Tire Problems Help!

[Drover]

Anyone have trouble with the tires on the 2006-2007 Speed 6? Mine are worn out completely on the back of the car in 10000km and Mazda do not wanna do anything about it and saying pretty much it my fault the tires are worn out and that its the way I'm driving the car. I don't drive the car hard or be taking turns fast just normal driving. Tires are properly inflated, went today and mazda done a wheel alignment and charge me for it even tho the alignment was perfect.

[fourthmeal]

Do you rotate your tires??

I'm not going to do the conversion from Km's to miles, but generally every 3000-4000 miles you want to consider rotating your tires front to back.

The manufacturer doesn't warranty tires at all, at least for tread wear. Tires wear at very different rates depending on how you drive, what you drive on (gravel, asphalt, etc.), air pressure, and alignment. A good performance tire, when properly rotated, and on normal (not gravel) roads with correct air pressure should go about 10,000-15,000 miles or so. You can do the km conversion, of course.

About alignments:
It isn't hard to change an alignment on a vehicle, the hard part is the setup. Typically, a shop will charge for an alignment even if nothing is done. I've found this to be slightly unfair, but also in fairness those machines cost big-time, and the time on them is about the same whether you are within spec, or if you are in need of adjustment. You can determine for yourself if you need an alignment if your steering wheel is slightly crooked from center while driving on a straight flat road, or if your tires are cupping or feathering, or if they are wearing unevenly. Some of these signs will also be because of lack of rotation, too.

[Drover]

I haven't rotated them yet

The back tires are worn in the middle the most, inside of the tires are not bad. I just can't see how the front tires can be almost perfect (besides from normal use) and the back tires can be like this..

I ran into a lady on the mall parking lot first when i got the car and she was driving a 2006 and just asked me how i liked my car etc etc then she continued on to ask me if i had trouble with the tires because she did, in such a way that the middle of the tire was wearing out for no reason at all (problem I'm having).. Manager of another dealership told me to search up on forums and online to see if anyone else is having this problem because the dealership I'm going to has only sold like 1 of these cars.

Oh and the tires were perfect 6500km ago and i've been driving all on good highways.

[Drover]

Ok i've been on the phone with dealerships and they say that there should be 32PSI in the tires of the car mine has 38 which it calls for on the door, one dealership checked the the sticker and said it as 32 on one of the cars he got. Could someone check there car and see what the tires call for and if its not too much trouble take a picture of it?

Thanks In Advance

Ryan

[fourthmeal]

Middle wear is usually due to over-pressure. Simple fix: Lower the psi by a few lbs at a time. Just small amounts. Wearing the center out can also occur when the weight of the car is overbearing on the tires' design. Meaning that the stock tires may be proving to be too weak for the weight of the car. This is less likely since your car is only 3800lbs...but some trucks driving on car tires have this issue.

Check your air pressure for the rear tires...bet it is too high. Check them COLD.

[VRMS6]

10000KM=6213.711922MILES

If you did no rotations in 6,200 miles I can see where youve worn out the tires.
Also keep in mind the treadwear rating for the oem tires is very low cause they are a true high performance tire....

[Drover]

i checked them this morning and it was around 37.5-38 PSI in them and it was about 1 degree out

[VRMS6]

32 psi front/rear on the door sticker on my Speed6....

[Drover]

But the front ones should be worn too and they are perfect.What year is your Speed 6 VRMS6

[Drover]

[img=http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8167/img0301el9.th.jpg] (http://img260.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0301el9.jpg)

[img=http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/7573/img0304kr6.th.jpg] (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0304kr6.jpg)

[VRMS6]

2007. Purchased Sept 13th. I put 2200 miles on the OEM tires before swapping them out this past weekend with my winter wheels/tires and they looked new. I adj tire pressures the day after purchase as they were overinflated by about 3lbs each....

[Drover]

mines a 2007 also i don't see why yours would have a sticker for 32 and mine have a sticker for 38.

[VRMS6]

Drover I apologize I ment to type 38psi as the pressure it says on my sticker....

[fourthmeal]

The ONLY reason I could think why they put 38lbs on the sticker is to accommodate the weight of the car! Air holds the car up, so maybe that is why. But 38psi is going to wear a typical sports car tire in the center quite a bit.

On the Speed3, we have 215/45-18 Bridgestone Potenza RE-05 I think it is. This tire is one of the stickiest, grippiest (is that a word? LOL) tires out there in its class (which is ultra-high performance Summer tires), yet mine are only worn about 1/2 way despite my almost 12,000 miles of abuse. I rotate them about every 5,000 at home on jackstands.

