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Excessive Road Noise

z1ggy

z1ggy

Lifer
2011 Mazda 3 Hatch. Between 50-65mph, the road noise becomes excessive, especially right at 64mph. My roommate confirmed this so it's not just my mind playing games. I checked all tire pressure and filled 1 tire which was low, the rest were okay.

Possible I lost a wheel weight or something? I'm not sure what else it could be.
 
Losing a wheel weight would probably introduce a noticeable vibration to the steering, not noise.

Noise is usually a function of tire compound and vehicle design.
 
Okay, but why is it suddenly incredibly loud? I've never noticed this before. What can I do to fix it? Tires only have about 30k on them, they shouldn't need replacing yet.
 
You could have a tire that broke a belt which may or may not be visible to the untrained eye. Hit any big potholes lately? Are you the only driver? Meaning could somebody else have encountered a road hazard of some kind?

Could be something else other than tires. It's hard to tell from behind a keyboard. 🙂
 
boomerang said:
You could have a tire that broke a belt which may or may not be visible to the untrained eye. Hit any big potholes lately? Are you the only driver? Meaning could somebody else have encountered a road hazard of some kind?

Could be something else other than tires. It's hard to tell from behind a keyboard. 🙂
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I am the only driver and I haven't hit anything that would have alarmed me. I noticed the noise very much so when it got very cold out a few weeks ago, right after I had my oil changed (by the Valvoleen derps). Tire pressure was reporting low and I could feel wobbles and vibrations even under my seat. That's when I filled all my tires up with air and the indication light went away, but the high noise at speed continued. Slightly less vibrations though.

ThatsABigOne said:
Could be a bad wheel bearing. Does the noise get louder as you drive faster?
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Generally speaking, it's modal. Meaning it's kind of noticeable around 31-33mph... Then goes away, then around 58mph it comes back and hits a high peak around 64mph, then goes away again as I speed up.

As others have said, the car in general has high road noise, but this is very annoying and noticeable.
 
Is it sort of like, whomp-whomp type of noise? If you rode in old Soviet buses, you will know what I am talking about. Just throwing some wild guesses.
 
z1ggy said:
I am the only driver and I haven't hit anything that would have alarmed me. I noticed the noise very much so when it got very cold out a few weeks ago, right after I had my oil changed (by the Valvoleen derps). Tire pressure was reporting low and I could feel wobbles and vibrations even under my seat. That's when I filled all my tires up with air and the indication light went away, but the high noise at speed continued. Slightly less vibrations though.
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This is your first mention of vibrations. I'd say one of two things. You either lost a wheel weight or weights or, you've damaged the tire from driving on it with low air pressure.

Are they low profile tires?
How low was the pressure?
How long was it low?

Low profile tires with very little sidewall can be damaged internally very quickly by driving on them with low air pressure. The sidewall folds against itself and the two surfaces chafe away at each other.

I've got a friend with a tire machine. His wife drove about 15 minutes home with low pressure in a front tire on a FWD car. I guess I should say that where we live the speed on the roads is predominately 55 mph. He went to look at the tire and he said it didn't look too low but it was down 10 pounds. When he put his hand on the tire it was hot to the touch. Not warm, but hot. He took the wheel off and put it on his tire machine and when he dismounted it he said there was an enormous pile of rubber inside it and the inner sidewalls were worn right through to the cords.
 
ThatsABigOne said:
Is it sort of like, whomp-whomp type of noise? If you rode in old Soviet buses, you will know what I am talking about. Just throwing some wild guesses.
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Eh... that's pretty vague lol. I can try to get an audio recording for you guys, but it's more of a high frequency noise (not ear shattering, but not enjoyable to hear). It's not sharp like say if your brake pads were worn, but....Yeah I don't know how else to explain it honestly, sorry.

boomerang said:
This is your first mention of vibrations. I'd say one of two things. You either lost a wheel weight or weights or, you've damaged the tire from driving on it with low air pressure.

Are they low profile tires?
How low was the pressure?
How long was it low?

Low profile tires with very little sidewall can be damaged internally very quickly by driving on them with low air pressure. The sidewall folds against itself and the two surfaces chafe away at each other.

I've got a friend with a tire machine. His wife drove about 15 minutes home with low pressure in a front tire on a FWD car. I guess I should say that where we live the speed on the roads is predominately 55 mph. He went to look at the tire and he said it didn't look too low but it was down 10 pounds. When he put his hand on the tire it was hot to the touch. Not warm, but hot. He took the wheel off and put it on his tire machine and when he dismounted it he said there was an enormous pile of rubber inside it and the inner sidewalls were worn right through to the cords.
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Not low profile, standard OEM, something like a 50 or 55 sidewall height.

Pressure read at 20PSI. Manual states 34PSI I believe. The other 3 tires were actually on 40 (guessing valvoleen derps did that). Would this affect things?

Low for about three days before I had the chance to fill them with air. Have done city and highway driving in that time.
 
I'd check the bearings. I had a bad bearing for ages and didn't realize it was the reason for my noise. The only reason I noticed the bad bearing was I had taken off the wheel to check the brakes and noticed I couldn't spin the hub smoothly.
 
z1ggy said:
Not low profile, standard OEM, something like a 50 or 55 sidewall height.
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Friend's wife's car had 50's on it. He said he was afraid of what might have happened if she'd jumped in the car and headed on the freeway. Their kids live in Georgia and she drives down there fairly frequently from Michigan.

