Squeeky bushings
 

For Eric or anyone else with aftermarket sway bars,

I bought the full MP3 suspension with the Racing Beat springs and finally had it installed by a dealer. The car handles awesome, but the has developed some nasty noises that sound like bushings rubbing against metal. I hear these low squeeking sounds while turing the wheel while stopped, backing down my sloping driveway, or going over bumps with one wheel. These noises became really pronounced and much more frequent when driving in the rain.

Has anyone else developed these problems? I seem to remember other people having sqeeking problems like this, but no difinitive solution for dealing with it other than greasing the bushings once every week.

I expect when I take this car back in to the dealer tomorrow they will take car of it as they are all Mazda parts and a Mazda mechanic. However, I am a little pissed off that they didn't do it right the first time.

Can someone explain why this would happen when istalling parts that were stock on the MP3? As far as I know, the underside of my car should look exactly like an MP3, but it doesn't sound like one.

hey mp3's have that squeek problem also...it is really annoying...it just stays there no matter what u do....i think we need poly bushings.....i have no clue what to do though..

Your problem is most likely caused by the stock rubber mounting bushings for the sway bars. The dealer didn't lubricate them correctly, or at all, when they installed the parts. You mentioned the noise occuring when turning the wheels at a dead stop. Your sure your not hearing steering pump or tire squeal right? When I first installed my sway bars, I had the same problem. but it was most noticable in the rear. I used regular chassis grease to lube the bushings where they contact the bar, which has fixed the problem ever since. Some of the noise will continue to go away as the bushings break in also. The front bushings are a LOT more difficult to get to than the rear.

I agree 100% with Eric, but I have another thing for you to check. You may be hearing the front strut mounts rubbing against the inside tops of the strut towers. 99+ Proteges do not have big rubber strut mounts like most strut cars do; instead, the top strut mount is just a solid metal plate. This is great because it prevents flex and improves handling, but it is not an inherently squeak-free design like rubber mounts.

There is supposed to be a little paper-thin Teflon-coated clear plastic sheet that sits on top of each front strut mount to prevent squeaking. (These things are referred to as a "sheet" in the service manual.) It is quite possible that the mechanics had no idea what they were for and left them off, or lost/destroyed them when they removed the stock struts and didn't realize that anything was wrong since most cars (including most older Mazdas) don't use them.

However, my initial guess is swaybar bushings, like Eric said.

Chris, I have a question about those little clear plastic sheets. I thought they were there to help inhibit rust between two different metal surfaces. I can testify to the fact it is easy to forget and leave them out when reassembling the suspension, since I did it once. I didn't notice any additional noise without them though. When I thought about what you were saying, I wondered how they would prevent noise if the upper spring seat was correctly torqued to the body? The metal mounts themselves shouldn't move right? Just the strut rod in the rubber bushing in the center of the metal upper spring seat. That bushing could cause noise also, but it's not likely since I would think the friction there would cause the strut rod to rotate in the strut body before it would at the upper spring seat. Also, I've never seen another strut suspension car with rubber between the upper spring seat and body. Am I understanding correctly? It doesn't sound like your referring to the rubber gasket between the spring and spring seat, because the Protege has those at the top and bottom of each spring, as does every other strut equipped car I've ever seen. I'm confused?