Ok, so last night my car started making a creaking/clicking/scrubbing noise whilst on the throttle, which has now increased to when off the throttle also.

Its coming from the rear left hand side wheel arch, so I jacked the car up thinking it would be a wheel bearing, grabbed the wheel at 6 and 12 o clock, and was unable to move it. Tight as anything.

So I pulled the wheel off to have a look at things and found the shock like in the photos attached (these are photos of my car).

Is this:

A) likely to be the culprit for the squeeking/clicking noise?
B) likely to be dangerous and should be fixed asap/not driven on

thanks for any input in advance.

 

Yes and yes.

 

More likely to be a U-joint worn/dried out.

 

You need a new shock my friend......and yes don't drive till you fix or your asking for more to fix...

 

A. Possibly, but that is unimportant right now compared to...
B. Yes, most definitely. That's a pretty harsh tweak on the lower shock mount. You might want to check the associated rear suspension components for any problems.

 

That strut looks fubared. The noise is probably coming from the sway bar link hitting the lower part of the strut. It looks like it's touching it from the photos.

 

That shock looks like it was left sitting in a salt bath for several months. I presume you live by the sea?

I would replace all your shocks. You can buy low mileage shocks in the classifieds here for next to nothing.

 

It would probably be a good idea to also get the pillow ball bushings while you are back there:

http://www.maxcooper.com/rx7/how-to/...lls/index.html

 

That's a little extreme. The paint could have just popped off from the bottom mount getting bent.

 

Extreme? Have you seen how thick the stock lower shock mounts are? Short of a major accident, I would not have thought it possible to bend these puppies.

 

Agreed. The upper & trailing arms must have taken a big hit.

 

Thanks all, I have taken my FD off the road again untill I fix this. Sounds like its time for some coil overs though

Maaan these cars...I knew exactly what I was buying having owned an FC beforehand, but on saturday I got it back from the shop with a bill of $1400 to replace a lower intake manifold gasket aswell as the exhaust and turbo gaskets...and then 270kms later its making a hell of a noise whilst driving and i find a rooted shock.

oh well, they designed it to look good standing still for a reason, lol.

 

Yeah, it's kind of extreme to replace all of something just because one of them is damaged and I was letting this guy know so he doesn't spend too much money. It is a good excuse to upgrade, but if I were staying stock I'd just do the one damaged strut if I wasn't having problems with the originals.