Clunk in reverse

[f-castrillo]

Originally Posted by kritz Rear sway bar end links? @f-castrillo

I believe they're OK. I've checked on them, and everything looks sound. Furthermore, the sound only occurs when the left front tire undergoes an elevation change relative to the front right tire, like backing out/going into a driveway or going over a speedbump crooked

[kritz]

Ballmjoint?

[robry]

when I have some time prepping the car for winter here shortly, I'm gonna go over all the suspension and see if anything is lose, although as other has said they were able to tighten like sway bar endlinks and get it to stop.

I'll take a few photos and mark up what I tightened, etc.

[tuners]

I get a clunk as well when backing up and it only seems to happen when the wheel is turned.
My suspension is so modified that I haven't really bothered trying to analyze what was causing the noise. I could never figure out waht caused it and I can't take it to the dealer so I just deal with it.

[Zdraveca]

Same shit here :/

Sent from my T-Mobile G2

[2011speed]

mine does the same shit, only when im reversing and turning the wheels to the left.

gonna take it in soon, starting to piss me off

[robry]

they will likely just yell at you and tell you they couldn't reproduce it

[mtran]

I had the same issue, it was only intermittent. Until one day it just got progressively worse driving home on the highway. Turns out my rear swaybar endlink had come completely loose and on the verge of coming off. The nut didn't seem to have a grease pen marking from assembly. So I'm not sure if the assembly line forgot to torque it on all our cars or something?

I took the nut off and checked the threads for wear from the constant clunking. Applied a little loctite and torqued that sucker down. No more noise from that endlink now

[dannybot]

I just got my car Saturday, and got the clunk tonight backing out of my driveway. It sounds to me like a sway bar bushing needs lube. I have done this many times over the years on different cars, in fact GM had a major problem with this sort of thing in the early '90's.

The solution is to remove the bushing, put lithium grease in it and reassemble. The degree of difficulty varies from car to car, and I haven't even looked under my car. If it continues, I'll try to do ten fix on my car this winter and report back.

[skawt01]

Originally Posted by dannybot I just got my car Saturday, and got the clunk tonight backing out of my driveway. It sounds to me like a sway bar bushing needs lube. I have done this many times over the years on different cars, in fact GM had a major problem with this sort of thing in the early '90's. The solution is to remove the bushing, put lithium grease in it and reassemble. The degree of difficulty varies from car to car, and I haven't even looked under my car. If it continues, I'll try to do ten fix on my car this winter and report back.

Dealer told me the front suspension and steering assemblies are all good. Couldn't reproduce the clunk noise. Any chance you lubed the bushings and had success??

[outshined]

@robry
@zedekias
@Mase
@f-castrillo
@JT.Tuckerman
@2011speed

TL;DR: Jacked up entire front of car. On affected side, un-bolted strut mount and removed endlink, clocked strut mount 120 degrees counter-clockwise from previous, re-installed strut mount and endlinks to torque spec, clunking now gone.


Glad I found this thread again, as I've been able to solve my "clunking while reversing and turning" problem.

About a month ago I pulled off the front wheels to check over the front suspension, and more specifically to look for causes of this issue. I should note here that in my case, the "clunk" sound occurred while backing out of my driveway and turning my wheel to the right (so if my car was the hour hand on a clock, it went from facing my garage door at 12 to facing down the street at 9). As best I could tell the sound came from the front driver side wheel area. The driver side was inspected first:

1) The endlink was tight at both points of attachment
2) The central nut on the top of the strut was tightened to spec
3) The three strut mount to tower bolts were tightened to spec

I then decided to remove the endlink and strut mount to tower bolts. The endlink ball joints were surprisingly loose for a car with 5k miles; by that I mean they were easy to swivel compared to a new ball joint, which you can barely move by hand. With the suspension assembly "hanging" I reached up into the wheel well, grabbed the triangular mounting flange of the strut mount, and rotated it to check for wear.

