INSANE road noise... ...any ideas?

[markmdz89hatch]

Hey guys, I have an '02 ES that's bone stock. Not one single upgrade to it.

It's got about 118K miles on it now.

My only major complaint with this damn car, now that I've owned it for the better part of 5 years is the completely unbearable road noise this thing just drones out.

I do have slightly plus sized tires. Instead of the factory Dunlop 195/55-16's, I have 205/50-16's. The total diameter is the same as the factory size, but these are just a tiny bit wider. I like the more committed feel of the wider tire. I've spent the last 60K+ miles on tires this width (yes I've replaced them at least once since going with the upsize).

The tires I used to have on there: General Exclaim UHP. I HATED these tires. Phenomenal traction when new, and very stiff sidewall, but so stiff that when I hit a decent rut/pothole I put a golfball sized bubble on 2 tires. I did drive on them for another 20k without a blow-out, but the tread compound hardened up like a rock after only a few thousand miles, and they were treacherous in the snow (yeah I know, not a snow or 'all-season' tire).

I have since moved on. The rear is sporting Kumho Ecsta ASX, and the front's are Avon ZZ-1's.

I have replaced both rear wheel bearings, but I'm not getting the tell-tale 'howl' out of the bearings like you normally do. ...but the noise is so insanely loud that I can't even carry a conversation with a passenger with all windows up at highway speeds. (Gas mileage is still in the high 20's too, so further supporting the idea that the bearings are still good.)

Could my tires really be producing sooooo much noise?

[Metallic36]

When did the noise start? It's not anything with your exhaust is it? Does the noise stay the same loudness no matter the speed, or does it increase as you speed up? What about if you give it gas, then release the gas? Does the noise change then? More info needed as you can see.

[markmdz89hatch]

nice. thanks for the reply.

Yes, the noise is different depending on speed.

At about 20-40 it's not bad at all. Once you get to about 40-55 it's annoying. Oddly enough at about 60-65 it's bearable, but still very noticeable. Once you're north of 70 it's outright stupid.

The exhaust still seems nice and tight and quiet. No leaks and no droopy or split hangers.

...I want to blame my tires, but I just don't see how just going with the slight upsize and all-seasons out back with aggressive tread up front, can make sooo much damn noise. I've done this plenty of times before with many different cars, and have used the Avon's on my 300Z with no noise issues.

full disclosure: I highly doubt it's to blame, but my damn tranny sucks ass. Every shift is buttery smooth, clutch still has great bite (despite being the original with 118k~ish), but third gear just won't hold on. If I put it in 3rd there's about a 50% chance of it popping out of gear on me. Every other gear is perfect and holds without ever popping. Syncro's are still great too. idk.

[alecsmold]

I have the same problem with my 2000 Protege 1.8.
Same insane noise at high speeds, after 70km/h and increase as the speed increases.
I'm using stock rims and tires. I changed all the motor mounts, but the noise is driving me crazy. Usually after 3000rpm. It is a small difference if I step on the gas or not, but not too big.
The exhaust does seams to have leaks or anything.
Please let me know if you have any ideas.

[markmdz89hatch]

I have the same problem with my 2000 Protege 1.8.
Same insane noise at high speeds, after 70km/h and increase as the speed increases.
I'm using stock rims and tires. I changed all the motor mounts, but the noise is driving me crazy. Usually after 3000rpm. It is a small difference if I step on the gas or not, but not too big.
The exhaust does seams to have leaks or anything.
Please let me know if you have any ideas.

oh snap, you just joined and this was your first post. See, I'm not the only one that's driven to the point of madness because of this damn noise.

If I can figure out a way to record it on my phone and post up an audio file, I'll do it. It's really that bad. Honestly, it's been gnawing at me so much the past 6-8 months that I'm considering dumping it for another car.

[alecsmold]

Same here...my wife is usually driving it as a daily comute, but she says that she wants another car because this one is to noisy, even though she is a Mazda fan.
I avoid driving it long distances because is very stressful.

Last time when I went to the dealer they checked the suspension and bearings and they said that everything is good. So I suspect that the engine is the big problem in generating the noise.
It is by far the noisiest car I ever drove.
I had a Protege 5 but wasn't so bad.

