Scary Tire Wear on 2006 Mazda5

I'm planning a trip to New York this fall (US Open) and will need a new set of tires before we head out. I was thinking about dropping down to 16" rims/tires. I usually buy at Discount Tire. I'm guessing they're knowledgeable enough to know if this is possible and which of their rims will fit, right?
I wanted to drop down to 16" to get a better selection of all-around tires winter (snow) and summer, and also something with a 60,000-80,000 mile warranty.

Open to suggestions on tires, plus after I get some miles put on them, will report back about the inside rear treadwear with the SPC camber arms.

That's a good idea - I was planning on dropping down to 16" wheels on my '09 Sport when I can scrape up the cash, and it will be about $1,200 to $1,300 for decent rims (~ $100 each, alloys), good tires (Michelins), and the TPMS. The TPMS alone runs about $360 or $370 for all four tires, per www.tirerack.com. The $1,200 to $1,300 price is for everything, the tires would come mounted, balanced, and TPMS enabled. Just slap them on and you're done.

Anyway, if your local Discount Tire place tries to say that 16" wheels won't fit (like mine did), remember that they are the standard winter tire size as well as the standard tire size on the 2012 Sport. Good luck and if you do this, take some pictures.

16X7 (and 205/55/16 tires) will absolutely fit on a 5. I had 2 different sets of 16's on mine, plus if you have decent salvage yard/used parts places where you live, you can score a set of Mazda3 wheels that will bolt right on. I was trying to go that route on my 5, but couldn't find any 3 wheels locally for less than expensive alloys from the Rack. Lots of wheel/tire places won't downsize, mostly because they'll make more $ from OEM or bigger sizes.

edit: the set of rims I have on were $400. I don't have TPMS so that saved me some, but if you can live with seeing the TPMS light on the dash, going without the sensors will save you a bunch of $ and weight. There was a noticable difference in road feel once I took off the heavy stock rims/TPMS sensors and put these wheels on. I didn't even look for light wheels, that would make even more difference.

I got some new tires today, though did get a little too big of a tire. When hard braking in a corner, they rub on the liner in the wheel well. I ended up getting Michelin Primacy 215/55-17 tires. I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra $$ on rims. The tires were $695 (after $30 rebate) for a set of 4, with the Discount Tire lifetime balance and rotation, certificates, 2 TPMS sensors and old tire disposal. The tires look bigger, are much quieter and ride pretty nice.

My wife puts on about 3000 mi per month on the car so it shouldn't take too long to see if the SPC camber arms and a little less aggressive alignment eliminates the rear inside tire wear.

I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow.

jivenene said:

...what sense does it make to tune a passenger minivan with sport suspension settings, nonsense. Lets see, maybe they though people will want to road race on their way to dropping the kids off at school, yeah, that sounds about right. At least the kids would like it!

Jive

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And yes, the kids DO like it!

As an important point of clarification - they DID not fix this problem on 2008 and up models. We are experiencing this problem with our 2012 Mazda 5 which has extreme negative camber. I am another of the posters who cannot discern why Mazda would repeatedly design the vehicles to have abnormal tire wear - that can be an extreme safety issue for those who are unaware of this design "feature" (or flaw as I would call it) and in my view is a sort of dishonesty in terms of how they achieved the so called driving performance that is a result of such deliberate design.

2012 Mazda 5 said:

As an important point of clarification - they DID not fix this problem on 2008 and up models. We are experiencing this problem with our 2012 Mazda 5 which has extreme negative camber. I am another of the posters who cannot discern why Mazda would repeatedly design the vehicles to have abnormal tire wear - that can be an extreme safety issue for those who are unaware of this design "feature" (or flaw as I would call it) and in my view is a sort of dishonesty in terms of how they achieved the so called driving performance that is a result of such deliberate design.

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I can't totally agree with your post- most performance cars are set up with a good bit of static camber from the factory. The issue with the 5 is the amount of toe also spec'd into the rear suspension from the factory. The negative camber isn't what eats your tires, it's the scrubbing from excessive toe-in combined with the lean of the tire from the negative camber. The camber lets you have that nice "planted in the turns" feel while the toe-in gives the rear more stability if you start to over-cook it in a turn... and it makes the rear a little less twitchy.

Calling the design "dishonest" because they achieved performance using aggressive alignment settings would be calling every sports car manufacturer dishonest too- it's just one of the common factors with a nice feeling suspension, or at least what I like to call nice feeling. The next time you get an alignment, zero out your rear toe (0.0, not the middle of the range) and see how you like it. Mine's set at 0.02 degrees toe-in on each side which feels pretty good, and seems to be wearing pretty evenly. My assumption / best guess is that dynamic toe comes out to right about 0.00 when driving with that minimal amount of toe-in, but that's just a guess. To ME it's not twitchy, but I like tail-happy cars. It handles nicely with my springs and stiff rear sway bar, doesn't wear funny, and is willing to slide the rear out into a small predictable slide if I flick the car quickly.

Long story short- it's not a dishonest engineering practice- just probably something they got a little too aggressive on in a "family oriented" car... but I'm glad they did it that way.

I just got my Mz5 aligned with neutral toe specs on the rear. I haven't noticed much in the way of negative handling characteristics at all.

2012 Mazda 5 said:

As an important point of clarification - they DID not fix this problem on 2008 and up models. We are experiencing this problem with our 2012 Mazda 5 which has extreme negative camber. I am another of the posters who cannot discern why Mazda would repeatedly design the vehicles to have abnormal tire wear - that can be an extreme safety issue for those who are unaware of this design "feature" (or flaw as I would call it) and in my view is a sort of dishonesty in terms of how they achieved the so called driving performance that is a result of such deliberate design.

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My previous '08 was on the original Toyos till 35K before I replace them and there was no excessive wear. It handled poorly, was loud as a mofo but it was round and true down to 1/32F and 2/32R. My replacement '08 has 55K, ~20K on new tires and no visible uneven tire wear either. The PO took the car in to the dealer for every service (and complaint in the pile of paperwork that came with the car) and there's no record of tire wear issue.

Just a though here. Because there are tolerances in toe setting, I wonder if the variance is the result of the assembly line worker. Example, new guy/gal, doesn't know the whole process, set it too far to the range (but technically acceptable). Just a conspiracy theory. (gossip).

thaxman said:

I just got my Mz5 aligned with neutral toe specs on the rear. I haven't noticed much in the way of negative handling characteristics at all.

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