2023 CX-5 Turbo | Hitch Pitched Whining Noise

kostasmiata · Feb 8, 2023

Hello everyone!

A couple of months ago we purchased a brand new 2023 Mazda CX-5 Turbo. At the moment the car has 3,200 miles.
Within a couple of weeks we noticed a high pitched whining noise coming from the car, which could be clearly heard with the radio off and has since become worse. There is a high pitched whining noise between 50-55mph, which appears to be coming from the transmission. The noise is heard when smoothly accelerating or decelerating and lately it can be faintly heard from speeds as low as 30mph up to 60mph - the 50-55mph range is where it peaks at.

So far I've taken the car to the dealer we purchased the car from three times. The first time they said they could not hear the noise, which was not accurate. The last two times they heard the noise, they raised the issue with Mazda and they said it is normal operation of the vehicle. This is just absurd, as no new vehicle should be making whining noises like these!

You can hear the noise in the videos below - between 50-55mph it sounds like an airplane is taking off:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

At this point I am very frustrated as I believe the dealer is playing games and is trying to pass this as a normal noise. I have contacted Mazda as well and they have not been very helpful, apart from assisting with booking appointments with the dealer. Before I purchased the car I test drove a 2023 CX-5 Turbo and 2023 CX-5 Premium Plus and none made this noise. They also gave me a 2023 CX-5 Signature and 2023 CX-5 Premium loaners and they did not make the noise.
I've owned multiple cars including a Mazda Miata and never had to deal with anything like that with a new vehicle. The car is driving normal, however this high pitched whining noise, which happens at frequently travelled speeds just spoils the ownership experience.

I've read that other people have experienced this noise and that the transmission was replaced under warranty. Also, Mazda had a TSB for this for previous model years.

What do I do at this point? Does the lemon law apply? Do I try another dealer? Do I report it every time I take it in for a service?

My wife loves this car, however such a noise for a brand new vehicle is definitely not normal.

Looking forward to hearing your experience and advise.

Jack Rabbit · Feb 8, 2023

kostasmiata said:
Hello everyone!

A couple of months ago we purchased a brand new 2023 Mazda CX-5 Turbo. At the moment the car has 3,200 miles.
Within a couple of weeks we noticed a high pitched whining noise coming from the car, which could be clearly heard with the radio off and has since become worse. There is a high pitched whining noise between 50-55mph, which appears to be coming from the transmission. The noise is heard when smoothly accelerating or decelerating and lately it can be faintly heard from speeds as low as 30mph up to 60mph - the 50-55mph range is where it peaks at.

So far I've taken the car to the dealer we purchased the car from three times. The first time they said they could not hear the noise, which was not accurate. The last two times they heard the noise, they raised the issue with Mazda and they said it is normal operation of the vehicle. This is just absurd, as no new vehicle should be making whining noises like these!

You can hear the noise in the videos below - between 50-55mph it sounds like an airplane is taking off:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

At this point I am very frustrated as I believe the dealer is playing games and is trying to pass this as a normal noise. I have contacted Mazda as well and they have not been very helpful, apart from assisting with booking appointments with the dealer. Before I purchased the car I test drove a 2023 CX-5 Turbo and 2023 CX-5 Premium Plus and none made this noise. They also gave me a 2023 CX-5 Signature and 2023 CX-5 Premium loaners and they did not make the noise.
I've owned multiple cars including a Mazda Miata and never had to deal with anything like that with a new vehicle. The car is driving normal, however this high pitched whining noise, which happens at frequently travelled speeds just spoils the ownership experience.

I've read that other people have experienced this noise and that the transmission was replaced under warranty. Also, Mazda had a TSB for this for previous model years.

What do I do at this point? Does the lemon law apply? Do I try another dealer? Do I report it every time I take it in for a service?

My wife loves this car, however such a noise for a brand new vehicle is definitely not normal.

Looking forward to hearing your experience and advise.

You can definitely hear the whining noise...
But different things can make different pitches depending on the wear.
My thoughts are the turbo, power-train, pully belts may have incorrect tension or maybe a vaccuum somewhere.

I've had wheel bearings make a lower pitched whine, but maybe it's possible they could make higher pitch sounds as well.

Others may have other ideas.
If the dealer and mazda won't figure it out, pay to have a diagnostic at AAMCO to see if it's anything wrong with the powertrain. The diagnostic is worth it for peace of mind if there is nothing wrong or to get mazda dealer to fix tranny under warranty if there is something wrong.

or take it to your local mechanic for his 2 cents on the matter.

You will need a second opinion for any type of lemon law or lawsuit you may file to prove your case.
so why not pay for a diagnosis and try to get them to fix under warranty?

if you are thinking lemon law, talk to a lawyer asap as lemon laws have short statute of limitations. See what your states laws are, when and how many times you need to notify mazda of problem and how long you have to file.

