How gracefully is your engine aging?

I

ijbrekke

Member
:
2015 Mazda 6
I ask this question because in the 3 years and 35,000 miles I've owned the car my engine has started to vibrate more and more. When I bought the car it was very smooth, but over time it has slowly started to buzz throughout the rev range. It actually is most annoying in the way it resonates, creating a booming cabin noise at certain RPM.

I've done lots of work in the last 15,000 or so miles: timing belt, water pump, clutch, flywheel, throwout bearing, all four motor mounts, egr valve, mass air flow sensor, oxygen sensor, air filter and intake hose, pcv valve and grommit, spark plugs and wires, ignition coils...all with maintenance in mind but hoping one of these will get rid of the underlying vibration. Most have helped (and definitely improved gas mileage) but it still seems to be there.

My question is to see if it's even worth pursuing anymore or if this is just how the 2.0L becomes over time. Also, if anyone has recommendations for things I have yet to try I'm all ears.
 
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Mine is starting to run a little bit rough at idle,.. It's seafoam time again.
 
my vibration is only really noticeable when i first start up my car on a cold start and put the car into reverse. Granted, I bought this car used, but this has been a pretty big annoyance of mine. It eventually quiets down once I start driving it, but that initial vibration is horrible and I'm not sure what's up with it.
 
Fraya713 said:
my vibration is only really noticeable when i first start up my car on a cold start and put the car into reverse. Granted, I bought this car used, but this has been a pretty big annoyance of mine. It eventually quiets down once I start driving it, but that initial vibration is horrible and I'm not sure what's up with it.
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Mine does the same thing. Bought mine almost three years ago w/70K miles on her and it did the same thing then. I think it's just the innate problems of this economy car. Still love her though :)
 
I started getting that when I put in a rear motor mount insert. That seemed to exacerbate other issues. Blah blah blah, the original source of my noise problem was a blown catalytic converter gasket, the one that goes between the exhaust manifold and catalytic converter. After replacing it, the noise is gone but the cabin still has this boomy sound to it even though it is quiet on the outside. I think it's my motor mount because that transfers vibration from the engine to my entire car. When I have the car in neutral, no vibration transfer to the car's body and its quiet.
 
I wish vibrations were all I had to deal with...

It's a 10 year old car it's not going to run like new
 
my p5 shudders at stoplights because of the EGR, but that's getting replaced soon. other than that it's pretty smooth at 212K miles
 
Hank3 said:
Mine does the same thing. Bought mine almost three years ago w/70K miles on her and it did the same thing then. I think it's just the innate problems of this economy car. Still love her though :)
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Furthermore, my clutch shudder has been bad since 70K miles as well. Should probably change out the clutch someday.
 
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^ the clutch and flywheel are cake to replace...its everything you have to do to get to them that sucks...once the gear box is off, its a 20 minute job...and most of that is simply cleaning everything up with brake cleaner before torquing on the new parts...but removing the gear box...thats an afternoon at least...

knock on wood...but i guess i'm pretty lucky...i'm right around 156,000 miles...and the car drives the same it has since new, more or less...had some upgrades recently and replaced some needed suspension parts...but the engine feels great, compression seems good, noise is the same (all things considered; i've had awr mounts in for 8 years)...and the transaxle is as crisp as ever...I've done the normal routine of maintenance, though...as the coils did die last fall, and it wasn't exactly pleasant until they were replaced...
 
Is it possible to replace the clutch without removing the gear box from the engine bay,... is there enough room for that?
 
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. Two new theories I'm working with: Resistance from the A/C compressor clutch (which I know to be in rough shape), and an internal piece of the exhaust/catalytic converters that has come loose and is rattling or buzzing. Do these sound reasonable?

It basically sounds like I have a solid rear motor mount in the car. Except I don't, I have 4 new rubber mounts.
 
Remember that the AC is operational on Defrost, Defrost/Floor mix and even just Floor, unless you do the Mod. I did the mod, now I just turn on the AC every couple of weeks to spin up the compressor.
I was inside the dash for the flickering "AC light" fix anyway, so I did both.
 
Installshield 2 said:
(all things considered; i've had awr mounts in for 8 years)
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Curious, which awr mounts did you use? I assume you'd recommend them? Are you using different inserts as well?
I have a feel that my motor mounts on shot and that has a lot to do with the engine vibration I'm experiencing..
 
Fraya:

I've been running the 95d AWR #1 and #2 mounts since late 2004, with a mazdaspeed protege #3 mount (the timing belt side), and a factory #4 gearbox mount...the AWR pieces i have are full replacements, and i'm not running any 'inserts' on any of the factory mounts...

the awr's have been great, but 95's are the hardest available from them...So its not exactly a quite car in any situation...idle buzzes the dash pretty well, and A LOT of engine 'sound' is transferred inside...not really vibration, its not like you feel the car buzzing as you drive...its just the engine note is very noticeable, and most people that ride in it think it has a much bigger engine than what it does...

I'm running an exhaust with no flex-pipe (like the stock system), so the hard mounts were a must to keep that from breaking...but this spring i'll be rebuilding a new mid-pipe and will put a flex pipe, as well as the factory cup-mount, in place...which will give the whole exhaust a lot more articulation...and with that i'll most likely buy replacement bushings for the AWR mounts i already have; something a little softer...AWR has 3 bushing types...a 70 that is only slightly more than stock, a 85 iirc, which is what i'll get, and what i currently have...I don't dislike it, but it definitely takes some getting used to...
 
pcb said:
Remember that the AC is operational on Defrost, Defrost/Floor mix and even just Floor, unless you do the Mod. I did the mod, now I just turn on the AC every couple of weeks to spin up the compressor.
I was inside the dash for the flickering "AC light" fix anyway, so I did both.
Click to expand...

Good reminder. Unfortunately the problem persists even when a/c and heat are off. A/C does seem to make the vibration mildly stronger, but that's normal for any engine.
 
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