Hi All,

I have an '08 Mazda 5, and recently the car has developed a slight shimmy when running between 80-90km/h. I took it in and they re-balanced and rotated my tires, and said to come back if that doesnt fix it... it didnt fix it.

Tomorrow I will be taking the snow tires off the care and putting my regular all seasons back on, so if the shimmy persists then that prooves that it has nothing to do with the tires - in this case, is there a history of shimmys in any Mazda 5's? I would like to sound somewhat intelligent when I bring it back to the shop (assuming that the tire switch doesnt solve the problem)

thx

 

Get used to it, the Mazda 5 will NOT stay aligned. My 06 is having it's 3rd alignment and 3rd set of tires Tuesday with less than 50,000 miles. It is not driven in any kind of situation that should cause it to have trouble being in alignment.... it is the car. This time, the struts are also worn out. I love the car, it drives wonderfully, is just the right size and is sharp looking. However, the tire/alignment/suspension issue is forcing me to trade it in for something that costs less to maintain. Doesn't do much good to save money on gas, just to spend it on tires.

 

Its definately not an alignment problem. My tires are worn perfectly, and the car does not pull to either side. The shimmy feels like the problem is with an unbalanced tire - but I will eliminate that potential problem later today and will report back.

 

Update:

I got the snow tires removed and put the all-seasons and stock 17"s, the shimmy is now 100% gone SO in my case, either the snow tires were still nto correctly balanced, or they have another problem with them. UG. (but at least its not the car! yay)

 

Lucky you. Keep an eye on your tire wear, it's killing me.

 

I also have an 06 Mazda 5 with the same tire wear problem, the rear tires are worse of all wearing badly on the inside. I took it to the local alignment shop and they said it was perfectly straight and rear had no alignment adjustment. I decided to have the dealer check it out figuring they would know better, they confirmed there is a toe adjustment but after being there an hour they claimed they couldn't do it becouse the rear wheels were slightly bent. Then by the time they handed me my keys they told me all 4 rims were bent and would cost $3,000 to replace! but only my rear tires are wearing bad and mostly the drivers side, I knew they were full of it. My wife has an 05 mazda3s with similar problem. Both chassis are the same !!