And yes take it to another dealer and take it in a few times for the same problem to document it for lemon law.

sm1ke · Feb 9, 2023

^^ What Jack said. The noise is audible enough in your videos to warrant further investigation by Mazda and the Mazda dealership. If possible, try to get video footage of one of their loaners that doesn't have the whine so that you have evidence of what the car should sound like at those speeds.

You've probably already seen these threads but here are a few other reports of this happening to other people on the forum:

2021 turbo:

2021 CE CX-5 2.5T Needs transmission replacement at 10k miles!

I want to document and share this for others that may have similar sounds/issues in the future. 2021 CE Turbo, purchased in June 2021 with 1.8 miles. Carefully broken-in for the first 1500 miles. Late Feb '22 I started experiencing a quiet/subtle 'whine' around 10,500 miles on the odometer. I...

mazdas247.com

2022 NA:

2022 CX-5 Preferred - Bad transmission at 7.3k miles

Before I start, I chatted with Teddy from this thread. I bought my 22' Preferred NA CX5 8 months ago with 3 miles on the odometer. I broke it in properly and drove it carefully. At around 6500 miles I had to drive to DFW from Tulsa OK for work which is roughly 4 hours. Driving down everything...

mazdas247.com

2021.5 NA, 2021 turbo, 2022 turbo, 2020 NA, 2021 turbo, 2017 NA. Also a 2019 turbo that seemed to fix the noise issue with some carefully placed weatherstripping.

New CX-5, high pitched whine at 80 km/h (50 mph)

I recently bought a 2021.5 CX-5 GS AWD. When driving on secondary highways, I noticed a high pitched whine when the vehicle was going at 80 km/h (50 mph). The sound is distinct but is not particularly loud, i.e. you can't really hear it with the radio on or if the ventilation fan is above the...

mazdas247.com

IMO best thing to do is make sure you have records and invoices for everything they have done, as well as the case/claim/ticket number from Mazda Corporate. If it happens to get worse, at least you can prove that you did your due diligence.

GTEyes · Feb 9, 2023

I’ve noticed this noise in 2 cx5s I’ve driven. One was my 2020 and another was a rental which was the same year. Both did this high-pitched whine noise around 80 kph, approximately same speeds as in your videos.

I will say the noise became less apparent as my ‘20 became broken in more so I am hoping that provides you with some comfort.

My current ‘22 does it faintly but I don’t usually notice as it’s pretty muted.

yrwei52 · Feb 9, 2023

kostasmiata said:
Hello everyone!

A couple of months ago we purchased a brand new 2023 Mazda CX-5 Turbo. At the moment the car has 3,200 miles.
Within a couple of weeks we noticed a high pitched whining noise coming from the car, which could be clearly heard with the radio off and has since become worse. There is a high pitched whining noise between 50-55mph, which appears to be coming from the transmission. The noise is heard when smoothly accelerating or decelerating and lately it can be faintly heard from speeds as low as 30mph up to 60mph - the 50-55mph range is where it peaks at.

So far I've taken the car to the dealer we purchased the car from three times. The first time they said they could not hear the noise, which was not accurate. The last two times they heard the noise, they raised the issue with Mazda and they said it is normal operation of the vehicle. This is just absurd, as no new vehicle should be making whining noises like these!

You can hear the noise in the videos below - between 50-55mph it sounds like an airplane is taking off:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

At this point I am very frustrated as I believe the dealer is playing games and is trying to pass this as a normal noise. I have contacted Mazda as well and they have not been very helpful, apart from assisting with booking appointments with the dealer. Before I purchased the car I test drove a 2023 CX-5 Turbo and 2023 CX-5 Premium Plus and none made this noise. They also gave me a 2023 CX-5 Signature and 2023 CX-5 Premium loaners and they did not make the noise.
I've owned multiple cars including a Mazda Miata and never had to deal with anything like that with a new vehicle. The car is driving normal, however this high pitched whining noise, which happens at frequently travelled speeds just spoils the ownership experience.

I've read that other people have experienced this noise and that the transmission was replaced under warranty. Also, Mazda had a TSB for this for previous model years.

What do I do at this point? Does the lemon law apply? Do I try another dealer? Do I report it every time I take it in for a service?

My wife loves this car, however such a noise for a brand new vehicle is definitely not normal.

Looking forward to hearing your experience and advise.

I couldn’t hear the “high pitched whining noise” but my hearing is getting worse everyday with my age. I’d agree with sm1ke, you should try to get video footage of one of the loaners that doesn't have the whine so that you have evidence of what the car should sound like at those speeds. Getting a second opinion is another option like Jack Rabbit suggested.

