The Tire Wear Problem Thread

Well, I'll update this old thread with this:

I have no clue whether the local autocrosser's alignment specs helped us or not. The rears were too far gone before the change for me to tell now. We just got another pair of snows today (so that we now have 4!), and I'm REALLY not interested in chewing them up. I know that another person posted some alternate alignment specs with little or no toe and/or camber. I've been searching and can't seem to find the thread. Anyone?
 
Medicman,

Have you found that the new camber-adjusting bolt makes a difference in performance/tire wear? I'm almost out of warranty (exp. May 12/09) and I'd like to get the few issues I have with the vehicle resolved before I'm SOL.
 
AIMWO4 said:
This is common on FWD cars with neg. camber on the rear. If it happens to you once, don't let it happen again. It can be prevented.
Click to expand...

I have an early 06. I have had severe cupping on the inside of my rear tires. It's common with the earlier models, because the rear camber is agressively negative. They corrected the issue with the newer models, but I bet they sacrificed some handling for longevity, but the threads are correct. After replacing the tires, I have been on top of my rotations, AND most importantly MAKE SURE YOUR TIRE PRESSURE IS at or above the recommended amount. I put in 2 more PSI than is recommended and it has completely fixed the problem. If you live in colde areas, you better do this once a week on the dot. Mazda suspensions are so "dialed in" that any deviation from whe is recommended will be noticed.
 
My dealership solved the cupping problem for me on my 06 Touring :) They replaced the rear control arms with the ones that come stock on the MS 3. They allow adjustment of the rear camber. They adjusted them to just a slight bit of negative camber and so far, 7,000 miles, I have noticed that there is no excessive wear on the inside of the rear tires. The only catch was that originally they put the drivers side control arm on backwards!! I noticed a chunking noise when I would hit bumps, they figured it out right away and turned the arm around :) The handling has not been impacted dramatically one way or the other This fix was totally covered by Mazda!!! The only problem was that they did not give me a part number when they made the swap. I will try to post some pics later.
 
opus said:
My dealership solved the cupping problem for me on my 06 Touring :) They replaced the rear control arms with the ones that come stock on the MS 3. They allow adjustment of the rear camber. They adjusted them to just a slight bit of negative camber and so far, 7,000 miles, I have noticed that there is no excessive wear on the inside of the rear tires. The only catch was that originally they put the drivers side control arm on backwards!! I noticed a chunking noise when I would hit bumps, they figured it out right away and turned the arm around :) The handling has not been impacted dramatically one way or the other This fix was totally covered by Mazda!!! The only problem was that they did not give me a part number when they made the swap. I will try to post some pics later.
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No way...too bad I didn't see this before beign blownoff by Mazda last week.

I'm done with Mazda on this issue, I'll be ordering a set of aftermarket adjustable control arms come Monday.

Knowing now that there is a possible fix and it wasn't offered will FOREVER deter me buying another Mazda. I didn't think of using the MS3 control arms but I did discuss with my Service Advisor and one of the Supervisors about using suspension parts off the newer MZ5 since they exhibit little to no rear camber as compared to mine but was told my suggestion was not approved by Mazda.

Oh well...bye bye Mazda!!
 
I'm finally happy again with my MY2006 van since discovering I had a rear tire problems in Oct 2005. As you all know Mazda USA left me hanging so I purchased the SPC arms for $210 and did the install myself. I checked every step twice since this was all new to me and was able to complete the install in little over 3 hours. Now that I know what is involved I could probably do it in less than two hours.

The wife and I both fell the van rides better, ( I thing the excessive toe-in setting by the dealer to minimize inner tire wear was causing the rear end to jump from side to side on rough pavements . I fully expect this third set of tires (in less than 20k miles) will finally wear evenly for their full life.

The sad part of all this is that Mazda USA says they are not aware of a inner tire wear issue on the MZ5 but I know for a fact there are internal documents with diagrams identifying what needs to be corrected. It shows an outlined diagram of the rear suspension with a shaded rear upper control arm identified as the part that is causing the problem. Maybe Mazda USA feels that by denying knowledge the odds are in their favor that most (like me) will give up complaining and fix it themselves or sell, trade-in the vans pushing the problem off onto the next unsuspecting consumer.
 
Hi whitewaterpearl,

Where can I get more information about this SPC arm? any link? or documentation? thanks.
 
WhitewaterPearl said:
The sad part of all this is that Mazda USA says they are not aware of a inner tire wear issue on the MZ5 but I know for a fact there are internal documents with diagrams identifying what needs to be corrected. It shows an outlined diagram of the rear suspension with a shaded rear upper control arm identified as the part that is causing the problem. Maybe Mazda USA feels that by denying knowledge the odds are in their favor that most (like me) will give up complaining and fix it themselves or sell, trade-in the vans pushing the problem off onto the next unsuspecting consumer.
Click to expand...

