Ever since I had my car lowered on WIM springs and a geo setup, ive been a little suspicious of a gentle knocking noise from the rear of the car going over sharp bumps in the road. Only noticable with the roof up, Im not sure if it’s a problem with the car, or just a character of harder suspension.
Now, due to having a 30% off voucher for www.eurocarparts.com, Ive picked up a pair of repalcement drop links for a good price. Im not sure if they are faulty, but I hear they are a weak link on the MK3, so I was going to have a go at replacing them while I was doing the rear brakes. Im not sure if there’s any play in the links themselves, but I got under the car the other day and grabbed the anti roll bar itself and gave it a good shove - it could move a certain amount, is this right? Or should it be rock solid?
Has anyone else here replaced their links who could give any fitting tips? Do you reckon it’s worth changing them even if it might not be them causing a noise? As the car is on 72K miles, I assume they may need replacing at some point anyway.
There was a very good article in a recent issue of Soft top hardtop by Roadster Robbie on how to do this job. Perhaps someone else knows which particular issue.
Just wondered what the result was, i had my 2.0 sport wim’d a few months ago, to a great result, but now suffering the same knocking issues as you described - but only with the hood up. on 48K on 07 plate.
Anyone else having these issues and figured out how to fix?
Checking them is the hardest bit unless they’re visually falling to bits which can happen. Really you need to be under the car on a ramp so you can push up hard and feel any play.
Just changed the fronts on our Mazda 6 at 50K which are the same design as MX5 Mk3. On a ramp it was possible to feel some play in just the right front lower joint. I’d tried on the drive lying under the car but could not apply enough force. Swapped both sides to be sure but when the old ones were off it was only that one joint which had any play in it. Symptoms were a light knocking/rattling on uneven road over drains etc, similar to a loose exhaust mount, and completely fixed.
Easy to get at with a wheel off on the drive. They just have 1 nut each end like a track rod end but no taper. The difficult bit is that the nut rusts on pretty solid and the joint just spins rather than loosening. There is a 5mm hex key in the end but it isn’t a lot of good when undoing rusty, more for stopping it turning when fitting the new one. I’d been warned to expect to have to grind the end off but after looking closely found that a pair of mole grips would just go in between the arb and the joint on the rubber boot side to grip the flange of the joint and stop it turning
Done all four of mine on the MK3 after two failed at 31k!
I agree in principal they are easy to do, but the rusted nuts are a real bugger! We ended up cutting one off it was that bad. A long day but at least the knocking went!
Whilst mine was on the ramp for its MOT the tester said to keep an eye (and ear) on them, Ive done the fronts allready, so a new pair for the rear will be purchased soon.
Anyone used the non original ones from MX5 parts? are they any better than the OEM ones? they are a dam sight cheaper!
The pic looks like the Blueprint ones I used on the front of Mazda 6. 3 year warranty and good price from a local factor.
Just a tip though not to overtighten them. They need to be tight or they’ll start moving and wear the hole (been there) but the shoulder/flange on the threaded pin is thin and I sheared one tightening it with just a combo. Fortunately I heard the click and felt the spanner loosen slightly. The factor swapped it and for the replacement I nipped the nut up with a combo and allen key then used the torque wrench on the lowest of the suggested range and it was ok.
Difficult to see as it’s dark but have a look at the pattern one under the genuine below and you’ll see the flange after the thread is smaller and on mine at least quite thin for that size thread. I’m not an oaf and if I did it there will be others out there running around loose, not sure I’d buy them again.
Poor design all round really imho as there’s no taper to locate the pin. The flange should also be thicker and have flats or a hex to enable holding it from spinning esp when removing rusty.
thanks for that Rich, yes they do seem a poor design and would agree with your idea with flats or hex as the flange. With the copy parts having nyloc nuts then they just need to be nipped up so I’ll be wary of over tightening.
I might as well go for the copy parts as if they do fail I can get another 2 sets before I’ve spent the equivelent on an OEM part! (assuming they last as long! )
