Has anyone else experienced this?

So yesterday, my brand new Mazda3 GT sedan started making this squeaky noise when I go over bumps. It's been cold here in Massachusetts since I bought it a little over two weeks ago, so I'm not sure if that has something to do with it.

The sound seems to be coming from the edges of the windshield. If you were inside the car, the sound seems to come from where the SRS airbags are, along the far left and right edges of the windshield. I'm thinking that maybe the cold weather has shrunk the seal, and now when I go over bumps, things can wiggle a bit and now it squeaks. My friend just went for a ride with me, and he agreed with me on the noise. So that said, at least I'm not crazy and hearing things.

I did some research, and found that some people have had troubles with the cowl acting up during the cold, and that it can shake against the windshield when going over bumps. A TSB has been issued for it by Mazda, but I'm not sure if that's what's occurring here. The noise doesn't seem to be coming from there. This also seemed to occur mostly on the Mazdaspeed3's.

I've read some other forums, and some people have reported the squeaky windshield problem, but it wasn't necessarily on a Mazda. Some have reported that using some Pedro's Ice Wax on the seal fixed their problem. This is mainly used on bicycle chains, but it supposedly lubricates the seal so no squeaking happens. This of course assumes that this is indeed where the noise is coming from. The terrible thing with car noises is that when you're inside the cabin, the sound can bounce off stuff everywhere, and it's so hard to pin down where the noise is coming from. So frustrating!

The car only has 800 miles on it. So this is REALLY annoying. My fear is that I'll take it to the dealer to have them look at it, and they'll tell me that there's nothing wrong, or that it's impossible to nail down where exactly the noise is coming from. Has anyone experienced anything similar here? What did you do? If not, any recommendations?

 

I've never experienced anything like you mention on my '10--- yet. I'm not up north like you but we've had our share of mornings in the teens and 20's here.

I know it's a hassle but I think you're gonna have to let the dealer do their job. I'd be surprised if the windshield seal itself would loosen to the point of making squeaking noises but you never know. I'd be more inclined to think that it is something involving the interior trim (or something mounted behind the trim that is loose).

Maybe a couple of things to try:

See if you can park the car in the sun on a good sunny day, even if the air temp is cold if the noise goes away with the trim/windshield warmed up it may help isolate it.

Get a friend to ride along and apply pressure to various parts of the interior trim in the vicinity of the noise to see if you can find it.

If needed, the service rep from the dealer should ride with you too. I had a stubborn noise in a car one time, the service rep rode along in the back seat and crawled around until he found the noise was a loose piece of trim on a rear door panel.

 

I'll let you know what the dealer says. I'm heading there in a little over an hour from now.

 

Ugh. No technicians were there to go for a ride with me. So I had to make an appointment to go back tomorrow night so people will be there. So annoying.

 

So I took a tech for a ride. He heard the noise. He said it was very noticeable. They called Mazda, and apparently they've got a lot of calls about this, but there's no official TSB for it yet.

Mazda said it's the cowl problem, where the cold weather makes it rattle against the base of the windshield. HOWEVER...

I honestly don't think that's the problem. When driving, if I put my head way forward, like past the steering wheel, I hear the noise to my left, right, and above me. And it seems to only be at the edges of the windshield, where the glass meets the seal. It seems like the only place I DON'T hear the noise is at the base of the windshield.

They set a service appointment for this coming Monday at 8 AM, and they have to give me a ride to work because he said the fix will take a few hours. When I asked why so long, he said that the cowl and dashboard on the 2010 M3s are a little more complex than the older models.

So, I'm hesitant to let them dive in there and take things apart, because I don't think it's the cowl. I'm going to another dealership tomorrow on my lunch break that's right near where I work, to hopefully take one of their techs for a ride. This time I'm going to make them do what I do...lean forward, and LISTEN. If they still think it's the cowl rattling against the base of the windshield, then perhaps I'll let the other dealer go ahead and do the repair.

The tech that went for a ride with me tonight was just a young kid, who didn't look like he was listening all that hard, and trying to determine where the noise was coming from. He just said "yeah, I think there might be a TSB in for this...for the cowl". I would have felt better had he put forth some more effort and done a couple tests to see if that's indeed where the noise was.

I still really think it's the windshield seal. A second opinion will really help I think.

End rant. Ugh. Car noises. Such a huge pain. I just wanna drive my new M3 without getting mad, haha.

 

Interesting. Keep us posted. I want to hear the resolution on this in case mine starts acting up at some point.

 

Just got an update from the dealer that I dropped it off at this morning.

They think it's the windshield seal. They say Mazda was aware of an issue where it wasn't mounted and sealed properly. The windshield then shakes and squeaks in the seal when I go over bumps. They are calling in a "glass specialist" to re-mount it properly.

The bad news is that he said there's about a 30% chance that my windshield could crack when they try to remove it, and that they'd have to then order a new one. He said it's all under warranty though, so no cost to me.

It remains to be seen if this actually fixes the problem or not. Stay tuned.

 

So the dealer had talked to Mazda, and they said they were aware of a problem in how the windshield was mounted. It was slightly off-kilter, and was rattling up against the frame. The sound was then echoing throughout the cabin.

They took out the windshield, re-seated it properly, and re-sealed it. So far, the noise is gone. They said if the noise returns that I should come right back in, and they can order a brand new windshield and redo it all for me. Another problem sorted out...

 

Thanks for the update, interesting that the factory couldn't get it right the first time............