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Two week old RX8 - suspension clonk!

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

Reply to
RichardK
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I know it's a dumb question but you have checked the wheelnuts are tight?

Reply to
Duncanwood

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.

Richard

Reply to
RichardK

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...

Reply to
Zog The Undeniable

Exactly what I was thinking

Reply to
a.n.other

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.

Richard

Reply to
RichardK

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