[markmdz89hatch]

I'm still thinking my tires have a LOT to do with it, but I don't have the means to swap them out.

You'd be very surprised with the difference between one tire and another as it relates to road noise. ...but I just fear something else may be going on here that I'm overlooking.

[MikeLikesMazda]

this just recently started happening to me, except its a little different. i have a set of yokohama S.Drives. when driving straight theres a really weird howl/vibration coming from them. when i turn the wheel to the right, it gets worse. when i turn to the right, it completely goes away. i have no idea what it could be

[prof15]

nice. thanks for the reply.
...I want to blame my tires, but I just don't see how just going with the slight upsize and all-seasons out back with aggressive tread up front, can make sooo much damn noise. I've done this plenty of times before with many different cars, and have used the Avon's on my 300Z with no noise issues.


I think it might be the performance tires that you have up front, since my sister used to have a pair of performance tires in the back wheels on her 01 Jetta and once she got them replace with all season the noise went away. The noise was not insane like you describe it but it was noticeable.

[markmdz89hatch]

this just recently started happening to me, except its a little different. i have a set of yokohama S.Drives. when driving straight theres a really weird howl/vibration coming from them. when i turn the wheel to the right, it gets worse. when i turn to the right, it completely goes away. i have no idea what it could be

That could be due to excessive uneven wear on the tires. Have you had the caster and toe checked? Camber could make excess noise, but not as much as off caster or toe. Check the treading on the tires to see if you have any tread feathering. If so, I guarantee that's your problem. If it's a howl though, and it's worse on turning to one side than the other, it could be a failing wheel bearing. That's not a pretty sight when they fail completely.

[markmdz89hatch]

I think it might be the performance tires that you have up front, since my sister used to have a pair of performance tires in the back wheels on her 01 Jetta and once she got them replace with all season the noise went away. The noise was not insane like you describe it but it was noticeable.

For the sake of identifying the problem I hope you're right, but for the sake of my pocket and love of 'spirited' driving, I hope you're wrong.

What I was hoping to hear was someone saying they replaced their LCA bushings, or UCA bushings, or shocks, or ??? and it completely eliminated the excessive road noise.

[P-Funk!]

Sounds like the tires to me.
Swap front to rear. Wearing normally? Tire inflation good?

Still noisy - when safe to do so - shut the engine off(in neutral).

Still? Wind noise? seals all good?

Went away in engine off mode? Then check driveline.

[alecsmold]

I put today in neutral, and the noise is fairly the same, but less vibrations. I remember that the winter tires I have kind of the same noise and usually winter tires make more noise. I also suspect the suspension, which is rough and I can feel each minor bump in the road; is more like a sports car, but the suspension is standard. My wife gave up driving it and took my SUV.

[Mazda_maniac]

this just recently started happening to me, except its a little different. i have a set of yokohama S.Drives. when driving straight theres a really weird howl/vibration coming from them. when i turn the wheel to the right, it gets worse. when i turn to the right, it completely goes away. i have no idea what it could be


That doesn't sound like tire noise at all, that sounds like a wheels bearing. Ie. you load it turning right it gets worth, you take some of the load off turning left and the noise goes away.

As for the OP tire noise is most likely your concern, unless you have a bad bearing.

Have you checked for play in all your wheels?
Have you rotated you tires recently? If so how, Front switched with back or front crossed to back, back foreward?

I get road noise thats bearable and I just rotated my tires, the minimalistic way to avoid noise, front switched with rear.

[alecsmold]

I just replaced the front struts and the noise is lot less than before. Is not gone, but is acceptable now. Maybe the tires have their own fault also (there are some cheap tires I got with the car) , but I'll not change them soon. Hope this helps. The rear struts were changed few years ago, so I'll not bother with those for now.

[markmdz89hatch]

I just replaced the front struts and the noise is lot less than before. Is not gone, but is acceptable now. Maybe the tires have their own fault also (there are some cheap tires I got with the car) , but I'll not change them soon. Hope this helps. The rear struts were changed few years ago, so I'll not bother with those for now.

That's really interesting. I'm lost as to how the front shocks replacement would help this, but I'm definitely keeping an open mind on it. I can confirm that my rear passenger bearing is going yet again. ...but that has it's own unique noise aside from the horrible drone of the rest of the 'road noise' the cabin is filled with.