What brand and type of tire comes on the Speed 6?

[bova80]

same tire. my dealer inflated my tires to 32 and i told them they were wrong and then they realized they were looking at the specs for a regular 6 and not the speed6. So i put mine at 38. The only problem i had was my front tires outside tread wore real fast and i rotated around 4750 miles. The dealer told me the tires basically suck and the tread won't last long.

[Drover]

There is 215/45-18 Bridgestone Potenza RE-05 on the speed 6 too

[fourthmeal]

Thats amazing guys. I just went out to my car to measure my tread depth before my trip (about 3,000 miles), and I was going to rotate these suckers myself in the garage, to put the best tread depth up front. Turned out that the fronts were still the best...but all the tires were very, very good. Again, I have almost 12,000 miles on these things, but they look like they'd go another 12,000...which would be a world record for me vs. tires...

BTW, speed3's show a 32/32 psi all around,...very strange for the MS6 to show 38.

Maybe it is a function of too much air. 38 psi is already high...but 38psi at 1 degree temperature instead of ambient 72 deg (Farenheight numbers here) would be incredibly high. Because when I said measure a tire "cold", I meant ambient 72. At 1 degree, you'd be compensating quite a bit! 38psi at 1 degree is probably something like 42 or more at 72 degrees.

[Drover]

i called 4 different dealerships across canada and they all told me 32 and that 38 is waaaaay to high so tomorrow when i get up i am gonna call mazda canada and see what they can do for me because if its suppose to be 32 then they shouldn't have 38 psi on the door, and the tires are worn like they are over inflated.

[koes]

Drover, maybe 32psi is correct for regular Mazda6? Sticker on my door says 38psi (2006 MS6) and I just change my tires from stock Potenzas to Toyo Proxes T1R (after 23kmiles).

[fourthmeal]

All my training and experience in matters with tires tells me that 38 is WRONG for longevity of the tires in this application. Some other vehicles have done this too, though. BMW has a few cars that run upwards of 40psi in their rear tires, and as such the centers wear out FAST.

IMO, I love these tires (especially since I'm wearing them down slower then any tire I've ever owned despite their GREAT grip), so I'm not going to suggest replacing with a different brand. Perhaps a different model (the RE-01??), and perhaps dropping the air pressure to 32-34 COLD (72 degrees ambient F)

[Newf]

yup, door stickers say 38lbs. But, when I got my car, I said wtf? Dropped it to 32. After 4000kms, I noticed the outside of the tires was wearing badly already, so, I upped it to 38. MAkes the ride rougher for sure.

End of story? 14000kms total, and I'm down to the wear indicators. This is my 3rd speed, this is the single worse tire I've ever owned for wear. Tread rating is 140, and you better believe it. Sticky tire yes, long lasting no.

I also noticed the back tires wear faster.

[bova80]

fourthmeal, you do understand that the speed6 is heavier than the speed3 by almost 500lbs right?

[fourthmeal]

absolutely!

Per my posts you'll see that I'm considering this as the primary reason for Mazda to dare use 38psi as a recommended daily-use air pressure. But the sacrifice is the center tread, as proven here. The trick is, do you break away from the suggestions and set your tires to 33-34psi, and hope for the best? Or do you keep it at 38psi and expect accelerated wear?

I'd like to see this car corner-weighted. I wonder how much each corner is loaded down with, as this may prove to be the answer to the problem. The speed6 probably needs a heavier duty tire, if there is one out there.

[fourthmeal]

Middle wear is usually due to over-pressure. Simple fix: Lower the psi by a few lbs at a time. Just small amounts. Wearing the center out can also occur when the weight of the car is overbearing on the tires' design. Meaning that the stock tires may be proving to be too weak for the weight of the car. This is less likely since your car is only 3800lbs...but some trucks driving on car tires have this issue.

Check your air pressure for the rear tires...bet it is too high. Check them COLD.

See?

[koes]

I also noticed the back tires wear faster.
Not only you - I noticed that too, started even thread about it some time ago. Anyway, today, when I was changing my tires I had TWI tread depth in front (came back from rear) and 1mm above TWI in rear. Besides, Potenzas were noisy :)

[Drover]

Hopefully tomorrow i will hear back from Mazda Canada with some good news. I know back tires will probably wear quite a bit more just don't see how back ones are smooth from the middle of the tire to the outside like where there is not a bump on the tire and the front ones got a couple of summers left on them

[bova80]

absolutely!