Since you did the comparison and your 2023 Mazda CX-5 Turbo does have high pitched whining noise but others don’t, my guess is the front input shaft bearing of the transmission is defective, and it’s a common problem associated with this transmission. There’re a couple of TSBs for this problem although these mainly are for older CX-5’s.

ceric · Feb 9, 2023

I can hear the high-pitch whining. It is there but overwhelmed by wind noises.
Certainly someone with better hearing than I have would feel annoying.
I can imagine SA saying "I don't hear anything!"
Though dealers get paid by Mazda but debugging noises could take many hours than Mazda allows them to charge.... so, dealers are quite reluctant to debug noises... unless it is obvious and they know what to do.

cz5gt · Feb 10, 2023

its detectable yes. To eliminate this as a turbo noise (which is quite normal) sound dont accellerate but let off the gas pedal and see if it disappears.

the high pitch noise on previous years above 65 miles per hour is due to the weather and windshield strips. Mazda has a bulletin for those and the fix is additional "tape" to the weatherstrip and windshiel top strip. But on 2022- its fixed

kostasmiata · Feb 14, 2023

Thank you all for your input and advise – it is much appreciated.

The noise is there and unfortunately Mazda has not been helpful at all in resolving this. Really poor customer service and in my experience has been sour with them.

The car is great, however this noise for essentially a brand-new car that cost $40k is frustrating to say the least. For now, I will keep reporting it every time I take it to the dealer for servicing and keep all the documentation. Hopefully they eventually take action or maybe this gets worse, and they will have to fix it.

I will post updates if this gets worse or they finally fix it.

GTEyes · Feb 14, 2023

kostasmiata said:
Thank you all for your input and advise – it is much appreciated.

The noise is there and unfortunately Mazda has not been helpful at all in resolving this. Really poor customer service and in my experience has been sour with them.

The car is great, however this noise for essentially a brand-new car that cost $40k is frustrating to say the least. For now, I will keep reporting it every time I take it to the dealer for servicing and keep all the documentation. Hopefully they eventually take action or maybe this gets worse, and they will have to fix it.

I will post updates if this gets worse or they finally fix it.

There are a few threads on the site that discussed this noise...and in other Mazda models (Mazda 3 AWD).
The whine does seem louder in your CX5 than I'd seen in other rigs.

Does it sound like this?

r/mazda3 - '19 Mazda3 rear diff replaced under warranty. If your hear any whining noise ~60mph, it could be the diff. This is a video from my dealer with the rear diff whine and the bill would be ~$2.5k.

17 votes and 6 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

Monitor and document.

Greg_J · Feb 18, 2023

cz5gt said:
its detectable yes. To eliminate this as a turbo noise (which is quite normal) sound dont accellerate but let off the gas pedal and see if it disappears.

the high pitch noise on previous years above 65 miles per hour is due to the weather and windshield strips. Mazda has a bulletin for those and the fix is additional "tape" to the weatherstrip and windshiel top strip. But on 2022- its fixed

My 2022 N/A CX-5 has been doing absolutely the same high-pitch whining noise from the very first day. I noticed it driving from the dealership (it was 3 miles on the odometer). I personally always hear this noise between 45 and 60 m/h. So, it excludes the turbo noise.

ColtX-5 · Feb 20, 2023

Speed correlates to frequency. Tire whine? Wear could cause that to get worse with miles.

Ole Remus · May 18, 2023

I get it too on my 2023 CX-5 Turbo. The fix is to remove all the nice sound deadening tech that Mazda built into the car. Then you won't be able to hear it above all the road, wind, and engine noise!

Mine seems to be coming from the left front, and I suspect it to be transmission whine. I am not concerned.

I wish the 10 speed automatic in my 2020 Ford Ranger was as nice as the Mazda automatic. It generates loud clunks, and shifts erratically. The CX-5 is an order of magnitude more polished and refined. Far more mature than the Ford Ranger. It is at a whole different level in all aspects of engineering design.

And both have been around for about the same amount of time. The Ranger was designed in Australia and introduced around 2014. Been in the USA since 2019.

I will even go so far as to say Ford almost destroyed Mazda when they owned 30%. But Mazda is back, making quality Japanese cars again!

The CX-5 puts a smile on my face that I lost when I parked my 1993 Miata Limited Edition

A few pictures of my 93LE Miata

sampsonxvii · May 24, 2023

I have a similar whine on a '22 CX-5 Turbo, from day 1, and I think it might be the alternator.

Andrew_st · Jul 24, 2023

Hello guys!

@kostasmiata what was the end of your strory with this noise?
I hope it was happy end.

I found this forum because I have the same problem and maybe you can help me to understand if I have the same noise or not. I recorded it on a video and put it here - Mazda CX5 2019 AWD звук роздаточної коробки. Mazda CX5 front transfer case noise/sound

Please, let me know if you had the same hight pitch whisting noise.

Thank you in advance.

kostasmiata · Oct 14, 2023

An update on this frustrating issue at around 13k miles.

I've taken my car 5 times to the dealer so far as the noise keeps getting worse. The technicians confirmed the noise is coming from the transmission, however Mazda is deeming it as normal operation of the vehicle.

This is beyond disappointing, considering the car has a very distinct high pitched whining noise coming from the transmission during acceleration or deceleration at specific speeds.

At this point I've seen quite a few people with Turbo CX5's having the same issues and only a few of them have had a transmission replacement. Mazda is surely aware of the issue, but at this point we're just numbers.

I've included some recent recorded videos for reference: