Guys I'm almost fed up with the sound my car makes. I've replaced all the bushes last month so the clunks are gone forever but thats just the tip of the iceberg.

I get a creaking sound from the boot somewhere and can't figure it out. Happens when like one rear wheel is at a different height to the other, e.g say I go over a speed bump and my left rear wheel goes over it first...nice creak follows.

I've tried checking my boot struts and they are fine. I notice that when I push the rear hatch down with my hands on either sides, i.e around where the tail lights are, I can push them in quite a bit and it makes a rather squishy sound like rubber is squashing each other underneath.

Any suggestions on what to check next???

 

its your bushings sir

 

Your kidding me right? I've replaced ALL of them and its a creaking sound not a clunk sound.

 

What is your suspension setup?

 

Ohlins

 

could it be possible that it may have a break in period?

 

hey mate,, a quick one for you i fixed a strange clunk (i know not a creak) it turned out the latch that holds the boot closed wasnt pulling the hatch tight enough down on the seals. I just removed the cover inside the boot in between the tail lights and unbolted the catch, then moved it lower down and retightend (the latch can be moved up and down and left and right so a bit of fiddling is needed to get it bang in the middle and low enough). Worked a treat ,just something to look at, easy fix.

 

Tiger I spent a good hour the other day trying lowering the latch lock thing but I couldn't do it. Yes I understand the theory of lowering it so that the hatch is held tighter to the car therefore less room for it to move and hence creak.

I tried moving it abit down but each time the hatch just wouldn't close. I ended up putting it back to its original position. I even crawled into the boot from the rear passenger seat to line it up but there's no room in there let alone lying flat on your back with that bloody rear strut bar to get inbetween lol

 

Strange i just moved my down a little , noticed it was a little harder to shut it, but fixed the strange rear rattle. get a friend to push the tailgate like you described while you sit in the passenger seat to see if the sound is the same.

 

Yeah an extra hand would of helped big time. Because I couldn't shut the hatch I tried a different method.

I tried having the hatch closed and crawling into the boot and undoing the 2 bolts holding the lock in then pull it down but it didn't even budge. I guess if I had an extra person outside pushing it down would of been alot easier.

I'm almost certain the sound is from there cause after I gave up and whilst still lying in the boot, out of frustration at my car I tried pushing up and pulling the hatch to relieve some stress it made alot of creaking sound.

 

Try putting something on top of the rubber bump stops that are in the outer corners. I used a dense, compressible foam that wasn't so thick as to prevent the hatch from closing, but was enough to take up any slack so that the hatch wouldn't move. It solved my rear creaking noise for the most part.

 

Whats the condition of the rubber seal like,,,maybe its just weak and naffed?

 

Kento: Someone suggested that in the past to me. I sorta of tried it out but my problem was I couldn't find something sticky enough to glue it down to the car. I know there is like a rubber stop on either sides...I even tried to raise that up but you can't really move it.

Tiger: I haven't really looked at that. Rubber seal as in that rubber piece that runs around the edge of the hatch?

 

Yer man the rubber seal that runs round the hatch,, suspect it wont be cheap from mazda.

 

A quick way to verify the creaking is caused by the hatch bump stops is to increase the diameter of the locking latch.

Wrap a piece of duct tape about 10mm wide around the bottom of the latch (where the striker engages) three or four times. This will effectively increase the diameter of the latch by a millimeter or two - usually enough to determine if the latch needs to be lowered to resolve the creaking.

If too much tape is applied, the boot will require effort to open, as the latch sticks in the striker.

Hope that this helps resolve your problem.

 

I actually did that in addition to the spacing of the bump stops, but I got tired of having to redo the duct tape after every four or five opening/closings of the rear hatch...

 

See if the noise is only when you are in the car with someone else, or also when you are alone.

The carrying capacity if the car is only about 400 pounds, and I get noise whenever I am driving slowly over rough surfaces with someone else in the car.

We are not as small as the Japanese.

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to take off those 2 rubber stops on either ends and take it down to Clark rubber and see if they can cut up something similar but with the top raised more to support the hatch more.

As for the bottom of the latch I'm confused. You mean wrap duct tape around that "U" section of the hatch?

 

Yes, the loop that sits in the recess of the hatch.

 

I once had an odd creaking sound after a suspension change.

On the top of the stock shocks is a little paper-like piece of smooth plastic. I neglected to re-install that and had what sounds like the same issue as you are having now. It took me a while to pin point it but after I re-installed that the creaking sound went away.

Good luck.

 

Try the sway bar bushings, particularaly if you've upgraded the rear. I had urathane bushings on the PFS sway bar, and they sqeeked like hell!!... wiki, wiki, wiki, all the way down the road, over every little bump.

I took 'em off and coated itnside w/ CV joint grease... noise free for 5 years.

 

As crazy as this may sound, I had a creaking sound that I swore came from the rear of my FD. It sounded a like like a creak or a chain rattling. Ray from Peter Ferrell Supercars, squirted some WD 40 on hood hinges and the sound went away!!

Go figure.

Super77

 

There was a TSB on this way back when - they get dry and creak when they do.

 

I had an obnoxious unidentifiable rear end clunk that happened at nearly all speeds and was especially noticeable while driving over roadway expansion joints. It turns out that the center nuts were loose on both rear shock towers. Once tightened, I cleared up the problem. Then I had a front end squeak that I solved by lubricating the hood latch.