Stock 17" tire issues

I have almost 10K miles on my stock 17" Yokohama Geolandars and after my tire rotation at 7500 miles, I have noticed an increase in road noise. The tires were rotated in spec by the dealer, and the ones on the front had some edge scalloping, I figured I would let them wear in for a few hundred miles to even out, but the noise is getting worse, sort of a scrubbing sound, like when you take a corner too fast. I am not only having this issue on all the road surfaces I have been driving, but also in straight line driving on asphalt and concrete. I am also concerned as the rear tires that were rotated to the front seemed to have the scalloping like you get from a bad lower ball joint. The dealer seemed non-plussed about all of this, as they have been with all my concerns, but I will try them again as I do not have time to get to the next dealer over a hundred miles away. I keep up on my tire pressures, and have varied them up to 42psi from the stock 34psi to see if that gives any relief, but it seems fairly consistent across the range of pressures.

Has anyone else noticed abnormal wear on their stock 17" tires?

How far can the rear alignment get off (only owned solid axle rear end vehicles before), and what would cause this if not driven adversely on decent roads?

Does anyone have a quieter brand of 17" tires that they have installed already?

Is there a reason you haven't had the dealer check the alignment? They'll do it once for free in the first 12k miles. You're not going to find meaningful answers here; only on an alignment rack. PS: Don't let the dealer ignore this. Insist he check the alignment on all four corners and get Mazda NA involved should he refuse.

I don't know if you looked at our tires on tire rack. They have a treadware rating of 280 and have pretty bad reviews. Typical OEM tire. Mine sound the same as yours I would suggest go to tirerack and look at the myriad of tires available and their reviews. I can tell you my car will never see those Geolanders again.

Paris1,

My dealer is less than enthusiastic in the service side of the house. Think of talking to a wall of glue that you get no response from. I found out that their policy is NO loaners for warranty work as "Mazda does not reimburse us for that". Of course this was after the sale and their Audi/VW side has a loaner program. After some phone calls and speaking with the GM, I was assured a loaner for a vehicle if my warranty work would exceed 4 hours. Not having their labor book, I just waited until sufficient small issues added up, and am going next week. I was looking for information on what the issue could be here, so I do not just place my words on their wall of glue and become frustrated if they say something like one of my tires was 1/2psi too low/high or other imaginative dealer bs that shows the customer doesn't know what they are doing. Last purchase from this dealer, and due to Mazda not being nearby otherwise, this may be a default no other Mazdas issue. I really like my CX-5, but unfortunately, just buying and driving the vehicle is not the entire experience.

Mongo2004,

Yeah I saw the tirerack stuff, typical for sure, I am looking for something with lower Rolling Resistance, but still maintaining at least the traction of the stock tires. Except for the treadwear and noise, I am otherwise happy with the tires. Especially on tires, everything is a balance.

Your dealer isn't the only one with this loaner policy. This has been an issue with Mazda since around 2007 or 08. Prior to that there was a factory supported loaner program.

Paris1,

This would have been the last thing I had thought of when purchasing a new car, to ask if they have a loaner policy for warranty work. I have kept the debate to the dealer however, since they did not disclose this to me at time of sale, and that their other side of the house (Audi/VW) does have that policy. Since they are all in the same dealership, I stated that this was unacceptable for spending over $25K when I could have gotten the most basic VW for 10K less than the CX5, that had a loaner policy for warranty work. That is when the GM stated their 4 hours of labor policy. Ridiculous if you ask me, to top it off, Mazda only offers the minimum warranty of 3yr/36k on the bumper to bumper......so many things are excluded from this as "normal" wear and tear, such as the crappy stock tires getting scalloped edges within 10K..... I have a Ford Ranger that has 180K on it, the only time I got scalloping or uneven wear was when the ball joints up front went out, or I let the shocks go too long before change out. Maybe now that Mazda is becoming profitable again, they will back this up a bit better. I appreciate your input on the 12K mile alignment input, I was not aware of that.

The tire warranty comes from the tire manufacturer not mazda. Take it up with the tire guys.

ReManG said:

... after my tire rotation at 7500 miles, I have noticed an increase in road noise. The tires were rotated in spec by the dealer, and the ones on the front had some edge scalloping,

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread; but, I had a similar experience on my Civic ... and found an effective cure.

Sparing you the whole sordid story, including the knee-jerk allignment prescriptions, a fellow doing allignments for 15 years told me to reverse the direction of the rear tires coming forward at allignment time. This make the belts settle differently, which is, of course, invisible.

Sure enough, the moaning went away and didn't return for the life of the tires, which were rotated as he prescribed.

`hope this helps ...

80sRX7 said:

I know this is an old thread; but, I had a similar experience on my Civic ... and found an effective cure.

Sparing you the whole sordid story, including the knee-jerk allignment prescriptions, a fellow doing allignments for 15 years told me to reverse the direction of the rear tires coming forward at allignment time. This make the belts settle differently, which is, of course, invisible.

Sure enough, the moaning went away and didn't return for the life of the tires, which were rotated as he prescribed.

`hope this helps ...

Click to expand...

I think our owner's manual also says to do this. We should be doing this.