ceejay

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....$$$)

suzoom

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!

Active3s

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

suzoom

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!

ceejay

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?

ceejay

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

southpawboston

what year is your 3?

suzoom

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!!!

suzoom

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

Active3s

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....

suzoom

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

suzoom

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!

Active3s

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

suzoom

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)

ceejay

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...