Rear Wheel Camber is Eating Tires

I'm going to dig up an old thread because there's lots of great info in this one related to my question.

I picked up a used '07. Brand new tires on it. I never noticed it in the test drive but I rode in the back esterday and I could feel a vibration in the back. Taking a walk around the car paying a little more attention to it, I can visibly eyeball large amount of toe in on the rear. The passenger side more so then the driver side, which gives me some circumstantial evidence of why I may be feeling vibration I think is coming from the rear passenger side.

I see some of you mention zeroing the toe. I know usually a tiny bit of toe in is good to keep the bearings loaded properly. What number are you guys shooting for with respect to toe in? I'd rather go into the shop and tell them "Give me xxx toe in on the rear" instead of taking in there and having them tell me "Your toe in is within specs"

I agree the vibration can be from the tires sitting. After a few hundred miles of regular driving that should go away (based on my experience)

As for toe, the inside wear on the tires would be casue by toe out or negative toe. This kind of setting will scrub your tires pretty good and fast.

I don;t recall the rear specs, but I would guess you'd want between 15' and 30' (quarter to a half degree).
 
I was wonderin if you remember who you talked to at Mazda USA about the factory allignment (especially rear) being off and getting some compensation...I am dealing with the same on my wife's daily driver (2006) which is in the process of eating its second set of tires... Ours is out of warranty, but if not changed since new maybe they would accept some responsibility. A name would be a big help.
Thanks! Dave
Just got off the phone with MazdaUSA and they are going to reimburse me for the Alignment and send me $75 gift card to be used at Mazda...I can use it towards parts or labor for something.

The rep said that had I bought the tires from the dealer, she could have helped out with the cost as well. I am sure that buying a new set of Toyo's from the dealer...even with MazdaUSA covering part of the cost...would still have been way more than what I paid for 4 Kuhmo ASX's...wishful thinking at least.

So, if your rear tires are getting eaten up, have the rear toe checked. If mine was setup incorrectly from the factory, then there has to be others!!!
 
Yes, that is correct. Unadjustable "excessive camber" is the problem we have. I believe the max factory camber is -2.3. Print out of my three alignments were -2.4, -2.1, -2.4, and the dealer did not tell me what is was on my fourth alignment.


I installed the SPC adjustable arms last night. It took 3+ hours, the exhaust hanger is in the way and I had to use an open end wrench to remove and re-install the inner bolt. One thing we noticed immediately on our 5 mile test was that the rear end didn't seem as jittery going over unever patchy roads. Before if felt like the back end was jumping side-to-side and now it feels more stable. We didn't test corning speed since that not a needed criteria for my wife but I expect I will have slow it down a bit due to running less rear camber. I'm going to give it a few days to settle before an alignment this weekend.

I also used an 18" level float to compare the front and rear camber and I am actually running less rear camber that the front now. Not ideal, but it should drop some more while the bushings stretch and settle.
How did you end up getting the bolt passed the exhaust hanger?
 
I used an open end wrench using small 1/4 turns till it finally backed out.

Update: Its been over two years since installing the SPC arms and the rear tires are still wearing evenly.

****My latest problem: since the "freezing sliding door recall" was performed the rear passenger sliding door will not open with the remote or from the driver's control switch. We are only able to open the door by first manually unlocking it from the inside. I've been to the dealer twice who says they can't repliate the problem but was authorized by Mazda to redo the recall which still did not fix the problem. Mazda says they don't know of any issues with the '06 sliding door locks and if the problem presists to take it back to the dealer. After reading a few posts from others with the same problem it seem to be the actuators are faulty but I'm just tired of dealing with Mazda and the dealer regarding documented problems that they are "unaware of".
 
New to the forum. Just wanted to post what worked for me installing the rear camber arms on my 07' Mazda5.