Got a spare? Put that on and drop that tire and wheel off at a local tire store.

You're getting advice from people who aren't taking into consideration that what happened came on suddenly. I'd bet my last dollar that that particular tire is severely damaged and should not be driven on. Very low pressure and three days of driving does not bode well for it. Remember that a catastrophic failure could affect not just you.
 
boomerang said:
Friend's wife's car had 50's on it. He said he was afraid of what might have happened if she'd jumped in the car and headed on the freeway. Their kids live in Georgia and she drives down there fairly frequently from Michigan.

Got a spare? Put that on and drop that tire and wheel off at a local tire store.

You're getting advice from people who aren't taking into consideration that what happened came on suddenly. I'd bet my last dollar that that particular tire is severely damaged and should not be driven on. Very low pressure and three days of driving does not bode well for it. Remember that a catastrophic failure could affect not just you.
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Yeah I'm going to call the dealer up and bring it in hopefully sometime this week. The best I can describe the sound by the way, is like when you go from driving on the highway at speed, to over a bridge. The frequency of the road noise you hear seems to jump up a little bit while you drive over the bridge... That's similar to the noise I hear from my car.
 
z1ggy said:
Yeah I'm going to call the dealer up and bring it in hopefully sometime this week. The best I can describe the sound by the way, is like when you go from driving on the highway at speed, to over a bridge. The frequency of the road noise you hear seems to jump up a little bit while you drive over the bridge... That's similar to the noise I hear from my car.
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Let us know where you end up on it. I don't care if I'm found to be wrong, I'd just like to hear what the problem ended up being. And if I'm right, people need to be aware of the dangers of driving on modern passenger car tires that have low air pressure.
 
I think Mazda 3's are just prone to a ton of road noise as it is. That has been one of my two complaints with my 2006 Mazda 3 (sedan). Terrible road noise and the worst air conditioner ever put in an automobile. Besides that, it has been the best car I have ever owned and I don't regret the purchase.

The road noise is bad enough in my car that I quickly gave up on the idea of putting a decent stereo in it. There would be no point when you can hear the tires over everything once you get over 55 mph.

Did you get an oil change recently? A friend of mine found that the noise shield close to where the oil plug is located came up missing after he got an oil change. I am guessing they popped it off and forgot to put it back on. Not sure if that would cause your exact problem but a quick look couldn't hurt.

Also, the wheel bearings start to become suspect in the M3 starting around 125,000 miles. That would be more of a high pitched sound however which doesn't seem to fit your description.
 
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DaveStall said:
I think Mazda 3's are just prone to a ton of road noise as it is. That has been one of my two complaints with my 2006 Mazda 3 (sedan). Terrible road noise and the worst air conditioner ever put in an automobile. Besides that, it has been the best car I have ever owned and I don't regret the purchase.

The road noise is bad enough in my car that I quickly gave up on the idea of putting a decent stereo in it. There would be no point when you can hear the tires over everything once you get over 55 mph.

Did you get an oil change recently? A friend of mine found that the noise shield close to where the oil plug is located came up missing after he got an oil change. I am guessing they popped it off and forgot to put it back on. Not sure if that would cause your exact problem but a quick look couldn't hurt.

Also, the wheel bearings start to become suspect in the M3 starting around 125,000 miles. That would be more of a high pitched sound however which doesn't seem to fit your description.
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Yes, I did at Valvolene. I hate letting them do it, but it was cold and snowy and I was well over due. I don't have a garage so no way was I going to be doing it this time.

I'll probably just call the local dealer and have them check out all the possible suspects.
 
I just made an appointment to drop off the car Monday, but they don't offer loaner cars. I might have to reschedule the drop off for Tuesday since I'd probably be able to get a ride on that day.
 
z1ggy said:
Yes, I did at Valvolene. I hate letting them do it, but it was cold and snowy and I was well over due. I don't have a garage so no way was I going to be doing it this time.
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I understand. I had mine done at Walmart last time for similar reasons.
 
NutBucket said:
Some tires just get louder as they wear. If everything else is mechanically sound I'd go with this explanation.
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Agreed, I've noticed this with all tire sets I've had. Check your tire shoulders and make sure they are not worn down. The middle of the tread may look fine but if the shoulder has significant wear you will get more noise.
 
Well as I said, the tires have ~30k on them. I've easily gotten 50k out of a decent brand so I'd assume since I don't really drive this car too aggressively, that they have at least half their tread left.

I will check though, thank you.
 
Boom you were right, tires were the issue. The belts were torn up and coming apart on both of my rear tires. Front tire that was under pressured was fine. He also said my brakes were all toast which I find funny because they were ALL replaced at 30k miles. Current miles is 62k... I find it near impossible that rear brakes are done after 30k. Fronts I could see if they were terribly quality but not rear.

They wanted to charge me $280 per axel and I laughed in their face and said just do the tires.
 
z1ggy said:
Boom you were right, tires were the issue. The belts were torn up and coming apart on both of my rear tires. Front tire that was under pressured was fine.
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Well, I really wasn't right at all but still, thanks. Glad you got it figured out.
 
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