2019 Signature Vibration/Shake

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2023 Mazda CX-5 Signature
Resolved: 19 Signature Vibration/Shake

So... brand new off the truck 2019 CX-5 Signature purchased 1/18/19 with 3 miles.

Began to notice vibration/shimmy between 68-72 mph. Very consistent.

Long story short: multiple road force balances of the original Toyo A36 tires, a complete change of tires to Continental Contact Tour, and road force of those 2 times. I still have the same issue.

While you may think its crazy I changed the tires. I come from a Subaru Outback and EVERYTIME I used their service center it was oh thats normal operation.

So today I called the service manager at the Mazda dealer I purchased at. He was quite irritated I purchased new tires. I also kept the old ones. I guess this is a good thing. I dont expect them to pay for the new tires at all.

Appointment is tomorrow morning for a ride with technician, and determining next steps. Im really curious what in the heck is causing this, its quite irritating to say the least. Everytime I would leave the discount tire Id think its resolved, then a big let down when I got on the highway.

Resolution: After dealing with this since new, the resolution was to go from Toyo A36, Continental TrueContact Tour, to finally Michelins Premier LTX tire. The Michelins fixed the issues entirely.

Discount tire showed me how other manufactures piece together their tires in strips of 8-9 inches but Michelin does it in like 1-2 inch strips. This makes the tire much more uniform and balanced. I was so happy when I drove away, got on the freeway and it didnt do the shake anymore. Hard to believe that roadforcing those continentals many times didnt get it right. I guess the 19 wheels and CX5 is very sensitive to any variation in tire and balancing.

Saturday I got a call and it went to voicemail from Mazda. It said that both the dealer and Mazda believe this to be a normal feature of the car since they replicated it on other CX5s.

I promptly emailed them to say it was resolved. Also that if they say its a normal feature, to advertise it as such and see how many they sale. Like wtf, whos car does that shake and calls it a feature. Which I also asked my rep in the email if her car did this, did her coworkers?? Anyway, finally its over and I can truly be happy with the 35k+ that was spent on this car.
 
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Is this on a newer concrete highway with a grooved surface? I've found my '17 can shake quite noticeably at those same speeds on that particular kind of road. It seems to be fairly temperature and humidity dependent too. My assumption was that the isolation bushings in the suspension are encountering a very specific vibration frequency that they are sympathetic too and are not filtering effectively. It's most noticeable in the steering wheel, which shakes like something out of an old GM X-body car under those conditions.

My gut never really told me to suspect the tires, mostly due to the very specific set of conditions that need to be present. I think it's oscillation in the suspension that only occurs when just the right ingredients for it are present.
 
So Discount Tire got the road force balance lbs under 10. Which is really good.

Even after that it continued. Went to Mazda. Road with one tech he sorta felt it, he thought it was the road so we went on a different road and same thing. Sorta felt it. Haha.

The manager wanted me to drive a brand new signature. So I did. With a different tech. He felt it in the new one.

We went back to dealer. I explained that if this is normal then it should be explainable. Furthermore it shouldnt be normal. They agreed, they are opening a case with Mazda hotline. They are also concerned that they will have more than 1 complaint on this considering the brand new one does it. And so it continues....
 
He was irritated that you purchased new tires?! That's rich.

First thing I did when I got my new '18 CX 5 was to replace the OEM A36 tires with Michelin Premier LTX's. Had a scary experience with OEM tires on a Subaru Forester once; never again!
 
I had/have this same issue. You can feel the vibration through the whole car (the sun visors even are vibrating a bit when in the down position) and I even had it where the steering wheel would physically shake. The dealer tried multiple times to fix it and couldn't resolve it. We even drove new ones on the lot that had the same thing. The only thing they could do is keep road force balancing the tires over and over but that still didn't make it go away completely. I eventually found an independent shop with a road force machine that was able to get the wheels even more in balance and that took care of it mostly but it's still there. Even on perfectly flat and smooth brand new asphalt. I even had done the same as you and ditched the Toyos for Pirellis.

I'm in agreement with CatsPaw that it most likely has something to do with the new liquid bushings on the 2017+ models because my 2014 never did this and a 2016 loaner I had while they were looking at my car didn't do it either.
 
Im convinced Mazda has an issue with balancing at the factory and uses defective tires and or bent wheels.

Ive purchased 2 new Mazdas in the past 3 years. A 16 3 GT manual hatch and a 16.5 Cx5 GT.

Both vehicle had vibration issues at highway speeds. You could see and feel it in the steering wheel over 60.

On the 3, new tires balanced at an independent shop resolved the issue. On the Cx5, rebalancing at an indepent shop removed the majority of it.

Its incredibly frustrating to purchase a new car and have this happen. As frustrating as it is, Ill be looking at Cx5 GTR to replace the 3. Mazda just really dials in the driving experience for the class with exception of this issue. Ill probbaly drive 2-3 GTRs this weekend. Ill reply after with whether or not they have this problem.
 
My Signature doesn't have this issue, but the '16 CX-9 purchased new DID.

