Ball Joints and Road Salt, A CX-7 Nightmare
Road salt. It's great at melting ice and corroding the stability right out of your ball joints. Mazda says salted roads during the winter can can cause saltwater to enter the ball joint and corrode the parts. The corrosion can cause the ball joint in the fitting to loosen and result in a rattle from the area of the ball joint and lower control arm. Enough corrosion and the ball joint can separate from the lower control arm.
The problem is affecting a ton of CX-7s and roughly 190,000 need to be recalled. Mazda says priority repairs will be made in the following "salt belt" states:
More information on carcomplaints.com"Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia."