Strange Engine Vibration/resonance noise at 2300 RPM

So I got a pronounced resonance noise at 65MPH or 2300 rpm. I thought it was my tires but when I select 5M at 65MPH the RPM jumps to 2800-ish and the noise goes away. And if I leave it in 5th, and drop my speed to get the engine back to that 2300RPM area, noise comes back. I work on airplanes and it similar to when you have a twin engine prop plane and the the "prop sync" is not engaged. Its the noise you hear in the movies when they are trying to simulate the noise you hear in the cabin, wher, wher, wher. Its enough of a noise I can feel it in the stick and the floor boards. 2016.5 auto tranny, 3400miles. I dont remember it when it was new. The only things that have changed its I changed the oil to castrol syn 0w-20, put on Firesone Destination LE2 tires and its now ZERO here in Minnesota. The noise is driving me nuts on a long trip. Might go to dealer and test drive another one. Might be the engine having a resonance with the tread hitting the pavement at a certain RPM??? Maybe the castrol oil is not as good as the Mazda moly oil? (doubt it)

Any Ideas? Thanks

ctbale said:

So I got a pronounced resonance noise at 65MPH or 2300 rpm. I thought it was my tires but when I select 5M at 65MPH the RPM jumps to 2800-ish and the noise goes away. And if I leave it in 5th, and drop my speed to get the engine back to that 2300RPM area, noise comes back. I work on airplanes and it similar to when you have a twin engine prop plane and the the "prop sync" is not engaged. Its the noise you hear in the movies when they are trying to simulate the noise you hear in the cabin, wher, wher, wher. Its enough of a noise I can feel it in the stick and the floor boards. 2016.5 auto tranny, 3400miles. I dont remember it when it was new. The only things that have changed its I changed the oil to castrol syn 0w-20, put on Firesone Destination LE2 tires and its now ZERO here in Minnesota. The noise is driving me nuts on a long trip. Might go to dealer and test drive another one. Might be the engine having a resonance with the tread hitting the pavement at a certain RPM??? Maybe the castrol oil is not as good as the Mazda moly oil? (doubt it)

Any Ideas? Thanks

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This might sound like a stupid suggestion, but make sure all your windows/sunroof are rolled up 100%.

Other than that, if the noise is really that bad, take it to the dealer, check other cars and get it fixed.

Lol check your oil level a whir sound also accompanies a ready to spin bearing.

You may want to look underneath and inspect the plastic splash shields below the engine/transmission.

I'd take it to the dealer and let them try to find the source; esp if its a bearing

Did the vibration/resonance noise started after you changed the oil? Have you checked the oil level recently? I personally wouldn't change the factory-fill to Castrol too early like before 3,400 miles as the factory oil has very high content of molybdenum.

yup, started about the time I did the oil. I like the splash shield idea. might just throw some mazda oil back in there, less painless then going to the dealer. but its not likely that either. its not a bearing or anything internal to the engine. if it was a high mileage vehicle, I would be checking the motor mounts.

doesn't sound like any members here have the same resonance. 66mph, 6th gear with slight throttle pressure is the "sweet spot" (2300rpm) body roll (swerving) has no affect

wher, wher, wher ...... lol

ctbale said:

yup, started about the time I did the oil. I like the splash shield idea. might just throw some mazda oil back in there, less painless then going to the dealer. but its not likely that either. its not a bearing or anything internal to the engine. if it was a high mileage vehicle, I would be checking the motor mounts.

doesn't sound like any members here have the same resonance. 66mph, 6th gear with slight throttle pressure is the "sweet spot" (2300rpm) body roll (swerving) has no affect

wher, wher, wher ...... lol

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It's obviously demonic possession.

You have been really fighting the vibrations on this car from the beginning...

Since you have already swapped out your tires trying to get rid of it, but still no luck, I would really just want to hand it back to Mazda to let them figure it out.

my bad, and I will update the tire thread. the firestone place found a tire that they could not get under 20lbs on the road force machine, replaced that. no shake at highyway speeds anymore. That was an out of round tire that was bad enuf you could see a water bottle in the center console shaking at highyway speed.