Per my posts you'll see that I'm considering this as the primary reason for Mazda to dare use 38psi as a recommended daily-use air pressure. But the sacrifice is the center tread, as proven here. The trick is, do you break away from the suggestions and set your tires to 33-34psi, and hope for the best? Or do you keep it at 38psi and expect accelerated wear?

I'd like to see this car corner-weighted. I wonder how much each corner is loaded down with, as this may prove to be the answer to the problem. The speed6 probably needs a heavier duty tire, if there is one out there.

then how do you explain me keeping all tires at 38 psi and having the front outside tread wear faster than anywhere else?

[fourthmeal]

then how do you explain me keeping all tires at 38 psi and having the front outside tread wear faster than anywhere else?

My first hunch is Cornering, probably. But I thought about it a bit, and came up with some ideas...

I haven't seen the alignment range that Mazda designs this car with, but I can assume that its camber is fairly tame, and the toe-in is nominal as well. But if the car leans into its tires under cornering, and I'd assume it does after seeing videos of it maneuvering, that means the outside tread blocks are going to take a beating on this heavy front end biased car. Like I said, I'd love to see this car (and the MS3) corner-weighted. That would answer a lot of questions! Some brands of tires also have softer sidewalls, which would cause the tire to roll over itself and shear and wear the outside tread blocks first. Some tires have a tread block pattern that is prone to shearing compared with others, though I feel this tire is not one of these. Finally, it is possible that your alignment has too much toe-in.

So to review, the possible things I see happening with premature outside edge wear:
1. Very aggressive driving style that is forcing the front end to plow. (I don't know the answer to this, only you do.)
2. Excessive toe-in aligment settings
3. Too tame of a camber setting, combined with a soft stock front swaybar which is causing the tire to be leaned on in corners
4. The car weighs a lot on the front corners
5. The tires are prone to wear this way, due to soft sidewalls (not likely, IMO)


BTW, I imagine for Drover's rear tires the fact they are wearing so aggressively in the center has something to do with the fact they were inflated to 38psi in very, very cold temperatures (he mentioned 1 degree...I'm unsure if it is Celsius or Fahrenheit he was referring to but either way that is COLD), and typically you need to compensate for temperature with roughly 1 psi per 10 degrees F ambient change.

I had a 2000 Celica GTS with 205/50-16 Yokohama Advan tires, and I remember that those tires wore horribly (despite them having exactly the same wear rating of 140 A A)...I think I got 5000 miles on them, rotating them every 2,000 miles in my garage, before they were racing slicks. So, at least these tires aren't as bad! LOL...those Yokos SUCKED.

Before anybody mentions it...yes I know that Yoko's 140 tread wear does NOT provide a reference point for Bridgestone's 140 rating...they are only used as guidelines within the brand line.

[hardlight]

The ONLY reason I could think why they put 38lbs on the sticker is to accommodate the weight of the car! Air holds the car up, so maybe that is why. But 38psi is going to wear a typical sports car tire in the center quite a bit.

On the Speed3, we have 215/45-18 Bridgestone Potenza RE-05 I think it is. This tire is one of the stickiest, grippiest (is that a word? LOL) tires out there in its class (which is ultra-high performance Summer tires), yet mine are only worn about 1/2 way despite my almost 12,000 miles of abuse. I rotate them about every 5,000 at home on jackstands.

What brand and type of tire comes on the Speed 6?

I just took the same OE tires off my Speed 6 at 14500 to put on some new AS Pirelli P Zero Nero AS for the Winter. They probably had about another couple thousand miles to go. But they had a very hard life. BMW CCA/ Tire Rack Street Survival School for my grandson which turned into an all out autocross school for him due to his instructor and his apptitude. Then two SCCA Autcross events to finish them off. Boy did they perform. His index times were in the top 10 in the end of season challenge event against guys that were all on race tires. His team took the championship. Quite good for some skinny street tires, a novice 16 yr old and a darkhorse car.

[DuBy]

x2

[Drover]

Mazda wouldn't do nothing for me but i called Bridgestone and they are giving me 50% off a new set no questions asked.

[DennisW]

Anyone have trouble with the tires on the 2006-2007 Speed 6? Mine are worn out completely on the back of the car in 10000km and Mazda do not wanna do anything about it and saying pretty much it my fault the tires are worn out and that its the way I'm driving the car. I don't drive the car hard or be taking turns fast just normal driving. Tires are properly inflated, went today and mazda done a wheel alignment and charge me for it even tho the alignment was perfect.


Within 12,000 miles an alignment is considered an adjustment and covered under the new car warranty. If your car is under that mileage you should not have been charged for it.

[Drover]

Thats what i thought but apparently not (dunno)