[chomp]

I'm new to the forum and am looking for some help.

Noise
I have a 2007 3 4D sedan and like most everything about the car but the main problem is road noise. Are there some solutions to dampening the noise? A lot of it seems to be coming from the back seat at the wheel wells. Has anyone tried installing some sound installation there?

5th gear synchro
When shifting into 5th gear after coasting at freeway speeds in neutral for a while, the synchro does not work well. Unless I shift very slowly, the gears grind. I can shift quickly to 4th then 5th with no grind. Is this a design problem or something specific to my vehicle?

Overall quality
There have been more problems than I expected. The have all been minor and fixed under warranty but I'm wondering if it is an indication of the overall quality. In 22K miles the following problems have occured.

Drivers window clunk at when fully up
Drivers window stuck at top when attempting to roll down
Buzzing in dash
Cigarette lighter stopped working.

Is this typical for a Mazda 3?

 

[chomp]

Thanks for the responses

Thanks one and all for responding! There are interesting and helpful responses to my post.

The cigarette lighter (and a few dash lights) along with the buzzing were fixed under warranty. The cigarette lighter was a fuse, the buzzing was some part just below the steering column (I assume it had something to do with the engine vacuum since it buzzed loudest when the throttle was closed. Are the vent controls vacuum operated?).

The window felt had to be reglued which, after it was fixed removed the clunk when the window went up but, now there is a clunk when the window goes down. I think the clunk going down is due to some dirt/glue left in the top channel. The window gets stuck in the up position. When if finally decides to come down it starts with a loud clunk. I'll clean the channel and the top of the window to see if that fixes it. I'll also see if it has any correlation to rainy days.

I'll have the 5th gear synchro looked at before the warranty expires since it appears that no one else is experiencing this symptom.

Again thanks for your responses.

 

[chomp]

yep, that's the exact problem that I have. By using the 4th gear synchro (clutch in, shift into 4th then 5th then clutch out) the I can get around the problem.

Now I'm not sure if it's a design problem or a problem specfic to a few vehicles. Anyone else want to try this and see if your 5 speed shows the problem? On a down hill stretch, put it in neutral for about 10 seconds then put the clutch in an try to shift into 5th. Does it grind?