OMG can't believe the size of this thread! - there is obviously a problem with the suspension settings on the 5 which has yet to be resolved? (not had chance to read all the thread).

I have a 2009 D Sport and have just replaced the front OE Dunlops at 17500 which I thought was OK but they were dangerously worn, to the belt on the insides!- but looked OK on the outside which is scary because unless you put a lock on, the tyres looked OK for another few miles but were in fact at the point of a potential blow out according to my local tyre technician...

The rears look fine and are wearing nice and flat, I have had the tracking done and new Dunlops fitted on the front which I will monitor and if the unusual inner tyre wear continues I will be going to the dealer asking for a new set of tyres and a fix (if there is one)? to the suspension geometry...

Does anyone know whether Mazda have acknowledged this as a problem and/or come up with a fix? Thanks in advance

 

Hi,
I had similar bad experience when I first bought my 2008 2.0 D Sport. Since having a 4 wheel laser alignment done things have settled down to near normal.
Car has done 35000miles and current tyres have done 10000 on front and 15000 on rears - both are less than half worn and wear is completely even.

Points to look for (apologies if some seem too obvious):-
1. Check inner edges frequently.
2. Be aware rear shocks can go at any time - mine went at about 20000miles.
3. Be alert for wheel vibration - could indicate a slow puncture, other tyre issues or shocks.
4. Some people have suggested increasing tyre pressures - I have kept my tyres only 1 or 2 psi above recommended.
5. My wheel alignment figures were posted in an attachment on #511. It may be useful for reference - did you get a print out for your alignment? Even though my rears had worn even the rear tracking was found to be out.


I do not believe Mazda have officially recognised the issue but suspect dealers are becoming more aware of the problem through word of mouth as the frequency of posts has reduced dramatically which would suggest fewer people are still having problems.

As an aside I was reading my warrany info as my car will be 3 years old in a few months. I was surprised to see the warranty covers wheel alignment for the first few months. This would suggest it can be expected that wheel alignment may need adjusting as the car "settles down" from new. Having little experience in this area I do not know if this standard in the car industry.

Hope this helps.

 

I previously posted last October, after getting my fronts replaced with Falkens, and the toe increased. After 7000 miles I can see that the inside edge is wearing faster than the outside still, so I just took it for another alignment, and set the toe to 0.35 this time (was 0.28).

Some people have said switching to the Falkens fixes the problem, it hasn't in my case although they are cheaper than the Dunlops, so I'll probably stick with them next time.

If the latest alignment doesn't fix the problem I will take a print-out of Rhodri's measurements to the garage next time, and ask that they set it to these.

The 'aligner' at the garage told me that the camber was not adjustable on the Mazda 5 sports, is this right?

Also, I've just had a look at my rear tyres and see they are getting close to bald on the inside edges, although they have done 27k.

 

I need to make a correction concerning my tyre wear in my previous comments.
Over Easter I removed all 4 wheels for a close inspection and to take some tyre wear measurements. (using a vernier gauge)

Front tyres were both good - wear in centre was 0.5mm more than at outsides i.e. suggests tyres may have been run with slightly too high a pressure but nothing of any concern.

Rear Tyres - not too sure what is happening here.
Depth measurements taken on circumferential grooves.
outer groove centre inner groove
Nearside - 4.8 4.2 4.2
Offside = 4.1 4.3 5.6

In other words the rears are both wearing unevenly -especially offside. n/s is worn on inner face whereas o/s is worn on outer face. It does not seem like a tracking issue. This suggests to me more of a suspension issue - e.g. worn bushes.

All tyres were fine on the inner/outer edges.

The car is due for a service which is part of the reason I did the checks. I will discuss it with the garage and see what they think. At worst the rears can be swapped over to even out wear.

Any comments welcome.

 

Might the camber or toe-in be different on the left-rear vs. the right rear? Perhaps a bump or pothole or curb has resulted in changed geometry on one side vs. the other.

 

Yes, its possible, even from the factory. There is always some allowable slop in the specs.
I'm tellin' you all right now though, your best bet for solving this factory issue is to not go to the dealer or factory about it, but spend a little more (+/-$200) and install a set of these (adjustable upper rear control arms. a.k.a. "camber links."):



Then have the car realigned using 1* of neg camber and 0 toe in.

