My wife hit a curb the other night with her 2019 Mazda CX5 Signature and put a hole in the left front tire. She called me to change it. I knew something was not right as I forced the OEM spare on. She had to accelerate excessively to move the car and the spare screeched and vibrated violently. The spare wheel was rubbing the brake calipers! We left the car overnight at Walgreens and the next day I replaced the tire with a new one and drove the CX5 to Hubler Mazda in Greenwood Indiana. They determined that the OEM spare was the incorrect one for the CX5 Signature because this model of CX5 has larger brake calipers than the other models.

They gave us a free 2022 CX5 loaner, and kept our car saying it was unsafe because of the potential damage to the brake calipers, which they are going to replace free of charge along with the spare. Also, corporate wants to do an on site examination of the car and spare. They said this is the first known report of of this and wondered about the potential volume of other vehicles with this problem. If you own a CX5 Signature you might check your spare tire - like us, you may be driving around with one that does not fit. There is nothing like changing a tire on a freezing night and finding it does not fit.

 

You will most likely find in your owner's manual that the space saver spare tyre is NOT to be fitted on the front axle. Only the rear.

In your case, put the spare on the rear, and the rear wheel on the front.

 

I have never heard of this - this is rediculious. I checked the 1" thick CX5 owner's manual and buried deep in it is an obscure paragraph saying exactly what you said. The misery of changing a flat front tire requires changing 2 tires - unbelievable! The dealership I took the car to did not mention this and replaced the spare, front calipers, and gave me a loaner car free of charge. Mazda does not have any labels or warnings on the spare, or it's storage compartment and no reasonable person reads through a 1" thick owner's manual, so how are we to know? I believe they are embarrassed by such a scenario, and the above mentioned obscure paragraph will only be mentioned by Mazda when somebody tries to sue them because of an accident caused by spare tire failure. This would not be an issue if they used the same size tire for the spare as the other ones - there is room for it in the storage compartment.

 

Lots of AWD vehicles have weird procedures for a flat tire. Here's what is required for my 15 year old Forester:

For a flat front tire with an automatic transmission, the Owners Manual indicates:
1. Remove a rear tire.
2. Install the temporary spare in its place.
3. Remove the flat front tire.
4. Install the rear tire in its place.
5. In the fusebox, install the spare fuse in the FWD slot to disable AWD.
6. Don't drive too far in FWD or damage to drivetrain may occur.
7. After the flat tire is fixed, put all three tires back in their original places.
8. And remove the fuse to restore AWD.

 

What reasonable person would spend upwards of $30,000 and not read the free owners manual?

 

Maybe you are right and I should read it. But according to actuary tables, I have 11.58 years to live. I have no plans to spend any of that time reading a 1” thick Mazda owners manual.

 

WHEN YOU BUY THE CAR
I DO read manuals and missed this. We are into hour two of trying to install the spare and couldn’t figure it out. Stumbling onto this post. This an insanely horrible product design.

 

Well you just summed up why there are so many distracted and confused new vehicle owners ....they don't read the owners manual.

This is NOT the dealership fault nor the auto manufacture. A few words and phrases come to mind when I read that somebody actually posts not reading their new vehicle owner's manual. ROLMAO!!!!
But their are guidelines on this forum. BTW many new members seldom read those as well when they join this and many other forums.

I really don't feel sorry for you not knowing about the spare..... maybe you and other will learn from this and READ the fricken owners manual!


Yuu all that don't are a safety hazard and an accident waiting to happen on the road. While you fumble through the driving controls wondering how to do something while driving at highway and road speeds from 45-70 MPH.

I am a firm believer that the laws should change in the future when people purchased new vehicles' they "MUST" do a driving test specifically for that new vehicle.

For some that understand this, it is easier to fly a single engine airplane (pre 90's ) then some of the new vehicle's now offered to the public.

 

Maybe you should open it up to see that it is ion a couple or more languages and it covers all the possible features that could be available but not necessarily on your Model MAZDA. An hour or 2 spent reading the manual and familiarizing yourself with your new MAZDA may even prevent your life time line estimate from having a shorter outcome?
So your owners manual is now reduced to about 1/2 the size for reading.


The most important thing EVERYBODY should know with any vehicle they are driving is the vehicle's stopping distance performance!
My guess is 99% don't know that. This is seen everyday by your MPH (legal posted sign adjusting for conditions) driving and referencing how close they follow you or follow others on the road or highways .