Last Friday I was doing an emergency repair for an elderly (84) friend (the dad of the friend I'd done alternator repair for on the Versa the previous day).
His Mazda5 (2007?) was making a horrible clunking/banging noise from the R rear.
I had previously replaced both rear shock mounts a few years before, and one of the replacements had failed. (There could be a couple of causes here - first of all, our roads are badly potholed, and secondly the aluminum shock mounts are underbuilt for the vehicle - I believe the same part is used for the Mazda3 and Ford Focus, both much lighter vehicles.)
I lifted the R rear of the vehicle with my hydraulic jack under the spring seat, which works well.
Unfortunately, it's really hard to find a good place for a jackstand. I tried to put the wheel under the side, but didn't have enough clearance. (In retrospect I should have used the factory scissors jack.)
But anyway, I figured I would duck under with my electric impact and zip the bottom shock bolt out in seconds. No luck - I hammered away on it in bursts of about 10 seconds for several minutes. I was using an impact extension and a short impact socket.
Then this car stopped across the street, and a man came over and said apologetically, "Hey, I'm really sorry to intrude, but I see you're working under the car without jackstands - you could get crushed if your jack fails!"
I thanked him, said he was quite right, explained the difficulty in trying to provide a backup, and then piled up a bunch of short lengths of 2x6s under the side of the vehicle.
Good fellow, with no motive other than my well-being.
Approached the bolt from the other side (so I didn't have to be under the vehicle), and used a deep impact socket and no extension, and zipped the bolt out fairly quickly.
The rest of the job went well (and safely). When I used my drill and a fibre brush to clean up the shock-mount perch, I wore safety glasses.
Lesson learned.
Here's the old upper shock mount:
View attachment 189589
