I noticed this a couple days ago, but while driving my wife's car with her behind me (her car is making an odd sound as well), we were sitting at a light and I could hear plain as day a loud clicking/knocking sound while idling. When I'm driving, I also hear the sound. Anyone know what it could be? I'm making an appointment tomorrow with the dealership I bought it from to have it checked out/fixed.

 

I have heard that somethe 03"s (Europe/Asia/Australia) and early 04"s had problems w/the belt tensioner going bad. I haven't experienced this myself though, and my build date is 02/04.
Just a thought.....

 

I'll mention that to them. I have an appt today at 3:30.

 

You didn't mention if the clicking gets faster as the engine revs. If it does I would look at the valve train. Also, I've seen this happen when the oil level gets too low. SOme Mazda engines are very sensitive to even a one quart loss.

 

I haven't noticed it get faster on engine revs. I'm positive that there is enough oil in there, I check it often. Good ol' Castrol Syntec 5w20.

 

Holy dear God, internal server errors.....hit refresh and look what I get.........As for the engine reving, I put my intake back on and the knocking came back and got worse with engine revs. I'm not sure if it's the intake tapping against something metal in the engine bay, or something more serious. An intake shouldn't make the engine knock, since it's just pulling in more air right?

 

Alright, I actually noticed something yesterday. It only seems to make the sound when my aftermarket intake is installed. The Weapon-R Dragon Intake. And engine revs do seem to make it faster.

 

The Dragon is the tube inside a tube intake, correct?
Could it just be that the turbulence created in there is making the noise, or accentuating normal engine noises?

 

The Dragon is just the look of the filter I believe. It appears to be just a bent tube, nothing fancy.