Hello,

I have had my 3rd generation rx7 for about 5 months now.

I have never herd this clunking noise before.

When I am driving slowly ~20km/h-30km/h i can hear a clunking noise when I am on a rough surface of going over bumps. It is comming from the rear end for sure.

I do not hear this noise when I am driving at higher speed even on rough roads.

I am not sure what is causing the "Clunking" noise, any help would be much appreciated.

 

most likely the clunking noise is coming from the bushings in the rear control arms. It is a fairly common problem in FD's, just do a search for "clunking" and you'll find lots of info.

I had to replace mine (I believe there are 8 of them) when my car hit 60K miles.

Good luck

 

How much did it cost to replace your bushings?

 

I think the bushings are $60 US each from Mazda. The labor was 3 hours at $75/hour (I think, it was almost 4 years ago), so it isn't a cheap fix unless you do it yourself.

Once again, if the problem is your bushings, I have read lots of how to's on this board to replace them yourself.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

I was wondering if it would hurt the car if i keep driving without replacing them?

At the moment my cash is tied up in another area.

I would get around to do it, but i was wondering if it would hurt my car?

 

You can also get aftermarket HD trailing arms and toe links with sperical end links. You won't break these.....

If you can do it yourself it is a fairly easy job. Requires alignment afterwards.

-GNX7

 

Thank you for the information.

Will my rear end get damaged if I drive around with damaged bushings?

 

i was gonna say that.

 

There are only six of the spherical bushings you need to replace. Try the for sale section. Someone has been selling them as complete sets for a couple hundred bucks. Otherwise, call Malloy Mazda and ask for Ray in parts. I think he can get them pretty cheap. As far as install goes, it isnt very hard. Max Cooper's website has a detailed how-to with pictures.

Good Luck!

 

I had a clunk when I got my car. Got the "pillowball bushing" advice and went and replaced all of them on the side that was clunking. Took me 4 hours and costed like $175. And it didnt fix the clunk. Actually ended up being that the rims on the car were the wrong offset or something because after I got new rims it went away.


Of course yours probably isnt the rims since it just started, but it may not be the pillowballs either. Be prepared for the possibilty you replace the pillowballs and you still have the noise.

 

I just replaced all 6 pillow ball bushings last week. About $300 and 3.5 hours of work. That eliminated about 90% of my clunking. The toe links are still making some noise and I should have the bushings for that in a few days.

To know for sure you need to put the car up on a lift or jasckstands. Get under there and move things around, see what feels loose.

 

dont drive like a banshee and you should be fine.