Sounds like I have a cracked bushing but am not positive. When I depress brake pedal you hear and feel a sort of click noise. You can definately feel the clunk on your foot. Car seems to be stopping fine and I am not getting this sound around turns and such (which would also make this sound if it were the bushings)....
Any Clues or Suggestions???????

 

Does it happen only when driving, or can you sit in the car with it off messing with the brake pedal and feel it then?

 

When parked or in N..it does not make any noise. Very deceiving. Thanks for the help.......

 

Nothing around turns. Mostly at low speeds. Stop and go, stop and go driving really bring it out.....thanks

 

is the clunk sound coming from the front or rear of the car? If it's the rear, most likely your pillow ball bushings, lots of info on them if you search. But as far as feeling it in the brake pedal, never heard that symptom before. Maybe you got a ball joint going in the front or something.

 

I'm not sure if this is your problem, but it's easy to check. The clunking noise when you brake could be the movement of the upper 'A' arms within the mounts. It would also explain why they don't make noise when your parked or when cornering and why you hear it consistently in low speed "stop and go".
Put your car in the air without weight on the front suspension and check the upper 'A' arms for signs that they are moving fore and aft. On my car, it was pretty easy to spot and this solved it.........

From Ciriani's site:
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 23:11:46 EST
From: FSBOREGIS@aol.com

I had a clunk in my front suspension since I bought the car. I had it checked and found that the bushings in the upper A arm allowed excessive movement. I was told that it wasn't a safety problem, but I worried about handling due to changing steering geometry.

The pivot point to this bushing is actually a metal "tube". The bushing limits noise and softens the road harshness (mines an R1 so it doesn't feel like it softens it much).

I wanted urethane bushings, but couldn't find anyone who made them. I watched the movement (on a rack, not on the road! I'm not insane!) and realized that if I could limit the fore and aft motion I could live with these bushings until such time as I could find urethane. (By the way I was warned by 3 Mazda shops against replacing just the bushings. They wanted me to replace the whole A arm because they had heard of several people bending the A arm when the bushing was pressed in place.)

I took the upper arm off and found that the inner metal tube had a diameter of approximately .625" and the OD of the bushing was 2". I made a trip to my local C&S Hardware store and found out that a standard 3/4" washer had a hole diameter of .75" and an OD of 2". I spent 80 cents and bought 2. It was simplicity itself. It took me about 15 minutes to install them as "spacers" on the back side of the rubber part of the bushings. It does not interfere in any way with the metal inner tube. They fit as if they were made for that purpose. They did not cause any binding in the assembly as the assembly tightens down to the inner metal tube, not the rubber bushing. I still have the flex and shock dampening, BUT NOW I AM NOT ASHAMED TO DRIVE MY CAR! The noise is completely stopped and it did not change my front end alignment.

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