This is not the same thing, this is a cyiclical high freq, low resolution resonance at 2300 rpm wher, wher wher ... Unobtainum nailed it!! Or its just a 4 cylinder ..... zoom zooom

ctbale said:

my bad, and I will update the tire thread. the firestone place found a tire that they could not get under 20lbs on the road force machine, replaced that. no shake at highyway speeds anymore. That was an out of round tire that was bad enuf you could see a water bottle in the center console shaking at highyway speed.

This is not the same thing, this is a cyiclical high freq, low resolution resonance at 2300 rpm wher, wher wher ... Unobtainum nailed it!! Or its just a 4 cylinder ..... zoom zooom

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I'd say it's odd. I don't really have any resonance that bothers me in this vehicle, and yes, I have had vehicles with resonance issues due to the gears I ran in them, etc.

I will update my tire thread but want to keep this one going due to the 2350rpm growl is still there. Even though as I said on a previous post firestone replaced the one tire, I just didnt like the way the Destination LE2s were working. And to take the tires out of the suspicion for being the cause of the 2350rpm growl, firestone did right by me and gave me back the 600 in the form of a credit and I use the credit towards a set of Pirelli scorpion verde plus tires. Good news/bad news. Good news: these tires are a huge improvement to the firestones, absolutely smooth, no shake, no tread noise, just an amazing difference. Bad news?: I can hear my 2350rpm growl more now!! lol I got an appointment at the dealer next tues. But my last rpm/speed numbers were a hair off. Its at 69mph, or 59mph in 5M. the rpm needle is almost excatly between the 2250rpm and 2500rpm "tics" I can reproduce the fault 100% of the time. you can feel it in the floor, the stick and though-out the body. I can reproduce the fault in 4M also but in the lower gears its more difficult to keep the rpm in the "growl zone" of 2250. Going to hook up my OBDII just to confirm rpm, but thats not really that important because I just center the tack needle between those two marks and growl, growl, growl. The simplist way is to go 70mph, then just let the speedo needle go just below 70, but just bearly below, then lock in the cruise .... growl, growl, growl. lol ..... trying to keep my humor but its all I think about when I am highway driving. After getting the tires on, I am really back in love with the car, just gotta get this dam thing figured out. If the dealer says its within limits, I am going to blow a gasket though. I will change the oil again this week end to see if that changes anything. I crawled under and shook the exhaust, lots of movement, but silent except for kind of a crunching noise from the where it connects to the engine. looks like a flex hose there? thats kind of strange? Also this car was up on the rack 7 times!!! Dealing with the dam yokos, and then shooting my self in the foot with the firestones, I remember this starting during that time, but I was focusing on wheel hop more back then. Wonder if the car slipped off the lift on one of my many visits? But this is RPM related so hard to say.

Wish me well! all comments welcome.

So what did the dealer say about it?

ctbale said:

⋯ Even though as I said on a previous post firestone replaced the one tire, I just didnt like the way the Destination LE2s were working. And to take the tires out of the suspicion for being the cause of the 2350rpm growl, firestone did right by me and gave me back the 600 in the form of a credit and I use the credit towards a set of Pirelli scorpion verde plus tires.

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I thought Firestone could only offer you Continental CrossContact LX20? Now you got Pirelli Scorpion Verde? (uhm)

Many tire companies will give you new set of tires or money back if you don't like the tires purchased. Discount Tire gives you 30 days.

With quieter Pirelli tires hopefully your Mazda dealer can feel or hear your engine resonance noise at 2300 RPM next Tuesday. But I really doubt what they can do about this unless they found the culprit is a bad wheel bearing (not likely、speed related) or some sort of easier one.

yrwei52 said:

I thought Firestone could only offer you Continental CrossContact™ LX20? Now you got Pirelli Scorpion Verde™? (uhm)

Many tire companies will give you new set of tires or money back if you don't like the tires purchased. Discount Tire gives you 30 days.

With quieter Pirelli tires hopefully your Mazda dealer can feel or hear your engine resonance noise at 2300 RPM next Tuesday. But I really doubt what they can do about this unless they found the culprit is a bad wheel bearing (not likely、speed related) or some sort of easier one.

