My first dealer experience.

Hi all,

I recently bought a '16 CX-9 GT and I noticed a sound while the car is in motion (picture a rubber ball bouncing off a wall/concrete floor). I took it to the dealership and went on a for a drive with the Tech...He too noticed the same sound.

After much debate ("road noise" and explaining to me how rubber/wheels are made...blah, blah and blah) he took the wheels off and ran it on the Hunter Road Force and noted that the hub is not centrical (?). He took me back and we noticed that while the rim is spinning, the hub is "wobbly"; not making a perfect circle. He thinks it's because they're MADE IN CHINA. I was thinking of Enkei but I guess maybe Mazda cheaped out?

Two weeks later, the wheels came! I took the car in and...unfortunately, one of the two wheels has the same issue. The dealership replaced the worse one and put in another wheel order. I drove home and the sound of the bouncing rubber ball is fainter than before.

Maybe an isolated event, maybe not? So the next time you're out for a drive, mute the music and put all the windows up; can you hear an irregular sound (aside from the typical road noise)? Hell, my Wrangler is quieter.

PM me for dealership info since I am unsure of forum rules (yet). I'll post a picture of the work order sheet tomorrow.

Thank you.

The Mazda wheels are lug-centric. They are centered on the car's hubs by the cone shaped lug nuts into the cone shaped seats in the lug holes. The center bore of the wheel does not center Mazda wheels on the car. My Toyota has hub-centric wheels, for example, and neither the nuts nor the wheels have the cone seats.

Have one of these supposedly eccentric wheels mounted on a lug-centric adapter, then put on the balancing machine. It'll balance smooth when correctly centered. The link is to one of several brands of lug-centric adapters. Many shops don't bother with them, but they should. It takes more time to mount the wheel, but that's the only right way if the center bore is not in the true center of the wheel. On a Mazda, the center bore just holds the wheel in place while we put the nuts on. It does not center the wheel on the car.
http://test.atlasautoequipment.com/products/universal-adapter

Now, if the center bore hole is so far off center that the lug nuts don't center in their holes, that is an actual bad wheel. Take a look at the cone seats where the wheel lugs enter the wheel center. If they show wear or any contact that isn't equal all around, bad wheel.