Two week old RX8 - suspension clonk!
RichardK
dictates it has started after 5pm on a Friday, the weekend before I have
to do a 600 mile round trip.
The RX8's offside rear wheel is making a very definite clonk on things
like manhole covers, sunken drain covers, and tight left hand turns
(slow, like taking a side road, rather than fast corners). The car also
feels like it drops a little. Handling seems otherwise normal, and it
isn't the ABS check which does a little 'grabby' thing when you first
move off sometimes.
Investigating shows no sign of broken springs or leaky shocks, but
there's a mark on the camber control rod which suggests that it is
hitting the subframe (there's no mark on the nearside).
Any ideas? Would a failed damper allow this sudden and harsh movement?
I'm surprised it has enough movement to allow the control rod to hit the
subframe TBH.
Richard
--
RichardK - http://www.dmc12.demon.co.uk/ - retro, music, cars.
2006 Mazda RX8, 1992 Sera Phase III -= Do Not Tempt With New Cars =-
"If the thought of something makes me giggle for more than 15 seconds I
am to assume I am not allowed to do it". * 64 is 128 for email *
Duncanwood
wrote:
> Here's a funny one - it is of course covered by warranty, but sod's law
> dictates it has started after 5pm on a Friday, the weekend before I have
> to do a 600 mile round trip.
>
> The RX8's offside rear wheel is making a very definite clonk on things
> like manhole covers, sunken drain covers, and tight left hand turns
> (slow, like taking a side road, rather than fast corners). The car also
> feels like it drops a little. Handling seems otherwise normal, and it
> isn't the ABS check which does a little 'grabby' thing when you first
> move off sometimes.
>
> Investigating shows no sign of broken springs or leaky shocks, but
> there's a mark on the camber control rod which suggests that it is
> hitting the subframe (there's no mark on the nearside).
>
> Any ideas? Would a failed damper allow this sudden and harsh movement?
> I'm surprised it has enough movement to allow the control rod to hit the
> subframe TBH.
>
> Richard
>
I know it's a dumb question but you have checked the wheelnuts are tight?
RichardK
>> The RX8's offside rear wheel is making a very definite clonk on
>> things like manhole covers, sunken drain covers, and tight left hand
>> turns (slow, like taking a side road, rather than fast corners). The
>> car also feels like it drops a little. Handling seems otherwise
>> normal, and it isn't the ABS check which does a little 'grabby' thing
>> when you first move off sometimes.
>>
> I know it's a dumb question but you have checked the wheelnuts are tight?
Not a dumb question at all - very common cause of clonks - but yes, I
did and they weren't the issue.
I've got a faulty shock absorber - first one the local dealer has seen.
It's leaking, what the dealer reckons is happening is that the oil is
below the normal level of the piston in the damper, and the clonk is the
piston hitting the oil fast.
Makes sense to me. Apparently it is safe to drive, and it isn't half as
bad when one person is in the car which is why I haven't noticed it so
much. The mechanic was convinced when he drove it around the block with
me in the car after he'd checked all the suspension was torqued/aligned
correctly!
Warranty, of course, and whilst it is annoying, I can't see this as a
Mazda build issue, more a component supplier error and bad luck. They
must make hundreds of thousands of shock absorbers, and I got a broken one.
I also got a premature failure on one of my Sera's gas door struts.
Guess this year is going to be the year of Failed Hydraulics for me.
a.n.other
Exactly what I was thinking
Zog The Undeniable
> Warranty, of course, and whilst it is annoying, I can't see this as a
> Mazda build issue, more a component supplier error and bad luck. They
> must make hundreds of thousands of shock absorbers, and I got a broken one.
Mazda build quality has always been patchy (you'll never find two MX-5s
that handle the same, sound the same or have the same fuel consumption -
in similar driving, cars vary from the mid-20s to the high 30s mpg!).
It's a tribute to the design and underlying component quality that the
cars keep working in spite of quality control...
RichardK
I must admit, I'd have expected a leaking shock to have been picked up
during the PDI - but the clonk 'developed' in parallel with me putting
more miles on the car, so perhaps it hadn't lost much fluid (and it only
really becomes a "WTF? This car surely shouldn't do that" with two
people in it - with one it's a very random "Hmmm. Harsh ride on this.
Must be sporty').
I'm getting decent mileage, though, for an RX8 - 27mpg more often than not.