Cars been at the dealer's for the last few days. So far they said Mazda told them it was the heater core and to drain and rebleed it. Noise is apparently still there, but they say they tested another vehicle on the lot and that the noise is normal. I'm not inclined to believe the it's normal routine, but they did say I can test another car on the lot when I go pick it up tomorrow.

With all the fuss and the amount of time it took them to try to fix the noise, I wonder if they ever got to curing my clutch pedal squeak.

 

Haha, funny you say that LionZoo- just got mine back from the dealer today. If anything, I would say the noise has calmed down. They said that Mazda told them to replace the sparks and clean the injectors. So far with the cleaning stuff in it, it's a little better. I would say it happens less often. As for my clutch pedal.. still squeaking. I may try some WD-40.

The dealer said to drive it a bit and see if it goes away after the cleaner works through. If not, bring it back. I think in all fairness, I've found the best service manager in the state. He's pretty honest.

 

Anyone else who's had this problem- keep us updated! I'd really like to know if there is a solution!

 

LionZoo - someone on the forum, who didn't post often, had the rattle and said the dealership found a bad valve in the heater core, whatever that meant. Had it replaced, and the engine rattling was gone. Again, hard to say if it's the same cause for all of us.

 

The forum member I'm referring to (I can look up his name in private messages if you want) and devious12 have gotten it fixed, from what I know.

 

Hey raptor, I read that post about the heater valve. What happened was that he had a 2005 in which they replaced the heat core PCV with the 2006 model. I already have a 2006 though. If it is just the heater core, then I can rest easy as it isn't a crucial mechanical bit.

 

Hi!

I have just got my brand new sunlight silver, the European "Revolution 170" version, you can take a look at it here
http://private.tessel.pl/mazda/
(The car is 6MT, '06, 231hp, leather, xenon, climate controll, Bose audio)

So after first 1000km of easy driving it was the time to push it a bit harder... and to my great disappointment I heard the infamous noise, that I would call coffee grinder kicking in just above 6.000 rpm
In my opinion it comes from the inside of the cabin, not from the engine bay and it is definitely located on the right hand side of the car, around glove compartment.
It cannot be heard while the car is in neutral and standing still.
(EDIT - sorry - I have veryfied that it can be heard while in neutral...)

I haven’t found any recording here of this sound, so I will post mine... it's not perfect, but you can identify the noise somehow.

http://private.tessel.pl/mazda/mazdarx8_noise.wav

File description:
0-10 second, acceleration, 1st gear
10-16 second - 2nd gear, you can hear the noise between 13 and 16 second
16-21 second 3rd gear - the noise can be heard between 18 and 20 second

Is it the same thing you have?

 

Hey Mike welcome to the club. Sadly I don't have internet until next Wednesday; I'm actually at the office right now, though I'm done with work for the day and so am doing a little surfing. Anyway, I won't be able to hear the noise until next Wednesday as I don't have sound here, but if anyone else wants to confirm (raptor? zenmoused?) that would be awesome.

 

Yep. That's the noise alright. Welcome to the club. Taking my car back in next week for round 4 of them trying to figure it out...

Congrats on the car btw! It's a real beauty!

 

wow I just noticed- you got the fog light and the headlight washers! Here in the US we get neither.

 

Thanks for the clip.

Mine's a little more high-pitched than that....otherwise....the sound's 'behavior', so to speak, sounds a lot like that. I'll also try to get a recording. And again, mine comes on around 7300 RPMS, goes away at 8000ish.

 

zenmoused - the fog light was a nice surprise headlight washers are standard and I think obligatory with xenon lights.
The recording is not the very best quality because it was recorded using Olympus Voice Recorder which is not best suited for recording sound other than voice as you may expect
But I’m really glad that you confirmed you have the same problem – at least I’m not alone It’s amazing you guys are listening sound of my engine on the other side of the globe

Raptor2k – I guess mine is also a bit higher pitched when you are sitting inside the car. I have noticed yesterday that sometimes it appears at 6.000rpm sometimes later around 7.500 just like you said, but it never goes away when revved higher.