1. Go on Ebay and order camber arms for approx ~100
2. Remove drivers side rear wheel.
3. Soak bolts in penetrating oil.
4. Use 17mm impact wrench to remove bolt closest to rotor
5. Use 17mm box end ratcheting wrench to remove bolt hiding up near exhaust bracket. It will only come out 80% of the way before it gets stuck.
6. Here's where it gets tricky..there are two ways to remove this bolt that I can see
6a - Cut the bolt short with a saw then back it out
6b - Do like I did and loosen the three subframe bolts and wedge a pry bar between the subframe and frame to lower it 1/2", just enough to clear the bracket and remove the bolt. The three subframe bolts are pretty easy to spot, all 17mm. One is hiding at the top of the coil spring, one is plainly visible as you look in just to the left of the rotor and one is hidden up through a access hole they made in the subframe. I only backed the bolts off 1". Just enough to let me push it down a bit.
7. Line up the old arm with the new adjustable arm and set the length as close as possible. Use lots of anti-seize on the threads of the adjustable arm if you ever expect to adjust it again.
8. Install arm and tighten down all the subframe and camber arm bolts. Believe spec was 65ft-lbs
9. Repeat on passenger side, except you don't need to cut the bolt or lower the frame. Drivers side will take 2hrs, passenger side will take 15min.
10. Head over to a good alignment shop, tell them it will take 1.5hrs to do and schedule the time for it. Adjusting the camber arms requires removing the tire making an adjustment and re-checking on the alignment machine. This is a slow process.
11. I had them remove all the toe on front and rear and adjusted the rear camber to -0.5deg.
12. Tire wear issues solved.

Hope this helps.
 
I have two important questions to mazcruzer/phdhater/WhitewaterPearl, because I want to be exact. Are the replacement of these adjustables going on a stock or modified vehicle? I have mine all stock height and rims.

Also; are you using one of the normal tire sizes?

Just thought of this too: Out of curiosity; what tire (brands) did any of you go with?
 
Toe & Camber settings

How are the Zero Degree settings still working for anyone with a stock setup?

Is anyone using a negative toe or camber, to any amount, since changing them?
 
Franzy, I am still on the factory spings.
The SPC arms were first installed on the factory suspension with 19" wheels and to this day the rear suspension has NEVER had to be adjusted from the pre-install settings I did when the arms were installed.
I later installed a set of Koni FDS on the factory spring with 235/35/19 tires.
The wife has bent the 19" rims twice so I took them off the car since avoiding San Diego potholes does not seem to be one of her priorities. We are now back on the factory rims with 215/55/17 tires inflated to 36 psi which rides really comfortable on the neglected roads here.
 
I used to be stationed out there. I can only imagine.
What pre-install settings did you use? I literally just got delivered my spc's, about 1 hour ago.

I won't being doing mine for another week or two, so I want to plan out as much as I can.

I want a better spring myself ( but that won't be for awhile) because when I attach my trailer to my car (and it's a small trailer) you see the back end dip about an inch. I'm not looking for the extreme springs... just something in the middle.

Here in NM I usually keep my tires at 36 also.
 
This was my post from 5/6/09 of how I pre adjusted the length of the arms:

Everthing is looking good since installing the SPC adjustable arms. I decided not to waste any more money on another alignment because the van's ride is smoother, the rearend is now more stable on rough roads and tire wear is even across the rear tires.

I just re-checked the camber before logging on with the same level float I used before and infact the suspension has settled some more. Both rear tires are still identically cambered. But I now shows a tad more camber than the fronts...I think my pre install set-up of the adjustment sleeves were spot on.

When I was setting the lenght of the adjustment sleeves I used the two long mounting bolts as guides thru the factory arm bushings and adjusted the SPC arms to the same lenght as the factory arms. I then UNSCREWED THE SLEEVE EXACTLY FOUR TURNS and locked it with the jam nut. This pre install setting has worked out perfectly for rear camber I desired.
 
Just for clarity, four 360 degree turns or four 180 degree turns? I'm thinking full, 360 degree turns, but some people would call 180 degrees a "turn".
 
Just for clarity, four 360 degree turns or four 180 degree turns? I'm thinking full, 360 degree turns, but some people would call 180 degrees a "turn".

Correct, 360 degree is a full turn.
Funny how others said the camber was not the problem with this car but miraclously 3.5 years later with the adjustable arms installed I no longer have any problems with rear tire wear.
 
I love this thread. My wife has a 2006 5 and I am tired of replacing tires that are only worn only on the inside edges. I just got my SPC arms in and will be attempting install tomorrow. Not looking forward to it but it is not going to fix itself. I measured the rear wheels using a level and ruler, did some trig, and I sit at 2.4 degrees for the RR, 1.8 degrees for the LR, 1 degree for the LF, and .8 degrees for the RF. Not sure about toe but ever since my wife had to buy some cheap tires in a crunch, the rear end howls like the bearing are coming out of it.

What are some reasonable quiet tires to put back on it? I heard there are some good Michelins that are nice and quiet.

BTW, here is the car. We bought it new in 2006 and my wife loves it even after 60K miles. We have replaced the CD player because it went out and just had the front struts replaced. It needs plugs, too, I think.

mazda5_zpsd719ca3c.jpg
 
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