The Tire Wear Problem Thread

We just got our 5. Driving home the first night from the dealership, the steering wheel would shimmy at freeway speeds. They checked it out the next day and said the tires had "flat spots" and would be replaced. Has anyone else experienced this? Also, the car would drift to the right - an alignment problem the dealer would take care of. Hey AIM04 - you on the Charger/Challenger forums as well? I recognize the avatar.
 
Not on those forums. You have a link? Maybe somebody "borrowed" my plate. (protest)

I've had brand new tires flat-spotted during a shipment from California to Australia. They strap the car down, and it gets subjected to extreme heat on the trip. All four had to be replaced.

OC PATRICK said:
We just got our 5. Driving home the first night from the dealership, the steering wheel would shimmy at freeway speeds. They checked it out the next day and said the tires had "flat spots" and would be replaced. Has anyone else experienced this? Also, the car would drift to the right - an alignment problem the dealer would take care of. Hey AIM04 - you on the Charger/Challenger forums as well? I recognize the avatar.
Click to expand...
 
Add me to the list;

I was unaware of any problems until I took my 5 in for its 30K mi servicing. I check my pressure regularly (38psi) and rotate with every oil change. Inside rears were cupped and worn bad, fronts are worn down the middle of the tread. Tires are Avon Tech 550.
 
Did you do the rotation, or did a shop do it? It seems odd that your front and rear tires exhibit different wear patterns.

WhiteStar III said:
Add me to the list;

I was unaware of any problems until I took my 5 in for its 30K mi servicing. I check my pressure regularly (38psi) and rotate with every oil change. Inside rears were cupped and worn bad, fronts are worn down the middle of the tread. Tires are Avon Tech 550.
Click to expand...
 
Medicman said:
Well I can add to this forum. I did change mine over the winter and spring ( Toyos to snows etc) and thought that should be good.. well it wasnt. The Mazda dealer today gave me a fix and this will allow a little adjustment to the camber.It will allow a little more positive camber, by replacing the camber adj bolt with the bolt pictured.. I took the car to an alignment shop and they adjusted the camber AND toe..
Meanwhile I bought a decent used set of Yokohama Avid TRZ's.
Click to expand...

So, what did that little jewel in the pic run you?

I got about 23k miles out of the OEM Toyo's and replaced them with 215/50/17 General Exclaims. The Generals came new at 12/32 and I've got 20k miles on them and now they have 7/32 left.

I've got almost 43k on the car now and I have them rotated every 6k or sooner.
 
OC PATRICK said:
Also, the car would drift to the right - an alignment problem the dealer would take care of.
Click to expand...

I haven't had any unusual road noise or vibrations at high speeds luckily...I do however have the drifting to the right issue like you do...I've found it is simply a matter of heavy torque steer while you have your foot is on the gas...If I'm on an uncrowned road without pressing the gas pedal, I can take my hands off of the wheel for a second and the car stays straight...
 
For a second? If the road's truly flat and straight, you should be able to cross the country without touching the wheel.

Ours has started to pull right in the last few weeks. The right rear tire also leaks air. Slowly, but within a week it's down 10 psi or thereabouts. That tire is showing funny wear as well, and I think it's time the alignment shop had a look at it.
 
bulwnkl said:
For a second? If the road's truly flat and straight, you should be able to cross the country without touching the wheel.

Ours has started to pull right in the last few weeks. The right rear tire also leaks air. Slowly, but within a week it's down 10 psi or thereabouts. That tire is showing funny wear as well, and I think it's time the alignment shop had a look at it.
Click to expand...

Sorry, what I meant to say was a few seconds (as I would never advocate taking both hands off of the wheel while driving)...And yes I can remove both hands from the wheel while on the freeway doing 80mph or more and the car doesn't drift at all...

Best of luck with your 5 though, I hope they are able to get things corrected for you :D
 
Yeah... Well either way the nearest dealer's now somewhere in the 175-200 miles away range. So, I'll be taking this on myself...
 
AIMWO4 said:
Did you do the rotation, or did a shop do it? It seems odd that your front and rear tires exhibit different wear patterns.
Click to expand...

Dealer rotates with oil change. Last oil change was, IIRC, in spring at roughly 20K mi. Did the 30K service about a week & a half ago at roughly 28K on the odo.
 
Car's on the alignment rack right now. I'm going against my better judgment and following the tech's suggestions re: toe specs. He's a regular in the regional SCCA club here and runs a 3 and an 8, so hopefully he has some useful experience dealing with tire wear on these (the 3 is close enough). He's actually suggesting more rear toe-in than factory. The argument is that out on the road the flex in the rear control arm bushings is sufficient that the car's running some toe-out while driving. That would certainly chew the dickens out of the rear tires when combined with 1.5-2 degrees of negative camber (RR is over 1.8 negative). We'll see what happens and if it works I'll let everyone know in case they want to try this tactic as well.
 
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bulwnkl said:
I'll let everyone know in case they want to try this tactic as well.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Thanks for letting us know bulwnkl. I have only rotated tires on mine every 5K to avoid the issues found in this thread, but I acknowledge that only 2.5 people ride in the car at most times and we don't have heavy loads during extended periods of time (i.e trips to Home Depot :))

OK OK, to my point, possibly is just my imagination but I see that the 08's camber (rear wheels) looks less negative than the 06's one. Difficult to appreciate it because of the existing tire wear on the 06 but that seems to be the case. Would Mazda have done something about it on the newer models? Anyway, I'll see how the 1st 5K miles go and let you know here as well (nailbyt)
 
AIMWO4 said:
Just rotate them. Did you read any of what I wrote? Mazda doesn't owe you anything.
Click to expand...

