OE 225/45-18 RE040's on the front, and Falken 512 245/40-18's on the rear (about same diameter as OE).

on the way to the autocross on sunday, in the rain, on a high-speed highway merge in the wet, suddenly the rear came loose and played kissy with a concrete wall. Good thing it wasn't rush hour in Jax... this is a major traffic merge in jax, and I would have been steamrolled by any number of cars. On the bright side, I did have the friendly locals try to rip parts off the car, and got to spend 5 hours in the rain and cold.

Dealer is backpedaling, car has a slight possibility of being totaled, and now I am in a 3-way pissing contest with the dealer and my insurance...

Go48

Must have had the DSC shut off? Sorry about your mishap anyway. Assume no one was injured?

jowettw

how cold is it where you live?

carbonRX8

iTrader: (1)

^^^He is in florida. Anything below 70F is cold. water freezes in FL at 50F.

Do you think your accident had anything to do with a damaged suspension?

jowettw

the first post describes what it sounds like when you try to turn hard on the stock Potenzas in cold weather, but i guess you guys don't get "cold" in Florida :D ...

Tony Yayo

just b/c my username has yayo in it everyone assumes i'm from florida (cocaine capital)???

haha, i do live in florida but in probably the coldest part (it's been 30s - 40s and rainy lately). disclaimer i am transplanted great white northerner and know water doesn't freeze at 50 F. i spent 22 years with 8/12 months being s****y and 3/12 being around 0 F (or below). i've done my morning run in 35 below a couple times. just grateful i don't live like that anymore.

no injuries. could have been much worse, though -- an SUV was behind and next to me and somehow managed to stop. then they drove away before I got out (real good samaritan). if it was any other time than 0700 on sunday... say 0700 on monday... there would have assuredly been a multi-car pileup (with me at the bottom of the pile).

in any case the DSC was off. I turned it off to see if the "shuddering" problem on hard turns had something to do with DSC. think taking a turn with a spool rear end. see how it chirps and shudders? that's what the feeling was like. i fielded a guess that maybe the DSC was going crazy and maybe locking up a rear wheel or something. i have also high speed snap oversteer before, on the street -- WITH the DSC on. so who knows.

it certainly could have been something in the suspension broke -- the dealer itself admitted last week, BEFORE the accident, "the steering rack was loose and shifting." a cursory inspection the night before the accident in a torrential downpour, on my back in the wet and dark with a tiny flashlight, couldn't find anything major disconnected or appreciably loose, like the hub bearings, tie rods, suspension arms, etc.

the dealer now claims the steering rack was "fine" but they were going to replace it anyway "just to help me out". ???!!! i mentioned there could have been something wrong in the rear of the car -- as often problems from the rear can feel like they're up front -- and they said "well you didn't tell us the problem was coming from there, we had no idea."

my adjuster is looking at the car today. of course I didn't want to get my insurance involved but what are you going to do. in any case the car was supposed to remain *untouched* and *unmoved* before my insurance did their investigation....

...well guess what, a rep went over to look at the car before it was towed to the body shop rack -- and found my dealer had moved the car into the shop and was frantically working on it. again i still don't know if it was my dealer's fault -- but their actions are getting awful suspicious.