I decided to ring around and chat to some service managers at local Mazda dealers. They are all aware of the problem and in most seem to play it down as one or two cars and by no means every 5 sport they have sold mmm ?. Mind you one 'service manager' informed me that it was a problem with the Dunlop tyre which he said had too soft a compound on the edges! and that they were to blame. I may be wrong but I have never heard of a tyre that can have a softer compound on the outer treads of the tyre. Anyway my dealer informed me that in April they have all received a detailed 7 page report from Mazda highlighting the problem with example photographs and in depth technical report. I was invited to look at the report at the dealer I am buying the 2.0D Sport from so that I can be re-assured that all will be well on the car I am buying. I am concerned, and I pointed this out, that Mazda do not seem to accept responsibility for problems of premature wear to the front tyres which seems to be present on most complaints. I am not sure why that is so as it seems clear the fault is equally present on the fronts from the posts on this thread. It may just be a cost limitation exercise on their part or much easier to argue fault on the driver.

Anyway I have decided to proceed with my order and I will take detailed tread depths on all 4 wheels every 3000 miles. In addition I will keep inflation pressures on each inspection. I will post the results. I do 20K a year so next year we can at least see if they do have a fix.

By the way don't be fobbed off with 'oh its a diesel and the are heavy wearers on front tyres'. My colleague has just changed his Audi A4 Deisel tyres on the front after 35,000 miles. Based on the Mazda5 Weight and height an average driver should get around25 to28K on the fronts at at least 30K on the back. My advice is if you get any less then complain bitterly to the dealer / Mazda until they make up the % difference.

Remember the true measure of a car dealer or car manufacturer is not some much if they have a problem but how they deal with it. From this particular post it seems that Mazda have not covered themselves with glory. Just hope I don't regret not cancelling and opting for the Toyota verso 2.2D SR.... with cruise control and parking sensors. Those sliding doors had better be worth it!

 

Hello from me in Cardiff and as of today a new found sufferer to truly put the cat amongst the pigeons (I haven't read all the thread but it seems to relate to the Sport). My 5 is a 1.8 TS2 wearing Toyo Tranpath 205/55x16 tyres which Toyo proudly claim were "designed for the Mazda 5", a line so convincing that when my fronts wore out,I spent time locating a fresh set (they are actually a car version of a 4x4 model tyre) so I assumed there was something in that.....which of course there isn't.

Anyway, the car has just clocked up nearly 22000 miles sinceI bought it in August 2005 just as it was launched so it's one of the first ones on the road. I noticed the outer edge of the front nearside tyre was getting thin but other than that the wear was fairly even and the first set had worn fairly evenly too. They don't seem to last much more than 11000 miles. So I booked it in for two front tyres and and a track, this time opting for some Continental Sports. During this process, I noticed the really bad wear on the inner edge of the rear Toyos and pointed it out to the tyre guy who confirmed the camber must be wrong.

OffI went to Victoria Park Mazda expecting to be fobbed off and spoke to Damien who seemed to know about the rear tyre wear (er, we've had one)and said there was a TSB for certain VIN numbers. He had a look at the car and firstly declared that the TSB only related to Dunlop SP tyres. SoI confirmed it was a known problem, my car had it and that somehow the fact it didn't have Dunlops was supposed to be somehow relevant. He then said the Toyos weren't original fitment soI had to gently tell him they were and were "designed for the Mazda 5" (big flourish of trumpets". I said I suspected the Dunlops were only fitted to the Sport and tipped him a knowing nod that I wasn't a freakin' numpty.

The "solution" was to send me to a local tyre place for a 4 wheel alignment and to submit the invoice to him, plus the worn rear tyres and he'd approach Mazda to see what they said ie I get to pay up front and hope. Now I didn't have time to wait so have to go for the alignment tomorrow and also get some rear Contis as well. The guy i spoke to said he would photograph the old tyres and apply a "matrix" to establish the average de[pth of all the grooves so that if Mazda approved it, I couold make the appropriate contribution. This annoys me as the tread on the rest of the tyre would easily see another year's use, if not more but I'm being asked to front £134 for the new tyres.

Anyway, I was glad to find this thread and will now be better placed to have a go at them. As he told me "Tyres aren't a warranty item". "No", I replied, "They're a safety item and they are now grossly defective...oh and I'm a prosecuting barrister". I'll see what they say tomorrow.

Well it was an interesting day. I began by ringing Mazda UK about the tyre wear problem and received a "surprised" response. SoI told them not to waste my time as I'd read a 28 page thread and just needed to know if they had an official response to what was obviously a widespread problem and whether they now had an official resolution. Still she feigned ignorance and said she would investigate it which would take 7-8 weeks and the result would hopefully reaffirm my faith in Mazda. I told herI was thinking of changing it right now and she promised they'd write...

