Hi Toggie,My fellow Mx-5 Club Member went initially to a dealer in the West Of Scotland, as mentioned in my previous post. Normally they are a pretty good dealer andwhere we got our Mazda 5 from. If you could takeyour car to Callander I can reccommend the Dreadnought TVR Garage, this is where I get my own cars 4 wheel alignment done, excellent Garage and cheaper than Dealers. My friend took his Mx-5 to themand the mechanic checking the alignment was shocked at the settings, he had to adjust the alignment bolts quite a bit before they would even register on the state of the art machine. Good luck.

edited to remove names.DouglasH

 

Thanks DouglasH. Im afraid I did plan to go to Linwood to get my wheel alignment checked but not until the middle of next month. Am i wrong to assume that it has to be a Mazda dealer who looks at my problem, so as to keep the car warranty up and running?

 

Great idea, and is definitely worth a punt.
Here is the email address to do so..
letters@honestjohn.co.uk
I have just sent a missive his way.


Greetings Toggie!
I don't think it would harm your warranty to get an independant garage to look at it. Where you may hit stony ground is if they actually change anything.....
I took my car to an independant speciallist, who claimed that the rear "thrust" was 2mm out. Makes no sense to me, but when I took the car to my dealer they said and have always said that the settings were within the tolerances.... I said then and continue to say that is a cop out.
Also you never know when they have said that if they have actually changed the settigns and just not told you......
I suspect that is what has happened to me, because my dealer has had a change of service manager, and the new manager said almost as much as the settings they changed when they rotated the tyres seem to have slowed the wear down.....
The last service manager said very strongly that no settings had been changed on my car......
I do not suppose I will ever know the truth......

Good luck anyway, it must be an even bigger pain having to travel so far to get this sorted. My wife has just about had enough of the car........ (Shedrives it most.... I have a MX5..... far more sensible)

 

Whatever you do make sure you obtain a before and after print out, if the car is having the work done under warranty you could always have it checked by an independant alignment placeafterwards or show them the print out for advice.Other than that it may just be worth getting the trusted independant to carry out the work for peace of mind.

 

I sent a missive to Honest John this morning I have had a reply saying that if I replied with the missing link to this thread and the others I know of. He will look into the problem..

 

Hi All,
after visiting my dealer and getting a stiff ignoring to ("never heard of this problem before"), I spoke to John Smith (honest) at Mazda UK ( he's the one dealing with my front tyre wear concerns). Have now been given an appointment with another dealer ,closer to home, ("never heard of this problem before") to have "readings" taken. With a little probing I found out that they are doing tyre wear readings and an optiline and will "adjust settings if necessary or set new if new settings are given".
Car is due in on 30 March, if I get the brush off again I am quite up for a little publicity!
Saw a German5 today on the work's car park and it was fitted with some chunky Toyo winter tyres, don't think it was a sport though, no badges and looked like 16" wheels.
I am disappointed to see the size of this problem and how it is growing,think it would be good for all if we keep our progress posted.

I'm Spartacus too.

 

Just had a reply from Honest John.
He is probing MMUK PR as we speak.....

 

Jon Smith is looking at my worn front tyre case too. Just out of interest, did he say anything about having had other cases? He denied having any other cases when I asked him if it was a common problem.

I have an appointment tomorrow for the car to go on a John Bean four wheel alignment jig, at a tyre specialist that the Bolton Mazda dealer has referred me to. I await the results with baited breath. The idea posted above to request a print-out for before and after figures is a bloomin good idea, I will most definitely do that. I'll report back tomorrow.
Dave.

 

It seems the Mazda Mantra is invariably "never heard of that one before". had it from Service Managers (2), Customer Services (3) and from John Smith! See you've found another victim (mrsimbob?) are they aware of this thead (I may have missed something so if it's a daft question, just ignore me!)
Might be an idea if we pooled our Mazda complaint numbers and let them know, that we know, that they know! Then perhaps they could let everyone else know!

 

After telling you about the couple of new cars I saw last weekfitted with Toyo and Goodyear Tyres as standard, I was in the dealers again today and spotted a brand new 5 just off the transporter, complete with plastic Alloy Wheel covers, guess what tyres were on it....DUNLOP SPORT .....................what on earth is going on.