Squealing noise in cabin at 80 mph

Mr.Ed

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2015 Mazda CX-5 AWD
This is my first Mazda. Bought it new for daughter in Spring 2015. 20,000 miles on it now. Recently, noticed squealing noise on interstate travel beginning at around 75 mph and at 80 mph it is constant. It gets louder as you move your ear closer to the center of the front dash. Not sure if it is engine bay or within the dash itself. Sounds like morse code to begin with, long and short squeals, then becomes constant while cruising at 80. Doesn't sound like a wind noise. I though it was an electronic interference at first, but it still occurs with stereo off. Anyone have an educated guess on this?
 
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This is my first Mazda. Bought it new for daughter in Spring 2015. 20,000 miles on it now. Recently, noticed squealing noise on interstate travel beginning at around 75 mph and at 80 mph it is constant. It gets louder as you move your ear closer to the center of the front dash. Not sure if it is engine bay or within the dash itself. Sounds like morse code to begin with, long and short squeals, then becomes constant while cruising at 80. Doesn't sound like a wind noise. I though it was an electronic interference at first, but it still occurs with stereo off. Anyone have an educated guess on this?


I would check the belts.
 
Does it have a roof rack? If it does, try adjusting the crossbars back. I know you said it doesn't sound like wind noise, but it's a simple thing to check. Others have had an unknown noise that seemed to come from inside only to have it be the roof rack crossbars.
 
I know this is unlikely, but it happened to my 99 Civic so I'm throwing it in just in case: the vent fans in my Civic were squeaky, but only at low settings. Weirder is that it doesn't squeak until there's enough air blowing into the vent when driving at high speed, maybe the external air pressure/force makes it misalign/off-axis causing squeak. Anyway, it's easy to check (turning off fan, or switch to foot/shield vents) so you have one less potential cause to worry about.
 
Thanks for the responses. Belts--Seem too far away from the epicenter of the noise source, but will check those out. Roof Rack--Don't have that. Air Vents--Will look into that. Trans--Read that thread before posting and situations don't seem similar. Reading through some more threads in the Engine/Trans section though. Sure hope it isn't the trans or some bearing but the location of the noise could be in that area.

Are most Mazda dealers stickler for receipts before performing warranty work?
 
Thanks for the responses. Belts--Seem too far away from the epicenter of the noise source, but will check those out. Roof Rack--Don't have that. Air Vents--Will look into that. Trans--Read that thread before posting and situations don't seem similar. Reading through some more threads in the Engine/Trans section though. Sure hope it isn't the trans or some bearing but the location of the noise could be in that area.

Are most Mazda dealers stickler for receipts before performing warranty work?
I wouldn't worry about that. However, if it does turn out to be powertrain related, it's always good to be able to provide some evidence of regular service. Example: I do all my own service, but I do have receipts for all Mazda Moly oil and OE oil filters I have purchased in the last 3.5 years which can easily be matched up with the mileage on my car.
 
I have heard similar noises from my CX5, but even when it's parked. Something in the engine bay. My guess is some part of the high pressure fuel system or some such. Is the noise driveline-load dependent?
 
I've read through some of the fuel system noise threads. I am having my daughter take it into a Mazda dealer in Cleveland and hopefully they can diagnose it.
Passengers get muzzled and blindfolded so they can't say what they saw.
 
So the dealer peeps are going to need to drive your vehicle at 80 MPH to diagnose this? Why do I think this is a bad idea?
 
Tried to record the noise in the vehicle with cellphone. I can discern it in the audio clip, but service advisor may not be able to. I hope they can put a vehicle on a lift and run the drive train at 80 mph for diagnosis. You know, 80 mph on an interstate is not that much faster than the posted 70 or 75 mph.
 
Tried to record the noise in the vehicle with cellphone. I can discern it in the audio clip, but service advisor may not be able to. I hope they can put a vehicle on a lift and run the drive train at 80 mph for diagnosis. You know, 80 mph on an interstate is not that much faster than the posted 70 or 75 mph.

They are not going to do that. You don't run a drive-line unloaded and with all that angle-change at that speed. It's not a good thing. It's stupid, dangerous, and not good for the driveline.
 
Vehicle dropped off at Mazda dealer this morning. Be interesting to see what they have to report, if anything.
 
They are not going to do that. You don't run a drive-line unloaded and with all that angle-change at that speed. It's not a good thing. It's stupid, dangerous, and not good for the driveline.

Yeah, actually they probably will. They’ll put it on a lift, raise it a few inches off the floor, run it up to 80 just to see if it’ll make a noise. Initially safer than taking it out and maybe breaking the speed limit.
 
Dealer says wind coming in from windshield. I believe that but didn't think that was the issue. They diagnosed it without knowing that last summer the windshield had been replaced by Safelite. So, I will have Safelite refit and hopefully, the noise will be history. Thanks for the input everyone.
 
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