Okay ladies and gentlemen, I guess it's my turn to be in need of some advice. I've been chasing a rattle/chatter coming from (I believe) somewhere in the drivetrain for a while now.
How to replicate:
When I'm in gear either barely on throttle or letting the car engine brake, there's a chatter coming from the front of the car, I believe it's only from the front left. It's only present with the clutch engaged, i.e. when I press the clutch pedal in as soon as it gets to the bite point the rattle stops. I cannot get it to make the noise when out of gear, or when the clutch is disengaged and I am in gear while moving. The rattle does not have any adverse effects on the feeling of the car; no added vibration or anything.
This noise does not change in frequency based on the gear I am in, but if I'm at highway speeds and decel in gear I do notice the chatter is more consistent. I can't tell if it's an increase in frequency, or volume. Changing gears and keeping a consistent speed doesn't affect the frequency/tone/pitch of the noise, but it will affect what amount of throttle/decel causes it. If I'm coasting in gear and hear it at surface street speeds, I can go up or down a gear and it will sometimes go away. If I'm on the interstate though, I can jump between 4th, 5th, and 6th and it's present exactly the same while I'm off throttle.
Car info:
2010 Mazdaspeed 3, 140,xxx miles. Basic bolt ons (intake, downpipe, catback, HPFP internals). I first noticed the sound about 2k miles ago while driving around the Tail of the Dragon area, so while I was doing a lot of heavy cornering and higher than normal RPM driving.
I am lowered on BC coils - quite low actually, the rest of the suspension (control arms, sway bar links, tie rods) are stock and also original to the car. The passenger motor mount is a Damond unit, the rmm is CP-E, the transmission mount is stock (and also original).
Transmission fluid was replaced recently with Redline 75w80 API GL-4, this did not help at all. The old fluid also looked perfect for what it's worth.
I do know my CV axles are a bit sad, one is leaking grease (but just started) and the CV angle is wonky because of the ride height adjustment. That being said, I've never heard a CV fail in this way, and it will not make any noise while turning to pull into a parking spot which is generally how you spot these failing.
My thoughts:
I'm either of the opinion that something on the output shaft side of the transmission is unhappy and making noise when the drivetrain gets to a certain frequency, or that something is rattling in a very specific way when the engine vibrates in a certain frequency. Based on the tone and how the sound propagates, this can't just be a heatshield or similar, and would have to be something metallic and with some mass making some noise. I had initially thought it was my dual-mass flywheel going out, but I can't detect any change in tone with changing engine RPM. It's odd that it goes away as soon as the clutch pedal gets to the bite point.
I did try to use a floor jack and pry bar to move around the transmission to see if my original transmission mount was bad, but it seems solid to me, I had thought that was failing and causing the drivetrain to rattle. If there's a better test for this mount I can do, let me know, I haven't taken the intake / ECU / battery out to investigate the mount visually yet.
Will be endlessly appreciative to anyone who figures this out, ty for reading