I had two new tyres fitted to the rear and I had the 4 wheel alignment done and the back was way out especially on the rear nearside where the tyre was just about down to the cords. Oddly they said the rear offside was "within spec" but adjusted it to stop the adverse wear.Then it was back to the dealer to tell them the jig was up, to drop off the invoices and to deliver the appallingly worn tyres. The dealer was fine to be honest and suggested a resolution might be sorted within 7 days which sounds like they know exactly what the problem is.

We then had a friendly chat about corporate manslaughter if Mazda UK ended up killing someone through a burst tyre and what effect a nice piece on Watchdog would have on their sales figures. Anyway, long and short, it looks like they're going to pay up - I now feel in a far stronger position to reject any half-hearted offers and push for a full refund.

 

Greetings all!
Had my five back to dealer for a routine service!!!!
Tyres checked and were found to be wearing evenly across the whole tyre.... after about 3000 miles....
Things are looing up!!!

Still think that MMUK should come clean and contact all owners to have the cars checked and made safe.
As I have said all along this is a safety issue, and MMUK owe us a duty of care to ensure the car is fit for purpose......

 

Been watching this thread with interest and the tyres(Dunlop 2050's 17")on my '07 5Furano diesel with even more interest. After 7k miles they appear to be wearing evenly however the fronts may have slightly less tread on the inside than I'd expect but its hard to say. I'm off to France next month and expect to cover about 2000miles over 10 days. I seem to recall somewhere in this thread that there was mention of updated tyre pressures but can't find it again. Does anyone know if this is the case or is the owner manual still correct?[&:]

 

Hi, the pressures that my dealer has recommended after much discussion and testing is 36 all round for normal use.

I suspect if you are off on holiday the car will be heavy laden, so I would pump them up a little over the recommended laden pressure. (don't forget to let them down when the car is back to normal weight)

Happy hols!

 

Arghhh, I don't believe it. I had a quick glance at my REAR tyres today to make sure they were still wearing nice and even, and the nearside has an almost smooth band on the inside edge, and the offside is showing uneven wear, biased to the inside edge of course. I've just passed 18,500 miles, so I gather I've done better than some of us on the rears.

My replacement front tyres have nearly done 6000 now, and by eye I really can't see any obvious wear problems, however other than change the brand of tyre nothing has been changed so I'm not too hopeful.

Frankly I'm getting very tired of this. (The tyres, not the forum!)

More as it happens...... (and it will)

Dave.

 

When I had my four wheel alignment, the really bad rear tyre was way out of camber. The one which was still illegal but not quite as bad was "within limits" but they changed it anyway. I used A&A Tyres in Cardiff who have a very sophisticated computer set-up.

 

I have previously (several pages back!) (page 7, I just had a look!!) had the 4-wheel line up at Thistlethwaites in Bolton, as recommended by Lythgoe Mazda in Bolton. They had some impressive kit too!
I'm wondering if the specs thatThistlethwaites were given by Mazda UK were the "old" settings, and have since been superceded following investigation. Certainly when Thistlethwaites checked it, the car was virtually spot-on, and now 6 months later I'm suffering with the rears too.

Doh !

 

I spoke to my local Mazda dealer today on the phone because I'm interested in buying a Mazda 5. I mentioned the problem of tyre wear on some models. He said that he was aware of the problem and that it has been attributed to the suspension.

I'm not mechanically minded, so most of what he said went over my head, but if I remember correctly, he said it had something to do with the spring coils in the rear of the car and to fix the problem newly produced cars were being fitted with long arms instead of short arms. Makes no sense to me, but maybe it does to you.

I asked him which models this affected, and he said Sport. I asked specifically if this affect the 1.8 engines or the 2.0 TS2 and he said no, because they have a differently designed suspension.

I asked what would be done for the existing Sport models out there and he said, if they bring the car back and it has the tyre wear problem they will change the tyre format.

I asked if the change to the new models could be applied to the existing models and he said no, the longer arm suspension can only be done in production.

If that makes sense and the gentleman is to be believed then I guess that's not the news you were hoping to hear.

My wife and I like the Mazda 5 enough that we're going to go ahead and test drive the 1.8 petrol, but will be staying clear of the Sport after reading this thread.

 

Went to two Mazda dealership. The first one was unaware of any tyre wear issues. The second dealer said it applies to the sport variant of Mazda 5 and there is a mod carried out. He did not say what modifications were. I plan to buy a 1.8TS2 and will see what develops.