Its finally getting to me. Any time I am on the gas, normally between 2000 and 3500 RPM these is a very annoying rattling sound that comes from the transmission/ engine bay. It sounds almost exactly like there is a bunch of change bouncing off metal in the ash tray (I checked, not that).

The car is a NA 1988 FC, completely stock with 110,000 KM's. I changed my gear/ diff oil recently, and that didnt help at all.

I am pretty sure the shifter bushings are original, and there is quite a bit of slop in the shifter, but that doesnt seem to be the problem. I am trying to get an idea of what to look for before ripping the shifter and transmission apart!

Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers,
Joe

 

Check the air pipe going to the cat. Mine came loose once and was hitting the undercarriage.

 

Grab your tail pipe and shake it. I lost a muffler hanger but it wouldn't rattle until I was going about 60mph.

 

how have you isolated the shifter? hold pressure on it while driving and the noise does not change?

the shifter bushings, if original, are 99.99% surely gone completely.

 

Shifter bushings. Also, a previous owner may have installed a short shifter. They are hit and miss in regards to rattling at that rpm.

 

I must admit, shifter bushings sure feel 99.99% surely gone completely. lol. I guess that would be a good start. I have held pressure on the shifter, and it doesnt seem to make a difference, but I will try it again just to be 100% sure.

I have looked around for shifter bushings, but I'm not 100% sure what I am looking for. Everywhere seems to have something that looks different. Is there a generally favorite place to get them from? I am from Canada, so Canadian shipping friendly is required.


I will start with trying to find bushings and hopefully get them in this weekend, check cat pipe, muffler, and anything else that could be rattling. I guess I can stop worrying about my transmission dropping out from under my car every time it happens lol.

Thnaks!

 

If the car is truly all stock, it may be an exhaust heat shield. Most aftermarket exhausts don't have them, but the OEM Mazda ones do. I still have my stock cat and the heat shield on it would buzz under acceleration at various RPM levels. I have temporarily silenced it by wrapping a large worm-drive clamp around it.

 

^ read my mind. Very likely.

 

Ayup

 

I get the same rattle. I have rb headers so no head shield, is there another shield other than the one that was above the original manifold? I checked the air pipe already

 

Check the play in your drive shaft yokes. I was getting a bad rattle around 35 mph or when i let off the gas . Drove me nuts finally it rattled so bad it rattled the tail shaft bushing out my trans.

 

I have a terrible rattle myself. Mine looks to be the exhaust though, probably the best place to check first.

 

That's usually the permanent fix. Either that or rip it off. (Which I do not recommend.)

 

By "temporary," I meant until I either buy a Bonez high-flow cat or dig the old Random Technology one left over from my previous FC out of my parts surplus heap in the basement.

 

You can get the shifter bushings from mazda trix. They're really easy to install.

You'll need both of these vvvv

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.as...m=17-481A-M508

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.as...m=17-4810-M501