Your uneven wear issues will virtually disappear, and you are not likely to notice any difference in handling.

 

Hi Stokedrich,

I can imagine how daunting this thread is at first look, but it would have been worth plodding through it before getting the car looked at. There's lots of good advice here if you can sieve through the messages. Unfortunately most of it will be a disappointment to you! A change of tyre brand has been my advice, and getting before and after print-outs for wheel alignment. Further reading will also tell you that Mazda do not acknowledge a front wheel problem, only the rear, and therefore have not come up with a fix that they will admit to.

On a more positive note, the problem went away completely in my case after a change of tyre brand and the dealer consistently telling me there wasn't a problem! Kept my car to 83,000 miles and after the original Dunlops I never suffered again.

Dave

 

I have just found this discussion while looking for further information on the web regarding the Dunlop Sport tyres as I have experienced the same problems on a 2008 Sport model with Dunlop tyres, back in March I took it to the local tyre place to get a slow puncture in one of the rear tyres sorted and when they took the wheel off the tyre was starting to delaminate on the inner edge (up to that point there was no other real signs of abmormal wear on the tyre at 20,000 miles), anyway the tyre was obviously not repairable so I asked them to check the others while I was there and all 4 were delaminating (you could get your fingers in behind the tread on one of the front ones) scarry!
Anyway it needed 4 new tyres which they had to order so I cautiously made my way home and contacted the dealer to see if the were aware of a problem, to which the answer was can you bring it in for us to have a look at, which I did the following morning before having the new shoes fitted.

They then wanted me to book it in so that the tracking could be checked, but as it was due for a 3 year service in a few weeks I arranged to get it in a week later so they could do the service and check the tracking.

When this was done the tracking was spot on (for the revised setup after 2007) and they suggested that I report the problem to Mazda which I did. (they also charged me for checking the tracking for my trouble), anyway I got a reply back from Mazda saying they had experienced a wheel alignment problem on the Mazda 5 Sport and Furano models back in the spring of 2007 but my vehicle left the factory with modified tyres and settings and so this was not the problem and that it was probably due to pot holes kerbs etc... for knocking the wheel alignment out and causing the wear (funny how it had also knocked it back into adjustment!).

But the upshot was that it was not due to a problem with the vehicle but to the tyres and I should take this up with Dunlop.

Further attempt to get a reply out of them have come to nothing.

Now I find that I am not alone in experiencing this problem, which if you are unaware of it could be potentially very dangerous.

John

 

Hi all, this message is a query specifically for Rhodri, but should be interesting to everyone:

My Falkens are now bald at 10k, I'm going to get the aligment set precisely as yours is on the document you provided. Thanks for posting this document, but could you please confirm the final values for the front settings. The column alignment in your document is a bit messed up, I think your final settings are:
　
Total Toe: 0 11' (0.183 degrees)
Left Hand Toe: 0 06' (0.1 degrees)
Right Hand Toe 0 05' (0.083 degrees)
Left Camber: -0 49' (-0.817 degrees)
Right Camber: -0 26' (-0.43 degrees)
Left Caster: 2 57' (2.95 degrees)
Right Caster: 3 24' (3.4 degrees)

(I converted the minutes values to degree decimals by dividing by 60)

I will get the garage to set these values, put the same falkens on again, and see what happens.

One other question, the last alignment place I took my car to, the mechanic told me the camber on my car was not adjustable, which is a bit weird seeing as yours was adjusted according to the document. Is the mechanic talking rubbish? I have an 09 reg Mazda 5 2.0D sport.

Many thanks,

Iain

 

Hi Iainso,
The figures you give are correct for my front alignment.

The front camber was not adjusted. Effectively I understand it is not adjustable. In reality if you look at the top of the macpherson struts under the bonnet you will see 3 blue painted pins in elongated grooves. This is the variation in camber you might be able to get by moving the struts. In practise I'm not sure how it would be done.

Good luck.

58 Mazda 5 Sport 2.0D