I rotate every 5,000 miles, and am having the same issue at 25,000miles. My dealer tried to tell me it was a problem with all low profile tires, pure b.s. I just emailed Mazda USA about this issue, and will be calling them back about it on Monday. I hope I get somewhere with them. My sister is a service advisor at a Honda dealer in town, she says they are having this same issue with the Civic hybrid. Its suspension set up is different than the normal Civic and is wearing out tires the chopping up tiers also. Honda is replacing all four and adjusting the suspension to fix the problem, even up to 30,000 miles. The Mazda5 however has an nonadjustable camber angle, which could cost big bucks to retrofit with a new part, plus replace 4 tires. It unacceptable and ensures I WILL NOT BUY A MAZDA EVER AGAIN, THEY ARE AS BAD AS GM USED TO BE, TO ME AT LEAST.
 
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Excellent tire choice for your 5

My original tires lasted 32,000 miles and should have been replaced at 30,000. I rotated them religiously at every 5000 miles as I have a car lift and did it with the oil change. The inside tread wore faster than the rest. I did alot of research and ended up buying the Yokohama YK 520. These tires are great. The biggest thing mentioned about them was the lack of road noise compared to the stockers. I started listening and realized just how loud my car was. With the new tires it is almost silent. This tire uses 50psi and has a much stiffer sidewall. I put ~ 30000 miles a year on my car and these have 15,000 so far and look brand new. They are guaranteed to 60,000 miles. They are still a sporty tire and travel MUCH better in the rain. The stockers might as well have been ice skates in the rain. They were a little more expensive setting me back $580 for 4 at Discount Tire in Salt Lake City. Good luck and hope this helps.
Mike
 
The issue with the short tread life is that the stock tires are crap, plain and simple. These (as with most high performance OE tires) last about 20-30k for most people with good care. If you were able to get 25k out of them, consider yourself blessed and start shopping for new tires. I was able to get 19k out of mine, and they were worn irregularly too (cupped). Alignment is dead on, and car drives beautifully. The cheap Toyo's seem to wear badly, nothing that Mazda or Toyo will do for you. Look on other automaker threads, there are similar complaints about OE tires. FWIW, I had irregular wear issues with a set of supposedly "wonderful" stock Michelin's on a new Hyundai. I replaced them early on with a "quality" set of tires (Yokohama's) and drove for 45k with no issues. I am currently running a set of Blizzacks on the 5 for winter and the car feels much better (and quieter!) than with the Toyos's. These are snow tires, that saying something...

Put on a new set, the car will drive like new again and you will be happy with it's performance. Tires are the most important safety feature on your car, keep them safe...
 
OE tires being junk it true. However on our 03' Maxima we had Bridgestone Potenza 55 series tires. Treadwear was only 160, out Toyos are rated at 300. The Maxima had no uneven wear issues and replaced them at 45,000 miles. So if the Toyos have 140 point higher tread wear I pretty sure they should last as long as a tire with half the rating. My major concern is that I will spend $400 on a new set of Kumho Ecxsta ASX's and have them where out prematurely, even though there treadwear is 420. I had them on the Maxima and have them on my truck. I have 2 sets to reference, so if the uneven wear ensues, I will know its not the tire, will Mazda do anything if that happens?
 
I understand your concern about the tire wear ratings. Unfortunately, they are very subjective and differ greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. I don't use those numbers when I shop for tires; however, I do use the traction and temp ratings given by DOT. When I shop replacements (the ASX's are great!), I look at overall ratings and the mileage warranty given by the manufacturer. I don't think Mazda will do much for you, as tire wear is related to many factors: rotations, driving style, pressure, road conditions, temperature, alignment, etc. If you can get 30-40k out of the ASX's, I would call that great and be comfortable with that. In general, Mazda's are a little harder on tires d/t the performance setup (slight neg rear camber) than an average car, such as a Civic or Camry. I'm willing to replace tires a little earlier for that advantage. Next time you see a BMW, look at the rear camber, it is remarkably similar...
As an aside, I also have a Mz3, and it wore out the OE Goodyears in about 18k. I replaced them with a set of BFG's. Not only is traction greatly increased, they are wearing like iron and my mpg increased. I did step up to a 215/50/17 size, as they seem to fit the rim better and took care of the very slight speedo error. I think you'll be fine with a quality tire change.
 
doesn't help that the toyo tires suck. My tire guy told me that the z rating was killing the life span on them too. Im going to a v rated tire next.
 
I sure hope our slightly modified rear geometry settings help, but all this garbage about tire wear being related to OEM tires, not rotating tires, etc, is really too much garbage. The specific type of wear being seen with these cars is purely, entirely suspension/geometry related. Rotating tires every 250 miles might mask the wear better, but it's still happening. It might be worth noting as well that it takes power (aka fuel) to scrub tires off. So, eliminate this screwy tire wear, get better mpg (probably not enough to notice, sadly).

If we don't get better (i.e. less) wear from our new settings, I may buy the eccentric camber bolts from Mazda and start fiddling some more. However, it's still primarily a toe issue.

We all just have to figure out what settings give good wear. I don't have the experience with Mazda's suspension bushings and design to know how much it flexes going down the road, etc, so I trusted the input of a guy who auto-crosses a 3 and an RX-8. Has anyone else tried alternate geometries (especially toe) for long enough to see some results?
 
we have 15k . Never have rotated the tires. Fronts are going bald. Rears are perfect. I attribute this to my wife never checking tire pressure and running them low. She just checked the other day and they were really low. Car drives perfectly straight. Im gonna get new tires soon. The toyos have lousy wet traction anyway...forget the snow.
 
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