New 2018 CX-5 Vibration at Highway Speeds

Vibration/resonance

I have the same issue on my 2016 AWD with under 17k. A resonance sound becomes barely noticeable at about 45-50 mph and peaks noticeably at exactly 60 at which time the rymthic sound can be felt in the steering and shift lever. The resonance disappears above 60 mph. Cant hear it at 62/63.

Took it twice to dealer and one mechanic said normal for this car coming from the tranny gearing. Tires all balanced. Its there even rolling in neutral at 60 so it doesnt make sense to me. Its terrible once you realize it because 60mph is used much in traffic and the sound stands out even with high music volume. Id swear its a drive axel or shaft out of true. Someone mentioned CV joint, is there a way to confirm any of these possibilities?
The vibration or resonance you described is the typical symptom of out of balanced tires IMO. If tires have been re-balanced and the vehicle is still having vibration issue on the highway speed, it could be caused by lateral or radial runout and force variation on tires. Only Road Force Balancing can truly resolve these issues. Try road force balancing for your tires and it could resolve your vibration issue.

Road Force Balancing
 
Lateral Run-out and side-to-side shake

New to this forum. Purchased a brand new 2018 CX-5 back in October 2018. Did a test drive before buying the car, but not on the highway speeds. Started feeling there is something wrong with the car from day two and have been working with Mazda dealerships and Mazda Corporate since then but now it looks like they do not want to take interest. The car shakes side-wise and I have to struggle with the steering wheel to keep it in the lane. There are clear signs of lateral run-out on both front tires but Mazda says that is normal. I do hear the grinding noise coming from the tires at highway speeds, like the car is constantly skidding side to side. My steering wheel started wobbling in May 2019. I have taken to three different Mazda dealerships. First one, who sold me the car, said they re-balanced the tires and alignment was with-in the specs. Second dealership said they are unable to identify the problem. By third dealership visit, the car developed steering wobble. They did a road force balance, that fixed the steering wobble only for a couple of day. It did not address the original vibration and side-to-side shake problem. The steering wobble came back after couple of days. The car feels very unsafe to drive at highway speeds. I proposed Mazda swap all for wheels with a new car, but they have been reluctant in trying things out. They have done nothing other than re-balance and road-force-balance.

Here are the couple of images of front driver-side and passenger-side tires. I am wondering any of you also had the same issue with your front tires.
 

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Can you post a video of the shaking and skidding?
 
New to this forum. Purchased a brand new 2018 CX-5 back in October 2018. Did a test drive before buying the car, but not on the highway speeds. Started feeling there is something wrong with the car from day two and have been working with Mazda dealerships and Mazda Corporate since then but now it looks like they do not want to take interest. The car shakes side-wise and I have to struggle with the steering wheel to keep it in the lane. There are clear signs of lateral run-out on both front tires but Mazda says that is normal. I do hear the grinding noise coming from the tires at highway speeds, like the car is constantly skidding side to side. My steering wheel started wobbling in May 2019. I have taken to three different Mazda dealerships. First one, who sold me the car, said they re-balanced the tires and alignment was with-in the specs. Second dealership said they are unable to identify the problem. By third dealership visit, the car developed steering wobble. They did a road force balance, that fixed the steering wobble only for a couple of day. It did not address the original vibration and side-to-side shake problem. The steering wobble came back after couple of days. The car feels very unsafe to drive at highway speeds. I proposed Mazda swap all for wheels with a new car, but they have been reluctant in trying things out. They have done nothing other than re-balance and road-force-balance.

Here are the couple of images of front driver-side and passenger-side tires. I am wondering any of you also had the same issue with your front tires.

Whoa! That does not look good....I sure wouldn't feel safe driving it at all!
 
I don't know if it's a distorted pic or an optical illusion, but that pic of the left side looks like the tire is seriously deformed.
 
New to this forum. Purchased a brand new 2018 CX-5 back in October 2018. Did a test drive before buying the car, but not on the highway speeds. Started feeling there is something wrong with the car from day two and have been working with Mazda dealerships and Mazda Corporate since then but now it looks like they do not want to take interest. The car shakes side-wise and I have to struggle with the steering wheel to keep it in the lane. There are clear signs of lateral run-out on both front tires but Mazda says that is normal. I do hear the grinding noise coming from the tires at highway speeds, like the car is constantly skidding side to side. My steering wheel started wobbling in May 2019. I have taken to three different Mazda dealerships. First one, who sold me the car, said they re-balanced the tires and alignment was with-in the specs. Second dealership said they are unable to identify the problem. By third dealership visit, the car developed steering wobble. They did a road force balance, that fixed the steering wobble only for a couple of day. It did not address the original vibration and side-to-side shake problem. The steering wobble came back after couple of days. The car feels very unsafe to drive at highway speeds. I proposed Mazda swap all for wheels with a new car, but they have been reluctant in trying things out. They have done nothing other than re-balance and road-force-balance.