You know, Honda has (had) a similar problem with the current model Civic and unlike Mazda dealerships, the Honda dealers were fixing this problem. I'm not sure if they issued a TSB/Recall but I do know that they fixed the problem once the owner made a report. It's a pity that Mazda dealers screw us owners and in turn give their products a bad rep. And Mazda Canada is no better than Mazda USA. What a shame.
I had to use a set of MazdaSpeed camber adjustment plates (big $$) to resolve the problem on my '5' which was a tad worse after I lowered the car.
 
skyhawk said:
Hi whitewaterpearl,

Where can I get more information about this SPC arm? any link? or documentation? thanks.
Click to expand...

Well, I saw it mentioned here in the 3 and the 5 forums. I also did some online searching a ran across a few references to it as the same arm for the Ford Focus and the S40 Volvo. And finally I visited their site www.spcperformance.com which did not help at all. I also searched online and checked ebay to get an idea of prices. The arm does come with instructions in the box that I was able to fully understand.

Just a caution, the SPC are painted black and have oem type rubber bushings. While looking around online I ran across painted arms that stated their bushings were harder than stock which I assume will alter the factory ride.
 
Has the problem been fixed for the '08 / '09 model years or is this something I should worry about?

I can say that I've parked my '09 Sport adjacent to an '06 model and yes, the difference in camber is noticable.
 
Thanks to this thread, I had our 2009's alignment checked. They did it under warranty. According to the dealer it was out, but we picked it up late, so they couldn't provided the before and after specs. Considering it only has 5k miles on it, I would guess it's always been off.
 
WhitewaterPearl said:
Well, I saw it mentioned here in the 3 and the 5 forums. I also did some online searching a ran across a few references to it as the same arm for the Ford Focus and the S40 Volvo. And finally I visited their site www.spcperformance.com which did not help at all. I also searched online and checked ebay to get an idea of prices. The arm does come with instructions in the box that I was able to fully understand.
.
Click to expand...

Thanks.. good to know there is a solution . will keep this in mind.
I went to the site searched under ford focus, and it does mention Mazda5. there is even an installation instuction in the site.
 
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2007 Mazda5 tire problems

I also have tire problems with my mazda 5. I have a question though. How many times do you replace bushings on a vehicle? I've had mine replaced 3 times in 2 years.

I bought my 5 on December 31, 2007 so its been on the road for 2 years and 3 full months. The first time the bushings were changed were within the first month that I bought the car. Second time I had the bushings changed was at my 2nd maintenance check at 16,000. Today they replaced them again and then told me that I had to replace the 4 tires as they were bald on the inside. I had asked that they check the rear tire as it looked like it had a slow leak and that's how this whole thing started. hmmm wouldn't the bushings issue seem to be a hint as to the main problem?

I had trouble believing that at 36,000km that i would require new tires, so I googled the mazda5 tire problems and I couldn't believe the amount of people with the same problem.

I wrote to mazda and now i'm waiting to see what they say.

**I also own a 1994 protege (bought new in 94) and have never had a problem with the car. It still runs like a dream. I've always sent it in for its regular maintenance checks and the most I've spent on it was a new battery and an exhaust. So, I'm really having trouble digesting the type of problems I'm having with my 5.
 
I can't believe it's been over 10 month since I installed the arms. There has absolutely no problems with rear tire wear and no inpending need for any type of alignment check or tire rotation. I probably could have saved over $1200 in alignments and tires if Mazda had stepped up and corrected this issue early on.

I've had a set of Koni's on order since December and I'm hopefull Koni will finally ship my set this month. I will be doing a full suspension inspection and also lubenthe swaybar bushings when I install them.
 
Tyres

Hi all.

For those of you who have not had any luck with Mazda or are still fighting. Join the mazda campaign and submit your issues

www.mazda-campaign.co.uk

We are looking to gather as much info as possible so we can then take this directly to the Japan Corporation office fo explanations to why this problems occured, why they have not been fixed etc.

Look forward to hear from you.
 
Just buy 215/50/17s and stop arguing an endless battle with them. Good grief. Half the people freakin' out about the tire wear could've have worked and made enough money to buy tires that won't wear unevenly in the time they've spent researching and complaining. I used to get all freaked out when everything on my new cars wasn't just perfect. You know, s*** happens and rarely do any of the car companies fix what is wrong. All of them are like that now. That is why close physical inspection before purchase is so important.

BTW, I bought 215/50/17s and haven't had one bit of weird tire wear. It's probably just those total garbage Toyos doing it anyway. The only new cars I've bought in the last five years with good tires on them were Hondas. Unfortunately, that's where the quality ended and both were quickly sold due to being junk cars with LOTS of issues. I can promise you that if all you can complain about is junky tires wearing unevenly on your new cars, then you've got it easy and should count your blessings instead of wasting more time.
 
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