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Mazdaspeed 6 Front End Noises

20K views 29 replies 10 participants last post by  prdracing 
#1 ·
I've been trying to figure out two sounds I'm having that I believe are related. The car is a 2006 MS6 with about 60k on it. All stock steering, brakes, and suspension.

1: A clunking-type sound coming from the front passenger side somewhere. This only happens when the weather is cold, and it goes away after a few minutes (once the engine starts warming up). It cannot be heard when it's warm. It occurs during the application or removal of throttle. My guess was PMM, but it looks intact and all the bolts are tight.

2: There is a constant sound from the front passenger side that sounds like a tire rubbing. I guess it's like a low frequency humming kind of sound that is almost non-existent in a straight line or when the car is turned right. When I even move the wheel a slight amount to make the car move left (even a gradual lane change), the sound gets a lot louder. I have checked for wheel bearing tolerance and it doesn't seem to have any play. I had the car at the dealer for a freebie oil change and they did a free alignment check and supposedly inspected all the steering and sspension components in the front end and found everything to be in spec, so they didn't have any input except a shoulder shrug. And the tire sidewalls (inner and outer) don't seem to show any symptoms of rubbing on anything.

Both of these sounds drive me nuts :mad:. Can anyone offer some input?
 
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#4 ·
My first thought was wheel bearing for the sound #2 as well, but it has no noticeable play when tested. Plus, the sound is more of a rubbing sound and not so much of the typical wheel bearing gritty kind of sound. The tech said his basic inspection of the wheel bearing came up clean as well. As he so aptly stated: "yeah it could be the bearing, but I don't think it is. It's your car though, you can start just throwing money at it if you want...". Gee, thanks for the insight.
 
#5 ·
^^ in the early stages of bearing failure you can't feel or see any radial free play so now its based upon sound when loaded. When it gets to point of having play its going be VERY LOUD and likely cause wheel sensor errors.

Example; lets say the right front is going bad. While going straight you hear a hum, you turn right and nothing really changes, but when you steer left, weight shifts to the right front and you hear a hum or a growl get louder. That says something is up in the right front.

Next bearing test; which is best performed on a four post lift with rails up and down the center so the car can be lifted by the lower control arms.
REMOVE all four wheels blocking the suspension such that the control arms take the weight so as to load the suspension. NOT doing so, leaves the CV joints are sharp angles and induces extra noise which is not normally present. THIS IS DANGEROUS, REQUIRES AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE; One with a stethoscope and one in the car. place the car in LOW or 2nd and obtain a speed of about 30 mph. Using a stethoscope carefully probe each of the wheel bearings. Probe differential housing to eliminate other sounds.

The good: you have a stethoscope and can hear well. The bad: there is no load so the bearing will not be as noisy.

** BE CAREFUL ** Keep the speeds as low as possible so as not vibrate the car off the lift. OR replace the suspect bearing if the road test makes the noise more audible.
 
#7 ·
Agree, wheel bearings will not show play when bad, stethoscope to the hubs with all 4 wheels off the ground/ car in 1st gear spinning is how to check.

PMM has failed without the gel pack breaking. If the rod moves like in the video I uploaded, it has failed. I have not heard of a single person who has ha the gel break, even on high HP cars
 
#8 ·
I agree with everyone else on the wheel bearings being the cause of the situation, I just had my front passenger replaced and it was making the same exact sounds you're talking about. Have someone else look at it since you can only use the "tire" test when the bearing is in its last stages before it fails. It only was gonna cost me around $120 for them to install but since I just bought the car from them they did it for free. I get the general consensus that the bearings on these cars go out around 60-80K or sooner. The sound went away immediately after the install.
 
#9 ·
If you guys have searched way back, a lot of MS6 owners have had this issue. It's the passenger side engine mount. It only happens when the car is cold and goes away as the car warms up. You may not see a leak but it is broken, you can check if the bolts are tight as you want, but you will never know it's the mount. Many have asked this question and this is what I have experienced and told them.

As for the humming sound, check the wheel bearings or the shock mounts. The shock mount may have worned out and it's transferring road noise into the car. It could also be the hub/bearing...
 
