Last Wednesday, as I'm sure many of you who were in Topeka did, my wife and
I went looking for stuff to do. We did find it, but that's not why I'm
writing this email.
As we were returning to our hotel room, my Miata started making a clunking
noise. It was coming from underneath the car and was loudest at constant
speed between about 20 and 40 mph. And it went away when I was on the
brakes. I talked to someone in the hotel parking lot about it (who
incidentally was a fellow SFR member) and he suggested it might be either a
bad U-joint or CV joint. I remembered that when I had my diff rebuilt the
mechanic said the driveshaft looked like it was near its end, so I jacked up
the car and did a quick test of how much play it had.
I noticed a fair amount of play, especially in the front joint. I began
calling around for new U-joints. Nobody had them. Then I started calling
for a complete driveshaft. Only a local Mazda dealer could get that for me.
And they couldn't promise it before Tuesday or Wednesday of the following
week. Needless to say, I did not have that kind of time on my hands, as I
was supposed to be back at work on Wednesday.
I then asked them if they could rebuild it for me. They said that normally
they don't, but recommended a shop they thought might be able to help. So I
called the shop they recommended, Precision Bilt Parts.
The fellow I spoke to said that normally Mazda driveshafts are meant to be
replaced rather than rebuilt. But they had done a few of them and could
probably find U-joints that would work on my car. So I told them I would
bring in the driveshaft first thing in the morning.
On Thursday, I got up early and dropped the driveshaft out of my car and
took it to them. They said they could probably have it done in a couple
hours, and they did. They were only able to do the front U-joint, but that
was because they only had one joint that fit. Being from the Bay Area and
in general distrustful of mechanics, I was quite impressed at a shop that
did exactly what they said they would, and got it done when they said it
would. And this place works on TRUCKS for a living, not cars!
Anyway, just wanted to share that experience.
Scot
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