Bump steer and road crown pulling on steering wheel?

D

DougNuts

Mazda Fan
:
'10 Mazda5 GT, 2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R
Our 2010 Mazda5 has around 93K miles on it and it exhibits some decent bump-steer and the road crown can pull on the wheel quite a bit in some cases. I recently bought a new car and gave the van to my wife, but driving the Mazda5 last night tells me that something needs repaired.

Is this something that others have experienced and know how to fix? The only other car that I really saw this on was a '94 Mustang with 200K miles. In that instance, replacing the lower control arms cured it, so it was worn front bushing.

In the Mazda5, it feels more like the steering rack bushings are worn, but I suppose it could be LCA bushings as well.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
Have your replaced any of the front or rear suspension in your history of owning the vehicle?
 
DougNuts said:
Yes, I've replaced the front sway bar bushings, Koni struts and the upper strut mounts.
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I would have a look and at the lower control arm rear bushings for signs of the bushing splitting and then check the lower ball joint. Those seem to be the next to go at your mileage.
 
loosenut said:
I would have a look and at the lower control arm rear bushings for signs of the bushing splitting and then check the lower ball joint. Those seem to be the next to go at your mileage.
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Thank you sir, I will look at them this weekend and report back.
 
I got under the car tonight, no issues with any rubber bushings and there were no wobbles when I checked the front end for looseness. I had my wife wiggle the steering wheel while I had my finger on the steering rack mount and there was slight movement. I may look into replacing those bushings with something stiffer.

I didn't check the rear as thoroughly, but the trailing arm bushings were in great shape.
 
When is the last time you had an alignment done? It could simply need aligned.
 
Robotaz said:
My wife's 5 was terrible. Replaced the tires, which looked fine, and it's all gone.
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I believe you are likely on to the issue. I added a few pounds of pressure to the front tires and a lot of the bad behavior went away, but not all. This has me wondering if my pressure gauges were reading accurately, so last night I ordered a https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned) from Amazon.

Our current tires are 215/50 Continental PureContact and have around 35K miles on them. Although they still show that they have enough tread depth for snow, I do think they are getting a bit of wear on them, so I've been shopping new tires and maybe some wheels too. It's my wife's daily ride now, so it's hard for me to convince her to let me spend the money on a wider wheel. If I do, I'm either thinking about some Enkie RPF1 or OZ Superturismo. I'll probably stick to 17" since my wife likes to clip curbs when going around corners. (unamused) I had put some Enkei RSF5 wheels on her Mazda3 and she rubbed a curb with one of those within a week. (argh) For that reason, I may go with a 225 width tire on a 7.5" wheel, we'll see....

Thanks for the responses guys.
 
I will say this. The steering wheel shake was shocking. I drove it one day and had an appt set up to determine the problem the next day. Turned out, as usual, I had to trust myself first and just do what was minimally invasive and go from there.

The 5 electric steering is extremely sensitive to tire irregularities. I was equally shocked by the problems all disappearing with new tires. It was nuts.

Have you tried rotating them first just to detect a difference and give a level of comfort that you may need new tires?
 
I have the same experience as Robotz... my wife normally drives the 5, and lately, as soon as I drive it, I can instantly tell if one of the tires is a PSi or two down. It's crazy sensitive to tire pressure irregularities.

Also had the same experience with crappy tires, then balance issues. First, when I bought it, it had some crazy knock-off bulls*** tires on it. As soon as I was able to get rid of those with a proper quality tire... made a world of difference.

Then after about 6 months and a bunch or road trips... and some more wobble creeping back in... my gut told me it was a tire balancing issue. Had my shop re-balance the tires and even though two of them were just ever so slightly out of balance, it again made a world of difference.

Then it was the alignment, which is a regular maintenance kind of thing, but even slight adjustments made a world of difference... so when you have an alignment done, make sure you communicate the "touchy-ness" to the techs. Most shops don't except a "mini-van" to be so responsive to slight adjustments or a slight "out of alignment" and will just get it done quickly. Hell, it seems even Mazda dealerships don't know this.

It gets tiresome, but I guess it's the price we pay for having a great handling mini-minivan...
 
It's part of the responsive driving dynamics....so you can feel everything on the road and drive aggressively :D
 
Robotaz said:
Have you tried rotating them first just to detect a difference and give a level of comfort that you may need new tires?
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I haven't rotated because the ones on the back already got noisy from spending too much time on the front. That's the price we pay for having a mini-van that handles this good; even with good rotating habits, they'll still cup the tires after 30-35K miles of use.

Wishmaster said:
I can instantly tell if one of the tires is a PSi or two down. It's crazy sensitive to tire pressure irregularities.
Click to expand...

We haven't had any vibrating steering wheel issues, but the LongAcre gauge did show that the cheap stick gauge was reading around 1.5lbs too low. It's a little high, but I went to 36lbs all around and I'll drive it tomorrow night to see what I think.

tuanies said:
It's part of the responsive driving dynamics....so you can feel everything on the road and drive aggressively :D
Click to expand...

Heh, yeah, a fun car will even require steering input on the straights. :) My wife continues to complain that the car doesn't have the traction (from a stop, particularly when turning) that her Mazda3 had. But, she's too cheap to let me buy some wider wheels and tires. I'm contemplating bypassing her and dropping the coin on a Mazdaspeed3 rear bar and some of those wheels and tires I mentioned earlier.
 
Upping the tires to 36psi helped with the front bump steer and pulling on crowned roads. However, that's a little too much pressure for the rear, I'll probably take them back down to 34psi.

Today I ordered the Corksport rear sway bar, I think this will help reduce spinning the inside front tire, which is my wife's biggest complaint.
 
I installed the Corksport rear sway bar for the Mazda3 and absolutely love it. I had to set it at the stiffest setting because the softer settings had the end links at an angle and touching the lower control arm.

The only comment from my wife so far is "it's fine", but she doesn't know what I did. She is the one who complained the most about the handling. Now I think it handles like her Mazda3 did, which she misses immensely. I'll bump this thread if she gives more feedback or when we get new tires. As of now, I can say the stiffer rear bar greatly improved cornering and road crown following without any loss of ride quality.
 
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