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94 Mazda protege wheel rattle
my front right wheel has developed a severe rattle that happens whenever going over the slightest bump. it will start rattling and won't stop until I step on the breaks for a couple of seconds or in some cases speed up quickly. the rattle is so bad I can feel it in the steering wheel. feels like the entire wheel is vibrating and about to completely fall off. it seems to happen more often when going down hill and almost never happens when going up hill. a mechanic has told me it's probably a bad strut, but said he can't tell for sure till he replaces it. as my car is on its last leg and I don't have a lot of money to blow, I'm hoping to know for sure what it is before shelling out. thanks for any insight. |
If the noise is this bad a mechanic should be able to diagnose it before replacing parts. Maybe you try another mechanic for a second opinion.
There are plenty of parts that can cause rattles and shakes at a front wheel. So it is understandable a mechanic would hedge his bet. One thing is sure: your car is not safe with these issues. |
Thanks for the response. This may be the stupidest questions ever posed here, but is it possible to drive the car if I remove the front right strut? My mechanic said it would be much cheaper if the strut is already removed and he just needs to put on the new one. It would only be about a mile to drive from my place to the mechanic.
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Kelly: You cannot drive the car without a strut. What the mechanic possibly meant was this:
If you take the strut assembly out and bring it to me I can take it apart and put it together with a new strut then you can put the repaired assy strut back in. It is not a job for a beginner. It saves money. But beware, you are not done yet: you need to get a wheel alignment. Then when the right strut has gone the left one is likely to follow. Anyway, the proper fix is to replace both struts and use new strut mounts. Here is a strut assembly. The top that looks like a hat is the strut mount. It contains the bearing that makes the steering possible. The mechanic will reuse the old spring. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ujmj09OnL.jpg Tell me more about your 94 Protege, how many miles, any recent repairs, how are the tires, brakes, transmission? |
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