Here are the couple of images of front driver-side and passenger-side tires. I am wondering any of you also had the same issue with your front tires.
There're several threads discussing similar vibration issue on the highway speed from gen-2 CX-5. Yours seems very severe, and I don't know why your Mazda dealer and Mazda North American Operations are not willing to resolve the issue for you. One member claimed his problem is mostly resolved by using only Michelin Premier LTX tires after many tries with different ways. If I were you, I'd escalate the issue with higher management person in MNAO, and file a complaint to BBB and NHTSA for safety concern.

19 Signature Vibration/Shake
 
I've seen similar complaints in several forums for several brands, including the likes of Acura and Audi.

Just anecdotally, it seems like anyone whose problems weren't resolved by a proper balance (RoadForce or otherwise) ultimately needed new tires to resolve the issue. Sometimes it was just a defective set and new tires of the same type resolved the issue, other times the OEM tires were just terrible and something better was necessary (looking at you, Audi!).
 
Something loose in the suspension?
Why everybody looks only at the tire?
Once, on my first car(88' Volvo 760T) a bushing at the rear differential had to be replaced, and the mechanic did not tighten some bolts. When I was taking a big turn on a ramp(going from a fwy to another) the car started shaking violently sideways.
 
FYI, I'm the OP of this thread. My original tires did not look like the ones you posted. Also, my vibration was more annoyance than severe as you described. Hope you get it resolved!
 
Can you post a video of the shaking and skidding?

I am in the process of creating a video using three triple suction mounts to record left and right tires/wheels and windshield view (by mounting the suction mount on the moon-roof upside down) all together using three cameras and post on YouTube. I have already tried recording driver side front wheel/tire and I am able to see the run-out. I will post the video/s pretty soon.
 
I don't know if it's a distorted pic or an optical illusion, but that pic of the left side looks like the tire is seriously deformed.

I have checked the left tire for radial run-out. I mounted it on spare tire jack and placed a small camera tripod underneath it and used it rotating arm as a pointer so that it just touched the tire. Then I rotated the tire by hand and I saw there was a spot on the tire where there was about 2-3 mm gap between the tire and the pointer. I repeated the process throughout the width of the tire and this gap is more prevalent on the outer width where the wear due to later run-out is visible.
 
There're several threads discussing similar vibration issue on the highway speed from gen-2 CX-5. Yours seems very severe, and I don't know why your Mazda dealer and Mazda North American Operations are not willing to resolve the issue for you. One member claimed his problem is mostly resolved by using only Michelin Premier LTX tires after many tries with different ways. If I were you, I'd escalate the issue with higher management person in MNAO, and file a complaint to BBB and NHTSA for safety concern.

19 Signature Vibration/Shake

Thanks for the tip on escalating it with higher management in MNAO. I wrote a named letter to Tamara Mlynarczyk, Manager * Eastern Region, Public Affairs, Mazda North American Operations and marked Tim Olson, Program Manager, Public Relations in CC. And this communication was sent to both of them via email as well as certified mailed letters. This is so strange that I never got a reply from anyone of them. The only thing I received was a Mazda Customer Experience track on my email and I had been working with them since March 2019 until couple of weeks ago when (and now) the seem to loose interest by pretending that this is all normal. TOO BAD MAZDA!!

I will sure report it to BBB and NHTSA.
 
Something loose in the suspension?
Why everybody looks only at the tire?
Once, on my first car(88' Volvo 760T) a bushing at the rear differential had to be replaced, and the mechanic did not tighten some bolts. When I was taking a big turn on a ramp(going from a fwy to another) the car started shaking violently sideways.

@Space Muffin, @tibimakai:

Tires were not worn when I purchased the vehicle but the problem did exists. So my original guess was, there is some loose suspension part behind this. Tires became worn eventually. So I think tires and bad suspension part, both need to be taken care of now. But, first I would rule out bad tires by swapping them with a new vehicle. May be new tires fix the issue. If not, may be lower ball joints or lower control arm; but only when Mazda agrees to do that swap.
 
Video of Out-of-Round Toyo A36 on my 2018 Mazda CX-5

Finally I was able to record a video of the front left tire using a triple suction mount and a GoPro. The video can be found here:
 
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