[sethro_GT]

Try jacking it up on jack stands and running the front tires up to 60 mph just to see if it isn't coming from the front end. I've thought sounds are from the back but put my head close to the windshield and it then sounds like its in the front. Bad wheel bearing will make the a terrible rotational almost grinding racket. I agree with Mazda_maniac's post.

[mp3-79bronco]

take the interior out, dynamat everything, replace interior, done.

[markmdz89hatch]

ok, so an update as I bring this bastard back from the depths of the archives...

I did replace one of the two rear wheel bearings yet again and there was NO improvement in noise level. It's really driving me nuts-o.

Anyway, I know someone mentioned it in the past, but I'm really beginning to wonder if it could be some spent rear shocks. ...but would they make such a droning noise? Either way, this poor car has seen NOTHING, nada, nunka, niet, in the 5+ years I've owned it and now that I'm at nearly 130k I think it's time it sees some love. It's begging for a new timing belt, and I figure lots of other things are overdue as well.


...so I'm replacing all 4 shocks and adding MSP springs for the hell of it. The other rear wheel bearing *might* get replaced, but I'll determine if I want to do that after replacing the shocks. Then, because my 3rd gear is poppin like popcorn, I'm looking into replacing/rebuilding the tranny. Who knows, maybe it's the tranny? Anyone notice an un-Godly hum courtesy of a not-so-good tranny in their sedan?

Any updates from any of the many others that have been plagued by this same issue?

[nobb]

The Protege is just a noisy car I think. I changed from the stock Potenza RE92 to Kumho Ecsta ASX and only noticed a minimal improvement in noise. Unfortunately, designing a quiet car requires attention to detail from the chassis up. With the Protege, you can cover some of it up, but it will never come close to being Lexus quiet. Maybe you can achieve Accord quiet, but that's about it.

Ive added probably 200lbs of deadening ranging from a hood liner, to thick layers of jute underlay, dampening sheets, and thick undercoating in the wheel wells. The car is bearable now, but still not luxury quiet. Once you've somewhat quieted the road/tire noise, then engine noise will become more prevalent. Im tempted to just buy a LARGE bucket of roofing asphalt for $40, coating the underbelly/wheel wells with even more material and see how that affects things.

[sethro_GT]

If you want quite you should get a toyota (lexus). My mom's 04 prius puts even the 07 mazda5 to shame; an 04 Avalon is like sitting at home quiet.

For the record, my P5 is only slightly louder than the Mz5

[markmdz89hatch]

I've driven and owned an Accord (actually 3) and test drove a number of Mazda5's when we were looking for a new car for my wife (we ended up with a Murano) and I do agree that these Pro's were never designed to even be Accord quiet. The 5 was surprisingly loud to me, but even at that, nothing compares to the droning noise this beast is making.

I've owned this car for over 100k now and there is definitely something wrong, or at least a wear item that's causing this noise. When I first got it, it was Protege quiet. Meaning I was ok with the level of road/engine/etc noise it made. However, about 25-30k ago it quickly progressed to where it is now (and has been for quite a while). It sounds very similar to a wheel bearing on it's way out, which is why that was my first plan of attack (which failed because $300 later, I'm no better off with the noise). The second was the tires (only because I had not changed them since long before the noise got to where it is, but the alignment was checked and tires rotated. The tires were then replaced (they were almost due, I just convinced myself they were due). Nope, that didn't help.

So now that I'm just about to hit 130k, I can feel the shocks getting a little squishy so I've got a set of Tokico Illumina's on their way to my house along with a set of low-mileage used MSP springs. I know that'll help tighten the ride back up but let's see if it does anything to improve the db level.

Shocks are due in tomorrow so if weather cooperates I'll get them swapped out this Sunday and report back with my findings. It's actually going under the knife Thursday for a new timing belt, water pump, alt belt, p/s belt, and rad flush. (Not that that has any bearing on this damn noise.)

[slavrenz]

If you want quite you should get a toyota (lexus). My mom's 04 prius puts even the 07 mazda5 to shame; an 04 Avalon is like sitting at home quite.

For the record, my P5 is only slightly louder than the Mz5

Yes, every day's an adventure with a Toyota - you never know if you're going to plow inadvertently into someone else because your accelerator got stuck, or maybe your gas tank will rust and fall of while you're driving on the highway.

