2.3 Vibrations?
 

I have a 2004 5 door with 73,000 that has developed an annoying vibration. I have had my wheels balanced a couple times to no avail..It feels like it is happening at both ends. I dread taking it to a dealer as my local dealer is fairly renowned for racking up the bill..

I have seen the service bulletins about changing the motor mounts to stop a body vibration. Has anyone here ever done that, or is anyone experiencing a similar vibration?

I'm hoping to do a track day/drivers school at the end of the month and would like to have this resolved (...I can smell the dealer's shop now....$$$)

don't give up hope!
 

ceejay, dude i know of your anguish or is it anger? Some times you have to just keep asking and digging until you'll find your answer. For me it was ALOT of trips to Belle Tire, & Dealerships and other places that do tire rotation and what not. I own a 2005 mazda3s. I love this little rocket! but i too have been having vibration problems, as well as tire howling. When i rolled down the back windows you would go death of hearing it was so LOUD! Sounded like a semi going down the highway! i' on my second set of tires. my first set was Toyos they were cupped and feather at 11,000 miles. so at 20,000 i put on michelin pilots a/s which are good a very good tire for this car. I rotated them at 3,000 miles, thats when my troubles started again. The tires felt like they were not balanced correctly, i literly took it in 6 times for re balancing at different place. I went back to Belle tire and put them back the way they were new. So at 8,000 miles it starts all over again, the howling, back in i go, they see no visable wear the tires look good, no cupping or feathering, they pull up on their tech site for trouble shooting, and mention that vibrations could be coming from motor mounts 4&6 i think he said need to be adjusted but it could cause low speed vibrations. High/low which do you choose? so off to the dealership i go. My tires all of them have nitrous oxide in them, anyways, it is very important in this model to keep an eye on tire pressure as they are very sensitive to as little as 3psi off on tire pressure. in my case all 4 tires were 7-10 to high.( thanks Belle Tire!) so it caused alot of howling and tire vibrations. so i keep an eye on my tire pressure and bought a very good air gauge. and I'll take care of my own tire pressure, except that nitrous is only dealerships and not in my polebarn! Good Luck, I hope you find your answer!

Yeap, The dealer replaced all 3 mounts. I had to show them by making it stall start. So they can see how much shaking and rattle it was making

thanks, finally someone eles who can shead some light on our vibrations problems! have you seen the web site yahoo auto customs, a site where you can see custom mazdas and what not! check it out! ENJOY your smooth ride!

Thanks for the help...I need to buy a tire pressure gauge for my track days anyways...better do that first. I don't think I'll have time to have it professionally resolved in the next week or so...(Can't afford new tires or motor mounts). Might try a rotation to se if that helps..

I just hope my track day instructor doesn't freak-out (think I'll pop the motor mount service bulletin in the glove box).

Anyone else out there have the same issue, different solutions?

Did you get them to do that under warranty? Mine's long gone. If you didn't how much did it cost?

what year is your 3?

motor mounts faulty????
 

so whats up with the motor mounts? is see that its a common problem. is it because their weak, not installed correctly? WHAT? i'm wondering if this is my next place to check as well. How do you get it to stall? and why is that necessary to show vibrations? is it noticable by letting it run and watching the motor for what a rocking back an forth motion? did your cars do it all the time or just at certain speeds? and what motor mounts are you all replacing are they the same ones in every car???? just wondering, I'm looking forward to all of your replies!!!

Active3s what year and make is your mazda? at what milage did you have your motor mounts changed?

Mine is a 2007. Not even 6000 miles and I started to have issues with the torque mount. On my 05 I never had issues withe it... There is a range from 2006+ that have this issue.. Oh yeah, Yes warranty still covers it. Unless you go to a shitty dealer....

wish me luck! I'm off to the dealership tomarrow. they better get it this time or this chic will not be happy!
:FIREdevil

after months of searching I've finally found my vibration problem, and with a sigh of relief knowing it isn't my beloved car falling apart! The dealership put her up on the rack and showed me that I have four bad out of run tires!!!! They were ordered from Michelins warehouse and were sitting around in their warehouse for a year before they were put on my car! I did not know to look out for production dates on tires, thats a new one!!! so Belle Tire called Michelin and got me four new tires at full replacement,which is a shocker, they always want to pro-rate them!!! CHEERS to Mazda of Troy! for finally getting my little rocket back to the NEW CAR RIDE that has been missing for so long! :smiley309

thats awesome, :celebrate
I need to add that one on my check list...

it is awesome! but when I was telling a friend about it he told me he had a car (saturn)
that did the same thing, ate up tires, he found out after 3 set of tires that his cars body was out of alignment! What ? how the hell does that happen? it set him back $400. to get it fixed! so I quess i"ll see how this next set turns out. (SET 3):cookoo:

My tires were well out of rotation...the fronts were almost bald when I bought it so I had a combination of new and used tires on it. I had the rears moved to the front before my track day (first time they've been on the front) and the vibration shifted more to the steering wheel.

Now I'm thinking they may have been rotated left to right during a snow tire change...I wore suckers out on the track and will get a new set over the winter so we'll find out for sure come spring...

hey ceejay! sorry to hear of your troubles, but hay at least you have an idea whats going on! I just this morning took a drive for the last time on some bad tires! after 10,000 miles later I've got that new car ride!!! michelin pulled out all the stops and gave me Energy MXV4 plus tires! these puppies run $170. here. How sweet is that? so now it rides awsome!! and for the great service i got the guys their morning doughnuts which now i'm called doughnut girl! so now were all on a high!!! so really check into your tires, it'll pay off later trust me!

Well, here's my update:

I suffered the rest of the summer with a wicked front end vibration, then I ran over a deer and the 3 was in the shop for a couple of weeks. When I got it back the vibration felt worse, and a friend of mine was convinced it was a bad wheel bearing (you could feel it at low speeds too). The reality of the matter was I had gotten used to driving a car w/o a vibration (a Kia Rondo...I can't tell you how embarrassed I was to be driving that mini-mini van...nice V6 though...).

I just put my winter Blizzaks on yesterday and the vibration is gone, so I either have a wildly out of balance tire, or a defective tire...(plus Bambi broke a motor mount which got replaced, which may have helped too), luckily its nearly time to replace the summers. Hopefully I'll get a nice xmas bonus and be able to afford a new set...

wheel vibrartion
 

good to hear your 3's back on track! wish i could say the same. my 3 is on its 3rd set of tires and at 35,000 miles thats awful! first set Toyos, ate them up at 11,000 miles, next set at 20,000 pilots A/S Exaltos, after 10,000 miles of run around bullshit, michelin did a full replacement and gave me michelin energys 4mvxs. nice tire but now the vib is back aqain its only been a month. soooooo pissed ! cannot believe i'm having so much trouble with tires. These may be out-of-run tires like last set! no more michelins for me thanks! hope they handle well in the coming months, as michigan is raining one moment then freezing rain the next! my challenge is icy roads more than deep snow! Happy Thanksgiving All!:wave: