Squeaking/Creaking Losing My Mind!

[tpirovol]

Hi Everyone,

I have a Mazda 3 Sedan 2008 GT and for the past 2 weeks I have a squeaking/creaking coming from the rear driver side near or inside the trunk. I thought it was something in the trunk so I emptied it out and tightened everything back there. I also lubed the hinges for the trunk. The noise cannot be heard or goes away when going faster then 60km an hour. I also cannot duplicated the sound when pressing down on the rear shocks or pressing down anywhere on the car. I had my wife sit in the back to try and locate the sound but when we did that the sound went away. The noise can be heard when going slow to medium speed when hitting bumps or going onto a driveway.

Tomorrow I plan on removing my two child car seats and seeing if that might be it. I have read a lot of people with similar issues but very few people coming on and reporting what it was.

Last week I brought it to Mazda and they could not find anything wrong with it. Any help would be more then appreciated.
Thanks Terry

[Noisy Crow]

Sounds like suspension issue... Broken shock mount, broken spring, something caught in the suspension.... Pressing down on the car won't always trigger this sort of thing.... Sometimes the noise is caused when he suspension extends rather than being compressed, especially things like broken strut mounts.

[tpirovol]

Sounds like suspension issue... Broken shock mount, broken spring, something caught in the suspension.... Pressing down on the car won't always trigger this sort of thing.... Sometimes the noise is caused when he suspension extends rather than being compressed, especially things like broken strut mounts.


How would I diagnose this?? The dealer near me is useless and wants to charge me $130 to further diagnose the problem!

Thanks T

[Noisy Crow]

The fact that the noise goes away when you add weight to that corner of the car points to either something loose under the seat, the suspension, or something hung up underneath. Seat is easy to yank out to check that. But... unless you can prove it is something else, you really are down to pulling the spring and shock and inspecting for damage to them or other parts of the suspension. Unless you are looking for the work to be covered by warranty you don't have to get the work done at a dealer....

Oops... Forgot about the end links. They can wear and clunk. And they are easy to check.

[tpirovol]

The fact that the noise goes away when you add weight to that corner of the car points to either something loose under the seat, the suspension, or something hung up underneath. Seat is easy to yank out to check that. But... unless you can prove it is something else, you really are down to pulling the spring and shock and inspecting for damage to them or other parts of the suspension. Unless you are looking for the work to be covered by warranty you don't have to get the work done at a dealer....

Oops... Forgot about the end links. They can wear and clunk. And they are easy to check.

I thought I found the issue yesterday but it might be something else. Yesterday I drove to toysrus and it was making the sound the entire time. I then took it out my kids car seat and drove around and the noise went away completely. I then added the seat back in and the noises did not seem to come back until I put my kid back in the seat today. The noise is very faint now but I can hear it.

I am not sure if it was coincidence or not. I plan to disconnect one of the latches at a time (obviously not while my kid is in there) to see what latch specifically it is. This does not surprise me considering I took my front seat in 3 times to fix a squeak coming from the front seat belt.

Will keep you posted
T

[MazdaMike02]

Its probably the sway bar bushings, thats usually what causes squeaking in the rear of a M3. I've changed a ton of them.

In regards to the dealership they would have to hook up chassis ears to the vehicle to determine the source of the noise. 120 bucks an hour labour is perfectly fine for that. Otherwise you can do what I said and buy a couple bushings they're pretty cheap and its only 2 bolts per side on the sway bar to change them.
Takes about 20-30mins on a hoist, probably an hour or so in the garage/driveway.