[Steps off soapbox]

I don't mean this to be pointed at you at all Sethro - I am just really disgusted with Toyota, and wouldn't drive one if you gave it to me.

[sethro_GT]

eh, I'm a mazda guy for life but many people I know own newer toyota's with no problems. All that media hype was pretty lame, GM did some behind the scene's work there cuz they are pissed that toyota took the #1 slot...

back on topic, did you ever jack it up and run it to see if you could find the drone? P-funks post is good one, did you do any of that?

[Tom03es]

I just replaced the front wheel bearings on my car and it seems to be noticeably quieter. I didn't get any howling noises either- just a faint grinding noise while turning left. Now the car seems to be quieter even going straight. Last tank of gas on the old bearings was 28.5 mpg average (which is one of my better tanks- the automatic doesn't help with the gas mileage).

[nobb]

I just Seafoamed my engine. 2/3 of the bottle in the vacuum booster and fuel tank didnt do anything. However, 1/3 of the bottle in the crankcase right before an oil change seemed to have made the engine silky smooth in terms of noise. Hope it holds.

How do you know if you need new wheel bearings?

[jhinson411]

Could be your rear hubs going... I had a old nissan that had the rear hubs going bad and it started howling like a m'fr, my brother's '91 se-r did the same exact thing.

[jhinson411]

eh, I'm a mazda guy for life but many people I know own newer toyota's with no problems. All that media hype was pretty lame, GM did some behind the scene's work there cuz they are pissed that toyota took the #1 slot...

back on topic, did you ever jack it up and run it to see if you could find the drone? P-funks post is good one, did you do any of that?

yeah the media is basically a government branch and as such, a pro big-government, anti-business propaganda machine comprised of a bunch of hypersensitive, overly politically correct, reactive, theatrical eunuchs and women libbers. Ya know, the type of chick that gets married then kicks her husband in the nuts by hyphenating her maiden name in there before his....

Anyways, Remember back in the 80's audi had a similar thing with acceleration. the media actually pushed the idea that they were...are you ready for this shit....POSSESSED!!!! Day after f'n day they told these horror stories and s. It was a simple case of dumb f drivers that were mashing the brake and throttle at the same time in a panic, not being used to the closer pedal spacing of european vehicles...a pedal spacing thing is all, not a defect at all. Of course the media NEVER came back later and told the truth they just left the public with the idea that they were possesed...thus, one of many many reasons i do not watch television except on rare occasion, it will rot your head. Dam near everything you see on television is spin or outright untruth.
Toyotas are just fine. Even *if* these little toyotas did accelerate on their own(which is highly doubtful considering the number of mindless lemming enviro-dumb f**ks who drive prius vs the number of these incidents) they could have easily been stopped by their brakes.
Anyone that seriously thinks a prius can over power its brakes would probably also buy some of algores "carbon credits".

[markmdz89hatch]

update:

So I replaced the wheel bearings again and I noticed a few things worth mention.

The caps are not like on Honda's where it's just a dust cap. These caps are there for a very specific reason. To keep *everything* out. The bearings are not sealed bearings and even a drop of water can cause a very premature failure of a bearing. So I picked up new caps from Mazda and a set of Timken (w/ NSK Made in Japan) bearings and went to town. I replaced both rears and caked them full of bearing grease (although they were already greased from the package). Then I noticed one of the bearings I was replacing was actually in pretty good shape (no play, no rust water, no residue, etc) but the end of the spindle was actually touching the cap and that was likely the cause of a lot of the noise. Apparently there's nearly NO clearance between the inside of the cap and the end of the spindle. I had used a rubber mallet to put seat the cap in the past and clearly that was not a good idea. It was dented in no more than 1/8" but that was enough to make touch-down.

So the new caps were installed using a very short piece of 2.25" exhaust pipe over it with a block of wood on the end and a soft mallet. The pipe pressed on only the edges of the cap and didn't distort or squish anything.

After a quick test drive it's very noticeably quieter, though there's still some howl that could be attributed to either the front bearings (original with 130k on 'em) or rear tires (huge tread blocks). ...but I'm satisfied for now and will try to tackle the rest of the noises in time.