Interestingly the friction/resistance of the strut bearing changed from moderate to high approximately every 120 degrees of rotation, as if the bearing was slightly binding at certain points. Bear in mind that the change in effort I felt with my hands is miniscule compared to typical forces in the steering system, so I won't go so far as to say that the strut bearing was in fact "binding" so badly that it can be considered a problem. If any of you folks disagree on that matter, please be my guest and post up.

Moving forward, I then proceeded to first re-install the strut mount clocked 120 degrees counter-clockwise from its original position and tightened the three bolts to spec in two stages (70% spec and 100% spec working clockwise). Once that was complete I applied anti-seize to the threads on both ball joint studs of the endlink and re-installed with both sides again torqued to spec in two stages. I reduced the 100% torque spec by 10% to account for the presence of anti-seize.

Since doing this, the "clunking while reversing and turning" has not occurred at all. Although I still believe the strut mount may be suspect, I won't be taking it in to the stealership monkeys until it poses an obvious problem.

[Mase]

Nice! Good info. Ironically I have not noticed the clunk in quite sometime. Maybe it settled or something. Thanks for writing this up though as I will know where to look if begins being a bitch again. Love your avatar! LOL

[outshined]

Originally Posted by Mase Nice! Good info. Ironically I have not noticed the clunk in quite sometime. Maybe it settled or something. Thanks for writing this up though as I will know where to look if begins being a bitch again. Love your avatar! LOL

Holy shit, I just realized you're 45 minutes away, lol!

Glad to hear yours is behaving now as well. I was PISSED when mine started doing it about two days after I brought the car home.

[Mase]

Hehehehe yeah I noticed that as well. Yeah I was not too happy either. Only seemed to happen when I first backed out of the garage in the AM. I can't remember the last time it did it. Knowing my luck something is fixing to go though! lol

[outshined]

Originally Posted by Mase Hehehehe yeah I noticed that as well. Yeah I was not too happy either. Only seemed to happen when I first backed out of the garage in the AM. I can't remember the last time it did it. Knowing my luck something is fixing to go though! lol

Hah I know I feel like my front struts are on borrowed time. Speaking of which, are yours on the loud side? Mine have had that "new strut" clunky sound since I bought the car but it hasn't changed at all in 7500 miles.

[robry]

mine haven't really made the noise in awhile, I'm at 15xxx miles right now. I'll pay attention once it warms up. I also moved and have to park in a certain spot of the driveway which requires me to turn/backup, almost parallel park the car. So that might be why it's not making noise anymore.

[4RGED]

soo this is a very old post i know but the dealership will not look at my car since it has aftermarket parts on it.. pathetic! i dont know if this is the same problem but when i put my car into reverse and hit the gas i hear a loud clunk as if a MM were loose (which i have checked and theyre all tight) i then park the car in the garage at my house, and then next time i go to leave i hear that clunk as soon as i start to drive, it doesnt do it again, once in a while it does it from a stop or if i downshift into first at higher RPM's.. this noise is pissing me off and something is going to snap im sure, any ideas?

[90210]

I test drove a 2011 with 3100 miles on it and a new 2013. Both when I put it into reverse, travel a bit (steering wheel straight), and put the tranny back in neutral is when the clunk happened.

Clunk was loud on both cars, and only did it backing up..and then getting to a stop to move forward.

[rodface]

Got my '12 a week ago, with 14,000 miles on it from the first owner. The clunk occurs as described in this thread, occasionally when reversing with the wheel fully turned. The sound is identical to the one heard in this video:

Reverse noise. Mazda speed 3. - YouTube

Reverse noise. Mazda speed 3. - YouTube

[kelchy]

My car does a light click noise when I first back the car out...but I think it's the ABS brake check though. So it could be what some of you are experiencing, which is normal.

That clunk in the video is definitely louder than the ABS brake check though.

[jseams]

Originally Posted by rodface Got my '12 a week ago, with 14,000 miles on it from the first owner. The clunk occurs as described in this thread, occasionally when reversing with the wheel fully turned. The sound is identical to the one heard in this video:

Exact same noise. More pronounced in the cold and only after the car has sat for a while. It started at about 500 on the odo and is the same now with 4K on the odo.