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yea, my hopes are low. but I gotta try. its bad enough, if the problem cant be fixed, I gotta sell it. I do a lot of highway driving. Cant listen to that crap as I go along at highway speeds, or as I transition thru 2350rpm. as I am changing speeds and the growl happens, I think to myself as I look to the tach, must be at 2350 again. Sad thing is the mechanics now a days (I am an aircraft mechanic) are lazy and if there is no DTC then there is nothing to fix. I mean I troubleshot the tires (with some help from firestone) for crying out loud! One thing we will do is access history to troubleshoot a problem. first in our fleet, then from the manufacture and also the FAA. If there is a problem with something that there are many of, good chance ya arent the first one to experience it.

the other thing I may have forgot to mention is the noise likes "slight throttle pressure". so on decel, no noise, and in neutral holding rpm at 2350, no noise. straight and level holding speed, noise. and increases intensity on uphill grades. tells me when the engine is twisting on its mounts something is hitting something? just a theory.

its funny you mention wheel bearing because its not that much different of a sound. But is cyclical, you can hear it starting at 2000 rpm, whar whar whar, and as speed (rpm) increases, the "whars" come together in sync, THATS when you can feel it in the stick and its continuous.

I had a honda element with a bad rear bearing, put up with it for 2,000 plus miles. I knew it was one of the rear ones. I troubleshot it to the RR corner by swerving at highway speeds and when I put weight on it, turning hard to the left it would get worse, right would almost make it go away completely. but like you said, its not speed related.

So had a pretty good experience at the mazda dealer the last few days. Did a test drive with the tech, real sharp younger guy, been with the dealer 18 years. At first he couldnt hear it, but after I locked the cruze in at the RPM where it does it, he said he could hear it. We test drove another 2016 with 37,000mi off the used car lot and it was vibration free. So he was kinda stumped where to begin. He said maybe motor mounts, maybe exhaust, hard to say. I got the car back and he was going to contact tech support for assistance to see where to go from here. kinda bummin me out, hope we can figure it out. I really love this car. He said what he would like to do is pull the 37,000mi used car in and start swapping parts till it fixes it. Another interesting thing that was brought up was he said there was a service bulletin or recall or something having to do with the two front driveshafts. I am guessing the ones that connect to the front wheels. But that was for a 25mph vibration, so we both agreed that was not likely. I cant help think it has something to do with the 5 or 6 times it was on the lift/wheel removal and installation. I spent an hour under the car looking for anything that could be related to it being lifted wrong, couldnt find anything.

ctbale said:

So had a pretty good experience at the mazda dealer the last few days. Did a test drive with the tech, real sharp younger guy, been with the dealer 18 years. At first he couldnt hear it, but after I locked the cruze in at the RPM where it does it, he said he could hear it. We test drove another 2016 with 37,000mi off the used car lot and it was vibration free. So he was kinda stumped where to begin. He said maybe motor mounts, maybe exhaust, hard to say. I got the car back and he was going to contact tech support for assistance to see where to go from here. kinda bummin me out, hope we can figure it out. I really love this car. He said what he would like to do is pull the 37,000mi used car in and start swapping parts till it fixes it. Another interesting thing that was brought up was he said there was a service bulletin or recall or something having to do with the two front driveshafts. I am guessing the ones that connect to the front wheels. But that was for a 25mph vibration, so we both agreed that was not likely. I cant help think it has something to do with the 5 or 6 times it was on the lift/wheel removal and installation. I spent an hour under the car looking for anything that could be related to it being lifted wrong, couldnt find anything.

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Vibration/resonance nodes can come and go. 25mph may well correlate to whatever speed you're going, but it would be velocity, not RPM dependent, so it's very easy to rule that out one way or another.

But the good news is my tire hop is still gone, these pirelli tires are so smooooooth!! and quiet!!!

Driving it tonight, noise still there. I am thinking exhaust. Kind of fits. Happens at a certain rpm, increases with throttle pressure. Maybe a bad weld internally to cat, or muff. Nothing visible from exterior. The tech said to pull the entire length, from header to the tail pipes is a job. Sub frame has to get dropped to pull the header pipe. He was leaning towards the mounts. But I am thinking exhaust. Will know what Mazda says Monday .... I hope. It took 5 or 6 trips to the tire store, and now thats PERFECT! I am like a dog with a bone dam-it, I aint lettin go!! The other one that crossed my mind is engine out-put shaft bearing? Again, a bad bearing there would be sensitive to Rpm and engine torque

ctbale said:

But the good news is my tire hop is still gone, these pirelli tires are so smooooooth!! and quiet!!!

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Tire-hop? Are you actually doing burn-outs in your CX5 ?