I’m meeting a guy today that has exactly the same model as mine and he claims that his car doesn’t make that noise. When I will confirm that I will contact Customer Service in Germany (they take care of Polish market as well) and hopefully they will give me some acceptable answer – that is – yes we know the problem, go to the workshop and replace part number xxxx

I will keep you updated if the German guys can figure out what is wrong.

 

Hey Mike, do you have a 2006? If so, what model year does your friend have? I have a feeling there was a part change for 2006s in that area and the new part is causing the sound.

 

I didn't read any of the above posts, but I've posted to this problem a while back. Anyway I used to have the marbles in the blender sound, but I don't anymore (or has diminished to the point where its unnoticeable) after I switched to Shell instead of the usual Petro-Canada gas. It took a few consecutive tanks of the same gas. I used to switch back and forth to different gas companies and the noise wouldn't really go away. I'm still not sure if this is the culprit, but is working so far. Anyway, I thought I'd share this!

 

It's been the culprit in some cases.

 

LionZoo - I have a 2006 - I bought it on June 2006 and it has 1200km (750miles) on it. But how to find out when the car was produced? Is it marked somewhere in the car? I only know the model is FE19 EBT with 13B 490662 engine.... no production date... There is a VIN plate inside the engine bay but no production date...
My friend did get his on May 2006. We where driving his car today, and he said he can't hear anything but I believe the noise was there, but is was so quite that one could barely hear it, but may be I was wrong

 

SlowLude - I think in your case the sound was coming from the engine bay? this sound is so clear that in my opinion it must be coming from inside the car, I suppose it is related to part of the air conditioning / heating / fan system... if you look from the engine side there are many pipes coming inside just under the glove box... maybe with high rpm a high flow of engine coolant is flowing thru some malfunctioning valve or other part and causing the noise (or there are air bubbles in the cooling system - I can hear the just after the engine is started and it is not the air conditioning)
My friend is using the same petrol – Statoil 95 or Shell 95 (in European standard). We also have 98 and Shell has its V-Power 99+ but wankel rotary engines should work just fine on 95.

 

Well I've been consistently running Shell 91 and it hasn't gone away. Mike, to me it does sound like it's coming from inside the cabin. I wouldn't call the sound very loud, but it definitely seems "close" and not really what I'd associate as an engine sound. It almost sounds like cavitation in the cooling system. By the way, what year car does your friend have? I have a 2006, I know zenmoused has a 2006, and I do believe raptor also has a 2006.

 

04 here

I think I started getting the sound at around 15k miles...I'm almost at 24k now.

 

The knock that I've been talking about is the same sound a piston engine makes when knocking, but much louder. The knocking in my 8AT starts around 4k-5k RPM WOT using 87 octane. It is also more likely to knock as outside ambient air temperature rises.

 

and you understand then that itr cant be knock since the engine doesnt have any of the parts that make the knock sound in a piston engine.

its probably the speakers on my laptop but im really not sure i hear anything unusual in that clip. what i can hear sounds like the intake ports opening at 6500 and the short cut opening at 7250. those are normal operation.

 

I don't understand...if it's 'normal', then why doesn't EVERYONE get the sound?

 

Just a suggestion. Hope it fixes your metallic rattle.

Observation: Metallic noise was not heard from the outside of the car.


I had something similar. The offending item is a metallic plate inside the centre speaker top cover. You need to partially remove the cd unit to access the two screws which holds the top centre cover. I think I also had to remove the vents... not sure... but its been a long time now since I've completed the operation.

Insulate that piece of metal plate with foam. As a tip, unbolt it and remove the double sided tape that was originally fitted from the factory. Plenty of room inside that cavity to wrap that plate with foam.

You could also insulate the speaker cable with foam as well as it causes a dull knocking sound whenever I use to hit a sharp bump.

After doing the above, mine returned to that original "blare" at the top end of the rev range. Beautiful!!!

Give it a shot. Hope it works for you as it did to mine.

My RX8 is RHD model. The plate is situated left of the centre speaker. LHD models might have that plate to the right of the centre speaker.

 

Too hard to explain the exact sound and I don't have a recorder. I'll be passing through Portland next month. If you're interested, we can meet up and you can hear it for yourself.

 

absolutely. just pm me about the when and we'll figure out the where