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#10 ·
If you guys have searched way back, a lot of MS6 owners have had this issue. It's the passenger side engine mount. It only happens when the car is cold and goes away as the car warms up. You may not see a leak but it is broken, you can check if the bolts are tight as you want, but you will never know it's the mount.
Yup, this is true. Mine had no leak at all, but it was toast.
 
#11 ·
Thanks so much for all the input guys. I'll probably just do the PMM since it's relatively inexpensive and should be easy to do (at least going off what's in my memory and not having the car right in front of me). I'll look into the bearing replacement to see if it's something I can handle in my parking lot on my own.
 
#12 ·
I'll look into the bearing replacement to see if it's something I can handle in my parking lot on my own.
You'll have to coordinate labor with someone to press the old hub and bearing out and the new one in. Its not something most of us have the tools to do on our own. Contact your local machine shop in advance but YES, you can take them the spindle assembly.

Using dial indicator to the hub flange the spec says it can move no more than 0.05 mm /0.002 inch. That's not something your going to feel with your hands. So if you feel anything radial movement with the tire on and someone can watch the suspension to confirm its NOT ball joints, the bearing needs replaced.
 
#16 ·
OK, I got the Anchor PMM and Timken bearing ordered from RockAuto. The Anchor is part # 9182 if anyone else is looking to replace their's. I just did some online comparison shopping and that is at least $20 cheaper than any other OEM replacement option. It said "only 4 remaining" when I ordered mine, so keep that in mind.

I'm going to have my local performance shop do the bearing. He said he was pretty familiar with the platform and it shouldn't be a problem. They just order Mazda OEM ones (at about $80 each), but I offered to bring in a new Timken one (at $27.79) and he said that was cool. Hopefully I'll be able to get all this done next week.
 
#20 ·
OK well I have the old mount out of the car and it is definitely blow out. The mounting post can be wiggled around with one finger (sound familiar, oh_yeahMS6?). My question is this: is the new mounting post supposed to be about 1/2" taller? I was thinking my old blown out one had sunken in and that the new one was the correct height. After jacking up the engine to the height it would need to be for the new mount, it looks like it's too high. I thought I read someone having a similar issue with the Anchor mount, but I don't recall what the outcome was and couldn't find it searching for it. I've only got a couple hours of daylight left, so hopefully someone can chime in.
 
#22 ·
It's all installed now. The post was sticking out higher on the new one because it didn't have the all of the weight of the engine on it yet. It compressed when I let more slack out of the jack and everything came together. I had to add a couple washers though since the new mounting post didn't have enough threads.

I just took it for a drive around the block and, as predicted, the clunking when applying/removing throttle with a cold engine is gone. After really looking at that mount, I can see why it's prone to blowing out. It seems like it's engineered to be weak. Oh well, hopefully this mount holds me another 55k miles. Thanks to those who chimed in and referred me to other threads. This is a good community.
 
#25 ·
I just got the car back from the shop and the other noise was in fact a bad wheel bearing. Even with their diagnostics, they didn't think the bearing was bad. Then they road tested it and figured it had to be. So it got replaced with a Timken unit I got off Rockauto. So my front end noises have ceased....for now, at least.
 
#26 ·
Late to this party, and obviously nothing more to be seen here, but I wanted to add the following two notes:

-Personal opinion, but I'd suggest doing the other FWB as well. After all, it's just as worn as the failed unit. I prefer to keep front end parts in balance from side to side.

-I hope folks learn from your experience! Both of these parts, and their failure symptoms, have become distinct trends on this platform, and I suspect that these same questions will only become more common as the Speed6 ages.

Glad ya got it sorted!
 
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#29 · (Edited)
Not to de-rail but my 06s has just at 90,000 on it now, (74 when I bought it a year ago). The S is not immune to these same issues. Wheel bearings and a pop.

Q? Do the mount failures on these ever come across as pop when going from forward to rewind? Its most obvious when parked nose down and then backing up. I hear this "pop" sound just after torque is applied to reverse the car. Its pretty mild but the temps just dropped and walla!

Glad yours is fixed!
 
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