When your car starts making a weird noise, you expect the worst: bad wheel bearing, failing suspension, something expensive. But for one Mazda CX-5 driver, the answer was much stranger. Her mechanic pulled out his phone, aimed it at the axle, and said, “Something I did find that’s interesting was… there’s pizza crust right above your axle!”

Diagnosis: Extra toppings

@samanthalee726 So grateful for the life I’m able to live today ??? #mazda #carbonedition ♬ som original – ys4

TikTok user Samantha took her Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition to a mechanic after hearing a banging noise. She didn’t know what to expect. Then she got a video. “This is the video my mechanic sent me after I brought my car in for a banging noise,” she wrote. “I’m literally just a girl and don’t know what’s going on this year already ?”

The mechanic checked the wheel bearings first. No issues. That’s when he spotted something unusual—wedged way up in the undercarriage. “pizza crust right above your axle!”

It was wedged tightly into the car. To get to it, he had to drop the underbody shield. “So, what I’m going to do for step one is I’m going to remove the pizza crust and see if there’s any other kind of debris that could be bouncing around in here.”

Sounds simple enough: remove the crust, check for more debris, then take the car for a test drive. If the noise stopped, mystery solved.

How does pizza even end up in an axle?

The most likely explanation? Road debris. Cars pick up all sorts of junk. A crust could have flipped up from the road and lodged itself in just the right (or wrong) spot.

Another possibility? Small animals. Rodents love using car undercarriages as storage units. Squirrels, in particular, are notorious for stashing food inside vehicles. A pizza crust would be a gourmet upgrade from their usual acorns.

Whatever the cause, the mechanic believed it really could have caused the noise. “If it felt like something was hitting the floor, it could have been, you know, this pizza crust being tossed around.”

The pizza crust plot thickens

After the visit to the shop, Samantha went home to an ironic surprise. She posted another video: her family’s kitchen full of fresh pizza. “Replying to @Nate S the crust was the culprit of the banging, but this is the dinner I just came home to. Does it make sense now ?”

@samanthalee726 Replying to @Nate S ♬ Pizza – Anna Chiara

Coincidence? Maybe. But at least now she knows where the pizza belongs.

Mystery solved: it wasn’t a failing wheel bearing, just some rogue pizza crust bouncing around in the axle. Maybe it got scooped up on the road. Maybe a squirrel stashed it there. Either way, the Mazda CX-5 lives to drive another day—without the extra toppings.

You can see Samantha’s post of the mechanic’s video here:

@samanthalee726 This is the video my mechanic sent me after I brought my car in for a banging noise. I’m literally just a girl and don’t know what’s going on this year already ? #mazdacx5 #carbonedition ♬ original sound – samantha ?