I've had a really annoying noise coming from the rear end of my car, and I had the car on the ramps tonight and identified a small metal part on the diff as the cause of the noise. It appears to be bent and is spinning round with the driveshaft making a really annoying squeeking noise. Can someone tell me what it is? I've checked mx5parts and can't find it.

Ignore the parts in blue, its the small metal shield type thingy in red I'm looking for.

 

Is it a retainer for that rubber bushing? I heard you can remover the bushing and drop a lbs off the rotating mass.

 

Looks like a dust shield for the pinion oil seal to me...

 

this

 

That's what I thought, but I looked at an exploded diagram from Mazda and can't see it. Maybe someone can identify the part from this diagram. Or maybe this a diagram for a 1.6 diff.

 

I had the car up in the air again today and the whole rubber damper is loose and can be rotated about. Is this a replaceable part, or can I go without it?

 

just tear it off.

 

Sounds like a plan, but I'm a bit worried it's there for a reason. From what I can find out it's not a replaceable part, and I don't want to write off a £300 diff because of it. You sure I can just cut through it and tear it off?

 

yes. It's a vibration damper for the diff. You can go without it.

 

Ok, thanks guys.

 

It makes an unholy racket when it comes loose from its rubber bondings at 140mph+.

 

So you had this happen before? Did you still try and retain the metal dust shield, or did you get rid of that as well?

 

id keep the dust shield if its not making noise.

 

Rlogan just had his come loose as well and it was noisy. He and I have talked about it and though I cannot remember for sure I think he finally decided to just leave it off. He is not too worried about NVH.

 

I'm not near the car just now, so at the risk of being spoon fed - how to I remove the damper? Cut it out? Remove the drive shaft? I can't visualize how it's connected to the car.

 

You can remove the pinion plate, or just cut the damper off. I would cut it off personally unless you are doing differential surgery anyway. I'll page Ryan to jump in here with his experience.

 

The new part is about $100 with mazda comp discount...I just removed mine. I haven't put many miles on since that point though. I had some weird drivetrain noise but I think it was the fact that one of my discs in the twin disc clutch had sheared away from the spline. I am in the middle of clutch replacement(among other things) now.

 

I removed it tonight and the nasty noise has now gone. The dust shield is still in place though and is still making a noise, so I may need to remove that too, or find out a way to secure it. I can't weld it to the diff housing, so any other ideas?