I've stopped worrying about it... I think 90% of PU owners report on this.

[kolosok17]

Originally Posted by jseams Exact same noise. More pronounced in the cold and only after the car has sat for a while. It started at about 500 on the odo and is the same now with 4K on the odo. I've stopped worrying about it... I think 90% of PU owners report on this.

Mine just became fairly prominent after 12k miles. Every morning when I head to work and back out, I turn the wheel all the way to the right and it clunks somewhere around the front right as I'm rolling. I just attempted to reproduce it for my girlfriend in warmer weather, but could not do so.

I was going to take it to the dealer, but will leave it as is if it's not a big deal.

[90210]

After hearing the clunk two times a day for last 5 months, it has completely disappeared

[jseams]

Originally Posted by kolosok17 Mine just became fairly prominent after 12k miles. Every morning when I head to work and back out, I turn the wheel all the way to the right and it clunks somewhere around the front right as I'm rolling. I just attempted to reproduce it for my girlfriend in warmer weather, but could not do so. I was going to take it to the dealer, but will leave it as is if it's not a big deal.

My clunk disappeared soon after I installed my springs. The weather started warming up around that time so that might have something to do with it... but I haven't heard it in a couple of months now.

[socaltouch13]

I don't mean to also revive this old thread, but.....I could have sworn someone found the issue. This weenie even went as far as putting his car on a lift and posting a video of it. He described it as a "jar popping" sound. It was the one of the driveshafts and when you wiggle it with your hand, it makes the same sound. I can't seem to find that thread to post it here, it wasn't too long ago that I'd seen it. Anyways, if my mind serves me correctly, mazda did not have a fix for that.

[jseams]

Originally Posted by socaltouch13 I don't mean to also revive this old thread, but.....I could have sworn someone found the issue. This weenie even went as far as putting his car on a lift and posting a video of it. He described it as a "jar popping" sound. It was the one of the driveshafts and when you wiggle it with your hand, it makes the same sound. I can't seem to find that thread to post it here, it wasn't too long ago that I'd seen it. Anyways, if my mind serves me correctly, mazda did not have a fix for that.

I remember the thread and most of what that person went through trying to isolate the cause. However, I'm not certain that all of us are experiencing this noise from the same sources... My "clunk" disappeared as soon as I replaced my stock springs and hasn't reappeared (several months now) - and temps in the mornings have gotten into the low 50's at times - just as cold as winter here (lol NorCal).

[socaltouch13]

Originally Posted by jseams I remember the thread and most of what that person went through trying to isolate the cause. However, I'm not certain that all of us are experiencing this noise from the same sources... My "clunk" disappeared as soon as I replaced my stock springs and hasn't reappeared (several months now) - and temps in the mornings have gotten into the low 50's at times - just as cold as winter here (lol NorCal).

I installed the cs race rmm this weekend, hoping it would take care of that noise somehow.......but nothing.

[jimbojonesI495]

Originally Posted by rodface Got my '12 a week ago, with 14,000 miles on it from the first owner. The clunk occurs as described in this thread, occasionally when reversing with the wheel fully turned. The sound is identical to the one heard in this video: Reverse noise. Mazda speed 3. - YouTube

Hey I know its kinda old post but did you ever source the noise? I got exact same clunk. Reversing into parking spot coming to a halt. Not too much turn on wheel, pretty much going straight back

[rbflurry]

Mine has done this since 4000 miles on the clock.

Who knows.

[danmillerok]

Originally Posted by jimbojonesI495 Hey I know its kinda old post but did you ever source the noise? I got exact same clunk. Reversing into parking spot coming to a halt. Not too much turn on wheel, pretty much going straight back

Wow, you chose to necro a thread with your very first post...


Some clever remark about being sent from Tapatalk

[Saintblues]

anyone find the solution to this problem?

Thanks

[MS3Shadow]

Originally Posted by Saintblues anyone find the solution to this problem? Thanks

Wow, you chose to necro a thread with your very first post...

sent from my Nexus 6P