Hello all,
On my way to visit a customer this morning I heard a sound which was like a metal object hitting the exhaust, then experienced some sharp knocks on downshifts, when accelerating the noise/knocks became louder. This was when I realised something was seriously wrong and as the noise was from the rear, I'm thinking diff.
Pulled over as soon as I could (about 100metres) and looked under and notice the diff was on an angle, at this point I'm thinking bugger, so called the Mazda roadside assist number, who promptly arranged a tow truck for me and within an hour I was at my friendly dealer.
Up on the hoist it became evident that two bolts which hold the cast iron mount forward of the diff had sheared off causing the diff to move around. The service manager explained that this may have been caused by having smaller than stock tyres (225/40 vs 215/45) which results in an incorrect ratio to PCM, anyway he advised that they probably won't get genuine bolts in time, so he is arranging some higher strength local bolts. He also advised that they have had this problem once before, but the guy was apparently doing alot of track work.
Anyway I should have my girl back in time for the weekend, with nice new shiny bolts which are hopefully stronger. Has anyone else experienced this little drama, or have heard about? I found a couple of references to the rear diff mount on other forums but nothing about the forward mount.
Cheers
Chris