Rotator

Anyone experience a rattling or thumping sound while going over small studder bumps or frequent breaks in pavement?
Mine has something from the right front that appears to be a loosness to the lower ball joint, or possibly the upper/lower A-arm bushings.

Mazda literature indicates that the rubber bushings employed are fitted with a sleve that is integrated with the inner pipe of the stopper.
They call this zero stopper clearance. I wonder if this is a problem.

I can't tell any loosness in any bushing, balljoint, stabalizer links, or tie rods just by moving the wheel by hand while up on jackstands, but it is definately audible while driving over small bumps.

Doesn't appear to affect the performance in one direction over the other.

If you have ever ridden in a chevy impala cab, the sound is similar. Kind of like the whole suspension is loose.

Anyone else experience this?

LucasET

This is an easy one. I had this exact problem for awhile. I told my mechanic about it and we went for a little drive to find some bumps. Neither of us could pinpoint the noise, until he put it up on the lift. With the wheel off, I stood there looking over everything. Purely by chance, I noticed a really small place on the air foil/heat sheild that directs air onto the brake rotor that looked like it had been polished. BINGO!! It was too close to the brake rotor. When I hit a bump with a little sharpness to it, the thin metal was hitting the brake rotor and making a sound that seemed like something was loose. I'd put my money on that being the source of your noise. If it is, thank your lucky stars. If it isn't, sorry for your lo$$. You may not even have to take off your wheel to fix it. Just give the metal a little nudge away from the rotor. It's fairly pliable, and a centimeter change isn't going to hurt anything. Hope that helps.
-Lucas-