I thought I posted this reply a week ago, oh well. At any rate, good advice. It's an '02 model, plenty of time for age to attack rubber, seals, etc.

It didn't make noise from turning the wheel back and forth that I can recall, it was just the odd stronger bump than normal that would yield an undercarriage thunk.

The Mazda dealer in OlyWA told her the struts were shot and needed to be replaced. She's moving to Oregon soon and her new husband is a man of means and has a long trusted mechanic that he uses. The noise sounded like bad shocks to me.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K