Mazda3 clunk

Check the motor mounts. One in particular is prone to failure on the older Mazda3. Look for leaking fluid around the mount.

Just a couple of questions to get a good picture here... When you say 'older' Mazda3, does 6y/o qualify? (Incidentally, despite its age the car has only done 25,000 mls.) The only motor mounts I've had anything to do with have been rubber blocks, so what kind of fluid should I be looking for and where would it have come from?

Thanks for your advice Lanny.

Yes. I believe the problem was resolved on the 2007 models.

The mounts are filled with some sort of fluid, not solid rubber.

This may not be your issue, but there's a history of failures on

This is useful Lanny. One thing that gives me doubt though is the fact that I only get the clunk once, after engine startup, and not again until the next engine startup. I don't get the clunk when pulling away from the lights, or pulling out of junctions. But judging from the thread above it would still be a good idea to get the mounts checked out. Thanks.

Let us know if you get this figured out. Allot of us own or have friends who own Mazda 3's

Chris

Will do Chris.

Oh right... sarcasm. Sorry to be so slow Chris, but I'm not very good at sarcasm. You prompted me to look up 'miata' only to find that I'm posting on the wrong group. Apologies all round.

Does it have an electrical bootlock? A friend of mine has a MX5 NC with an electrical bootlock that made a sound like a bottle of oil tips just after driving away. Since you don't say where the sound comes from I suggest you take a look at this...

Jeroen Technical Commissioner Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands

"andy-k" schreef in bericht news:dxzCn.988823$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe26.ams...

This is an interesting suggestion Jeroen. The car does have an electronic hatch lock, but the manual says nothing about it automatically locking just after driving away. I can't really say where the sound is coming from, but it does sound similar to a heavy relay engaging so there may be something in what you say.

I was not being sarcastic! I was serious, please let us know what you figure out. We're most all Miata folks first but Mazda folks second (or third ;-)

Chris

I was always rather fond of the Mazda 3 (as far as FWD hardtops go), but this last year it looks like they beat it with the same ugly stick that they first used on the RX8.

I guess I understand the desire for a "corporate identity", but couldn't they have come up with a classier identity?

Are they trying to target the same customers as alienware PCs?

Next thing you know Mazdas will all come the plexiglas hoods, transparent light-up fan-blades, and CCFL UV lamps illuminating florescent cabling and hoses.

Maybe I'm just getting old...

From personal experience, you can't see the silly bodywork from the driver's seat. What other folks see is *their* problem!

Our dark gray 3 is a 2007, so the front end isn't quite as goofy. My wife calls it "our baby hippo."

But I'll still know it's there, and I'm too vain to bear the constant nagging thought that passers by are saying to themselves: "look at that 50 year old guy on his way to buy some decals, yello wiper blades, and a 6" exhaust tip."

Yea, I just can't get past the new front end. It reminds me of something out of a bad 1970's science fiction movie. The rest of it isn't bad. At least they seem to have resisted the urge to add hood-vents and gill-slits.

:)

Maybe you haven't seen the newest version Grant ;-) Ya, Mazda has pulled a 'Cadilac' here with picking a corporate snout and sticking with it no matter what! It is quite embarrasing and yes, relative to the balance of the cars designs, which I'm pretty happy with, the nose (which I describe as the Joker's smiling face from the modern Batman movies) is inexcusably bad!

Chris

On the off-chance that you're being sincere, I've been told that it's just the ABS activating and nothing tobe concerned about.

Having known Chris for a number of years now, I can guarantee you that he is being sincere.

Hell, that man even thinks that the RX-8 looks nice! ;-)

Pat

It's nothing some bondo and a grinder couldn't cure. Fill some of those holes, smooth out some of the wrinkles in the sheet-metal, and you've got a half-way decent looking car.

The interior, OTOH, is pretty much hopeless.

Dang! I hate having to apologize ;-) Sorry Chris -- my bad.

Yeah, the RX-8 is not a favorite of mine.

Most of my favorite-looking cars are from the 1990's, well after the "lead sled" era and before they reached the "Bubble-Pokemon" look that so many cars have today.

From this era, the Acura NSX, the last RX-7 design and, of course, the Miata all come to mind immediately.

Pat