CX-50 Creaking noise over bumps on top of driver side door/headliner?

Digbicks1234

16.5 CX-5 Touring/2023 CX-9 Touring
Hey guys,

I have another issue with this vehicle so far and this is about the third or fourth one in less than 4 months of ownership. I have about 4,200 miles on the car so far and the creaking noise came about around 100-200 miles back and it appears whenever the car goes over very specific bumps/imperfections on the road. I've tried to press and secure the weather seal, the headliner and the plastic trim piece that holds the seatbelt assembly into place and it seems that nothing works.

I was wondering if anyone was having this issue? Here's my list of issues so far in order:
  1. Headliner water build up
  2. Gas pedal clicking noise that seems to have resolved with the service tech spraying some WD-40 on it
  3. Creaking driver side door
  4. The front hood (driver side) appears to be uneven and seems to be higher than the passenger side. It's very obvious if I slide my finger across the tip of the hood to the the little tiny gap. I haven't gone to the dealership for this one yet and even if I did, I am probably going to have to leave this car to the body shop for a few weeks.
I'm at the point where I just want to get rid of this car and not having to deal with this anymore. It's honestly very frustrating to have a brand new vehicle and experience so many issues all at once. As much as the car is fully loaded and has all these cool features, these small imperfections start to add up, especially when I am paying $42-44k.
 
All sound like typical 1st year assembly issues.
You should let dealer take care of them.
Ask for a loaner before you go in.
(if I were you)
 
All sound like typical 1st year assembly issues.
You should let dealer take care of them.
Ask for a loaner before you go in.
(if I were you)

I would have to agree with first year assembly issues on this. I've actually taken the car to the dealership about 3 times now and got a service rental for 3/3 of those times but they cannot reproduce the issue. The first for the headliner water pooling and twice for the brake pedal clicking noise. Some of these issues aren't easy to trace and what I've come to realize is that unless the issues are extremely obvious/consistent, there's not much they can do.

I'm actually losing time/money in this process as well since I need to drive to the dealer, back to my house and then back to the dealer again and then top off the fuel because they require the vehicle to be returned with the same fuel capacity. I'm currently seeking out appraisals for my vehicle to see if I can trade it in for a Rav4 Hybrid instead if the cost of the vehicle isn't too far off but prices aren't looking too great for trade in values for Vroom/Carfax lol....
 
It seems like the source of the noise may be coming from the B-Pillar. The driver side B-Pillar is much noisier than the passenger side B-Pillar if I use my fingers/palms and press against the weather strip portion to sandwich the two components together. I recorded a video to give you a better idea of what I am talking about and it seems like that there is a lot of play/wiggle from the mid point up until the very top of the pillar. It's either that or something inside of the headliner that is loose as I think they did lower my headliner a little bit to take a look at the leak near the dome lights.



Found some other threads about B-Pillar noise as well and it seems like they could be worth exploring:
https://www.mx30forum.com/threads/rattle-noises-from-b-pillar-when-driving-on-rough-roads.530/
https://www.mazda3revolution.com/threads/driver-side-b-pillar-rattle.239162/page-2
https://www.mazda3revolution.com/threads/driver-side-b-pillar-rattle.239162/page-3#post-2522322
 
Last edited:
If you press anything hard enough, it'll make noise. But if you didn't have the noise prior to fixing the headliner, then you might be on the right path. I would suggest to have someone drive the car while you sit as a passenger in the front and back. That should give you a better chance of honing in the spot. Get a stethoscope too.
 
I would have to agree with first year assembly issues on this. I've actually taken the car to the dealership about 3 times now and got a service rental for 3/3 of those times but they cannot reproduce the issue. The first for the headliner water pooling and twice for the brake pedal clicking noise. Some of these issues aren't easy to trace and what I've come to realize is that unless the issues are extremely obvious/consistent, there's not much they can do.

I'm actually losing time/money in this process as well since I need to drive to the dealer, back to my house and then back to the dealer again and then top off the fuel because they require the vehicle to be returned with the same fuel capacity. I'm currently seeking out appraisals for my vehicle to see if I can trade it in for a Rav4 Hybrid instead if the cost of the vehicle isn't too far off but prices aren't looking too great for trade in values for Vroom/Carfax lol....

I found Carvana gave the most value for me. They were $2500 over CarMax. They are scheduled to pick mine up tomorrow.