When checked, all four wheels were WAY out-of-balance.
A proper rebalance solved the issue.
 
While you may think it*s crazy I changed the tires. I come from a Subaru Outback and EVERYTIME I used their service center it was *oh that*s normal operation.*

So today I called the service manager at the Mazda dealer I purchased at. He was quite irritated I purchased new tires. I also kept the old ones. I guess this is a good thing. I don*t expect them to pay for the new tires at all.

He could be thinking he has to pay for it - otherwise many owners upgrade their OEMs.
 
Drove a Grand Touring Reserve and 2 Grand Tourings yesterday, all had noticeable vibrations that could be felt through out the car and in the steering wheel.

I wound up purchasing the reserve. They rebalanced wheels ans tires and it was only slightly better. They then pulled the wheels off another vehicle and rebalanced those. Vibration is still there.

Going back next weekend to have hem road force balanced.
 
Im curious what happens in your case. So far the dealer has not heard back from Mazda Corp hotline. They will call again Monday for status.

After changing the tires and feeling it in the test drive of the brand new one they had me do, Im concerned its normal.

But even so the dealer agreed it cant be just classified as norm when its clearly not norm in other vehicles. We shall see.
 
Im curious what happens in your case. So far the dealer has not heard back from Mazda Corp hotline. They will call again Monday for status.

After changing the tires and feeling it in the test drive of the brand new one they had me do, Im concerned its normal.

But even so the dealer agreed it cant be just classified as norm when its clearly not norm in other vehicles. We shall see.
Yeah apparently its normal for gen-2 CX-5 and not much the dealer can do to eliminate this vibration issue. I believe, like CatsPaw and Seminole suspected, the problem is from new liquid bushings on gen-2 CX-5. The severe vibration issue in extremely cold weather on gen-2 CX-5 is also caused by new liquid engine mounts and Mazda cant resolve the problem so far other than let dealer to replace the liquid engine mounts with rubber engine mounts. There cant be that many wheels which require road-forced tire/wheel balance for vibration issue. I have never had a need to use road-forced balance to eliminate vibration. Must be something else other than tires and wheels!
 
https://youtu.be/IV3yXR3DRSw

Showing how my stuff shakes inside the vehicle during my commute and otherwise lol. You can see the shake varies as I change speeds, also you can hear the zipper shake throughout.
Like the vibration issue on Honda CR-V a couple of years ago, majority of the owners didnt notice it or didnt care. If you dont feel the same vibration on your previous vehicle, I believe the issue is there. You should call Customer Experience Center at Mazda North American Operations in person and complain the issue. I simply dont believe road-forced tire/wheel balance is the proper resolution. Its something on design, very likely is the new liquid bushings used in front suspension.
 
Noticed this since new on our 2018 grand touring cx5 in the steering wheel when driving over 65 mpg, but it is very slight and not worth looking in to. Sounds like this may be a "normal" characteristic of this car?
 
I once had a vibration on a car. I tried 3 different tire places and a Discount Tires tech was able to find the tiny imbalance in one of the wheels/tires.
If you have been working with just one tire shop, you might want to try another place.
 
Status Update:
Saw dealer last Wednesday at 8am. Was told by a rep there would hear within 24 hours. Have heard nothing so I contacted customer care today. This is what followed.

Thank you for your patience John. I contacted the service adviser "Jesus" at Cardinaleway Mazda and was advised that the Technician reached out via phone to the hotline team. The adviser says there has not been a hotline ticket open on the concerns as of yet. The service adviser says the dealership is supposed to open a case with hotline tomorrow and contact you with the updates on this matter.
I provided my contact information and I am sending a email to the Service Adviser, Service Manager, and Technician to keep me in the loop and to open a hotline ticket with Mazda Corporate involved on this matter. I will keep a close eye and assist as needed. The adviser says the concerns were duplicated on the vehicle as well as on two other 2019 CX5 at the dealership. At this point the dealership is investigating if this is a normal feature or needs to be diagnosed.

I got a little irritated as this seems to be getting worse, by the mile in my opinion. Eventually Im sure whatever it is will come to light. To be continued...
 
Brought my 19 reserve in this past weekend and they wound up replacing the tires with Michelin premiers. Vibration is nearly gone.

When they tried road force balancing the stock toyos, they were all over 35 pounds of force. For a wheel and tire of that size, they said it should be under 25. The Michelins came in at 9 and 16.

I put my winter wheels on the day after the Michelins were put on. Theyre brand new 17 sport editions with Yokohama Ice Gaurds.The vibration has returned. I think this car is just really sensative to any imbalance in the wheels and tires. I plan to bring the winters into a local shop that has solved a few balancing issues for me. Super frustrating.
 
Im starting to believe the same thing. I just need it to be better than what it is currently. Right now I just avoid going on the highway on my way to work, long story but the alternative city route is just as fast.

Nothing from Mazda Corp or the dealer yet. But they did confirm the hotline ticket was filed by the dealer last Tuesday. Also Mazda sent me a new car survey, asked a billion questions and requested feedback. Lets just say I gave it lol.
 
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