bbqmusic

... well well well ... here's something I'm not that happy about ... I just got back from my 32,000 km inspection/oil change/maintenance ... and when complained about a squeaky front end while going over bumps for the last week or so ... (man-holes, small pot-holes, etc) ... the technician informed me that the cause was "both front stabilizers links are prematurely worn and causing the intermitent squeak" ... the correcton is to replace the "2 front stab links" ... and after talking to the service manager turns out that this is an extremely common problem with the mazda Protege 5's, he said that "I wouldn't believe how many of these he has replaced on the Protege's" ... and perhaps is something that will become a common problem with the mazda 3's ... so keep your ears open for any squeaky annoying sound in the front end while going over fast compression bumps ....

... they are fixing it no-charge/under warranty but if they wear out every 30,000km it will certainly become an expensive fix in the future if I keep the car much past it's factory warranty ...

... just thought I'd pass the info for this problem along and see if anyone else has a sqeaky front end ??? ... or any info on this problem ...


word up .... small problem ... still love the car.

bbqmusic

Well .... here's an update to the squeaky front-end. .. which by the way; is really pissing me off.

Mazda replaced the front stabilizer links ... and the squeak is still there.

The service guys said that they had my 3 up on the jacks all day and couldn't find the squeak ... no worn bushings or anything else that was a visible problem.

I then took the service manager out for a test ride and the squeak miraculously appeared! ... much to the dismay of the service manager, who insisted that the sqeuak must have been a figment of my imagination.

After he heard the squeak when we went over some "nice-easy" railway tracks at about 40km/h he said that it may just be the fluid in the shocks moving about ... he then said he would test another MZ3 and see if he can duplicate the reslut ...

... he thought this may be a problem with all the MZ3's.

... so if anyone out there has a quiet or a squeaky front end over small bumps please let me know...

I would sure like to have some input either way when it comes to getting this problem addressed with Mazda.


Thanks very much for any help and info!

Word up.

bbqmusic

Well ... they finally found that squeak in the front end ... after about 2 days of looking and throwing parts at it ... they have found that it was the front, left and right upper strut mounts.

They replaced these and BINGO! no more squeaks!

ZOOM ZOOM BEE-YACH!