Wife just purchased one of these & I'm amazed how much road noise enters the cabin.Is it the tyres(Bridgestone Potenzas) or just lack of sound deadening.My wife drove a couple of these before buying & they both had this loud road noise.Anyone else come across this!The car is a new import so would have been thoroughly checked out when imported,just hope it is not a mechanical problem
robbo36,
Jan 29, 8:48pm
Could be a number of things causing road noise:- tyres out of round, tyres delaminating, type of road surface, tread depth/width, etc. Some tyres are more prone to road noise. Check your tyre pressures to ensure they are not overinflated. I drove a Mazda 6 sporthatch some time back and at 100kph, with all windows up, it sounded the same as when you had a rear window down only, air pressure issue. Found out the car had just been fitted with new tyres and were overinflated. The tyre shop had forgotten to correct the tyre pressures after popping the beads when fitting them onto the wheels. Drove much quieter once adjusted to correct tyre pressures (32psi). Hope this helps!
likit,
Jan 29, 8:56pm
Will check pressure today,tyres are 205/50/17 so would 32 psi be correct pressure for around town driving only.I drive an old Commodore & couldn't believe the noise this 2004 model Axela had in the cabin.In comparison my Commy just glides
robbo36,
Jan 29, 9:06pm
Yep, 32 psi will be fine IMHO.
rpee,
Jan 29, 9:07pm
Hi, I had a Mazda Axela & the road noise was coming from the tyres.I took it to my garage & went for a drive with the machanic & straight away he said it was the tyres!
likit,
Jan 29, 9:27pm
Yeah thats what the car dealer said even offered to change tyres but,in my 37 years of driving cars from mark 11 Cortinas,valiants,falcons holdens,I have never struck such loud road noise especially coming from a car that is the latest that we have owned & supposedly more sophisicated than the aussie 6's & 8's that I drive
franc123,
Jan 29, 9:37pm
Drive it on some different road surfaces, eg tar seal, coarse chip seal and see what the noise does, if it changes a lot or even disappears on the tarseal it will definitely be the tyres.The point of all this is to eliminate a wheel bearing on the way out, which can cause similar noise.I bought a '94 Mazda Astina 10 years ago which was a fresh import and had exactly the same problem with its Bridgestones (forget what the name was), the road noise at highway speeds was appalling and drove us nuts, it was either crank the stereo up and shout at each other, wear ear plugs or put up with it.A new set of local Dunlops sorted it completely, it was like a completely different car after that.The whole experience did make me wonder why some people rate Bridgestones so highly, unless they were some odd compound/tread pattern that the Japs use for their own market!If the dealer has offered to swap them for you I'd do it.
luge_boy,
Jan 30, 8:13am
Wifey has an 03 axela and it has the bog standard factory wheels and tires, there is little road noisebut nothing too annoying. My 93 townace gives3 x as muchroad noise( but it is a peice of crap)
stevo2,
Jan 31, 5:44am
MrsStevo has an 04 2300cc with the 17" wheels and low profile (directional) tyres. When we bought it there was quite a bit of road noise which we accepted as they are known for tyre roar. Later we changed the tyres to Assymetric instead of Directional and that cut the road noise right down to very acceptable levels. The new tyres were good quality at around $200 each and well worth the change. Cheers Stevo
im_andrew,
Jan 31, 5:49am
Are your tires RE050a potenzas! I just fitted some to my subaru, they are just really noisy tires.
likit,
Jan 31, 6:14am
Yes it does seem to be normal,I don't know how my wife puts up with it,said she didn't even notice it.
stevo2,
Jan 31, 6:18am
The base model with the 16" rims is a lot quieter than those shod with 17" rubber. Directional tyres are generally noiser than assymetric Cheers Stevo
carkitter,
Jan 31, 6:26am
+1 Sometime cars being stored or transported have their tyre pressures increased to 50psi to prevent the flat spot that occurs when a tyre sits in one place too long. The flat spot causes tyre noise.
alltorque350,
Jan 31, 7:51am
Mazda 3 (axela) are renound for road noise. I used to work in a mazda workshop and we'd get in trouble if we didn't rotate the tyres front to rear at every service as the factory tyre were bad for blocking. When the new shape came out a year or two ago mazda made a huge efort to reduce noise be filling things with foam etc which did improve it slightly.
utwo,
Jan 31, 8:15am
What year is your Axela! The pre-facelift model had shocking road noise. All the reviews mention it. The facelift model included more sound deadening, but it's still noisier than other cars in its class. The Mazda 6/Atenza had the same issue, but not as bad as the Mazda 3/Axela. Again, the facelift model included more sound deadening. If you want to spend some money fixing the issue, get a car audio installer to apply Dynamat to the door skins and roof panel.
likit,
Feb 1, 4:03am
2004
bagal,
Feb 1, 6:17am
Having driven 150,000km in a Mazda 3 I can confirm that they are noisy!
utwo,
Feb 1, 8:01am
That was the first year of its release, so you got a noisy one :-( The facelift in 2007 included various noise reduction measures.
ogre8,
Feb 4, 4:15am
i recently purchasd a 2003 mazda axela 59000ks & yes road noise is slightly annoying although am finding a different noise to be more so,a sliding/grinding type noise when using the brakes (worse when in reverse) took it back into the car dealer who assures me this is normal that all mazda axleas brakes make this noise! any1 elses do this! is irrating! i intially thought perhaps the brakes were buggered cos to me sounded as if was metal on metal type sound but they assure me the brakes are fine !
stevo2,
Feb 4, 4:31am
No noise with our brakes, just had the rear pads replaced and discs machined at 75,000km Cheers Stevo
intrade,
Mar 9, 1:00pm
maybe you got a crooked wheel bearing rumbeling like a tank.
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