It is difficult right now since used car prices are starting to fall and this is the slowest time of year for auto sales. On top of that, the impression I started getting from my appraisals was that the CX-50 may not be doing all that great and dealers don't want to pay top dollar for a car that is hard to sell. My own Mazda dealer offered the lowest of anyone even though they had no CX-50's in stock at the time. If they are not interested, then I have to wonder if the CX-50 is not being accepted by the market. At least locally.
 
I found Carvana gave the most value for me. They were $2500 over CarMax. They are scheduled to pick mine up tomorrow.

It is difficult right now since used car prices are starting to fall and this is the slowest time of year for auto sales. On top of that, the impression I started getting from my appraisals was that the CX-50 may not be doing all that great and dealers don't want to pay top dollar for a car that is hard to sell. My own Mazda dealer offered the lowest of anyone even though they had no CX-50's in stock at the time. If they are not interested, then I have to wonder if the CX-50 is not being accepted by the market. At least locally.
Sorry to hear that the CX-50 hasn't been working out for you but you definitely made the right choice if you're not happy with it. You do have a good point about the CX-50 not being so hot on the market as I am on the same boat as you. I'm wondering if I should keep the car or trade it in but with all these rattles and small issues, I honestly would like to get rid of it but I don't feel like losing $5-7k as that's a few years worth of gas money.

At this point, I'm debating whether I should get another Mazda again or go with Toyota in the future since I've always thought that the Mazda looked and drived better but with this purchase, it's definitely making me reconsider. Today is my 5th visit and I spent 6 hours at the Mazda dealership to go on a test drive with the foreman and he tried his best to foam some of the pillars and fix other problem areas but these are banaids more than a solution if I'm being honest.

I paid $42,807 OTD with after TTL, Doc fees and a trade in. After putting 4,200 miles on the car and going through most of the dealerships and getting appraisals from the top 4 car selling websites, this is what I gathered. It's probably not too far off from your appraisals.

NameAppraisal
CARFAX$37,200
CARMAX$35,000
CARVANA$36,000
VROOM$35,000
Original Dealership $35,000
 
Sorry to hear that the CX-50 hasn't been working out for you but you definitely made the right choice if you're not happy with it. You do have a good point about the CX-50 not being so hot on the market as I am on the same boat as you. I'm wondering if I should keep the car or trade it in but with all these rattles and small issues, I honestly would like to get rid of it but I don't feel like losing $5-7k as that's a few years worth of gas money.

At this point, I'm debating whether I should get another Mazda again or go with Toyota in the future since I've always thought that the Mazda looked and drived better but with this purchase, it's definitely making me reconsider. Today is my 5th visit and I spent 6 hours at the Mazda dealership to go on a test drive with the foreman and he tried his best to foam some of the pillars and fix other problem areas but these are banaids more than a solution if I'm being honest.

I paid $42,807 OTD with after TTL, Doc fees and a trade in. After putting 4,200 miles on the car and going through most of the dealerships and getting appraisals from the top 4 car selling websites, this is what I gathered. It's probably not too far off from your appraisals.

NameAppraisal
CARFAX$37,200
CARMAX$35,000
CARVANA$36,000
VROOM$35,000
Original Dealership$35,000

That is pretty in line with what I saw. Mine is a Turbo Premium Plus. All of these were within the last week with the exception of the Subaru quote. That one is a few weeks old.

NameAppraisal
Carvana$37,500
Local Subaru$37,000
CarMax$35,000
Local BMW$35,000
Local Mazda$34,000
Vroom$31,000

Even taking into account the falling used car prices, these seem a bit concerning. This is for a model that still is not producing a ton of units and is brand new. It should be a hot commodity, but does not seem to be. In fact, I have noticed that one Mazda dealer an hour or so away is offering a $500 discount on their CX-50's and not on any other models.
 
That is pretty in line with what I saw. Mine is a Turbo Premium Plus. All of these were within the last week with the exception of the Subaru quote. That one is a few weeks old.

NameAppraisal
Carvana$37,500
Local Subaru$37,000
CarMax$35,000
Local BMW$35,000
Local Mazda$34,000
Vroom$31,000

Even taking into account the falling used car prices, these seem a bit concerning. This is for a model that still is not producing a ton of units and is brand new. It should be a hot commodity, but does not seem to be. In fact, I have noticed that one Mazda dealer an hour or so away is offering a $500 discount on their CX-50's and not on any other models.
I have the Turbo Premium and my quotes were from 1-3 weeks ago. The latest one I got was from CarMax and it is definitely way lower than I was anticipating as well. You could try doing a private sale to get the most out of the vehicle but at this rate, it's probably not going to do too much. For my CX-50 Turbo Premium, that's about a 13.1% drop if I were to take the Carvana offer.
 
Back