It's an "intense" study of the entire geometry of the front and rear suspensions.
They not only measure the wheel alignment based on how the wheels align to themselves, but how they line up with the body/chassis of the car.
They would also do a cross or diagonal measure where the top of the suspension on one side of the car is measured to the bottom on the other side, then compared to the other diagonal... front and rear.

Have you ever seen a car that was "crabbing" down the road? One that may have been in a serious accident, then repaired, but is not quite right? Old Chevy Nova's are known for this after a hit to the rear or side-rear of the car.
It's when the car is tracking straight down the road, but when sighted from one side or the other, appears to be going slightly sideways... as if the front end was pointed one way and the read end the other.

 

There is also a difference in what some garages describe as 4 wheel alignment.
Some will do a simple 4 wheel alignment check and adjust tracking accordingly.

Others actually do a bit more and check the actual Camber of the outside of the wheels.

I am led to beleive that the optiflex (?) check that the Mazda garage do will be a full geometry setup. My biggest worry is that they just check it, and have no settings to use to fix the problem. I wll supply them with the some figures from here that seem to have given results, but not sure if they will use them or that will see results on mine.

I will have a chat direct with the worshop tech I spoke to the other day. Until now, he is the only person I have dealt with at Bourne Road garage that should be let anywhere near customers!

The tyres they want to fit are Barum Bravuis 2's. Anybody got any experience of them? Bourne road seem to like them, but maybe thats because it helps the issue. I would prefer to use a tyre that has given poor results to see if it is cured.

If this doesn't solve it, just wondering what action I could take, seeming as they have recognised there is an issue, but refuse to see it as either warranty or anymore than I have hit some potholes, so it's my fault!

 

So let me get this straight, your shop wants to put high-performance Summer tires on your car which is a Mazda5; correct? That seems kind of silly considering a high-performance All-Season tire will provide you with all of the traction you'll ever need/want/desire for a Mazda5 and yet easily last twice as long.

As a suggestion, you might want to consider one of the following high-performance All-Season tires instead of the dedicated Summer rubber your shop is recommending:

• Continental ExtremeContactDWS
• Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus
• Yokohama AVID ENVigor

FWIW, Richard (virgin1) has the Continentals on his Mazda3 and he is very pleased with them, I currently have the Michelins on my Mazda3 (the tires with 48,000 miles on them), and I have a set of the Yokohamas sitting in my garage waiting for me to find the time to have them mounted.

 

I will agree with shipo, as a fellow 5 owner myself, a good all season tire is the way to go. Yes given what the vehicle is, it does handle well, but nothing like the 3 or other sports cars to justify getting dedicated summer tires. That is of course unless your going to race it.

 

Funny thing about high-performance all-season tires these days; they are probably capable of getting around a track faster than dedicated summer tires from just ten years ago. Shod with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires, my Mazda3 needs to exceed the speed limit by an easy thirty miles per hour on the winding roads in our area before the tires even begin to complain.

 

You satisfied with the pilot sport a/s? They are a good looking tire and the 500 AA A rating is a plus.

 

I cannot say I am pleased to be getting only 20000miles out of a front set of tyres but it does seem to be fairly typical for a problem free version of my model here in the UK. When I wrote to Mazda UK after my initial problems they indicated 15000miles would be acceptable! Model is a Mazda 5 2.0 D Sport. Tyres are 205/50/R17. Current set are Michelin Primacy. Previous set were Goodyear. The Michelins were more expensive but I cannot say it has been worth the extra. Not sure what to try next. Looking at other posts some say Continentals whereas other are happy with the cheaper Falkens or Vredesteins.


Thanks to various posters for clarifying 4 wheel alignment vs geometry check. One of the measurements on my 4 wheel alignment was for the thrust angle. This would identify any indication of crabbing and was one of the main reasons I advised Iainso to get a 4 wheel rather than a 2 wheel alignment on my earlier post.

 

A few comments:

• My Mazda3 also runs 205/50 R17 tires so I know for a fact there are tires in that size which can deliver considerably more than 20,000 miles.
• Michelin has manufactured a number of models with the "Primacy" name over the last several years, some good, some not so good. The set Michelin Primacy tires I had on my last BMW were lucky to reach 22,000 miles.
• General comment: Most tire manufacturers make a pretty broad range models and sizes; some good, some not so much. The thing is, there is considerable anecdotal evidence to suggest that even tires of a different size within a model line can vary rather dramatically in their capabilities.
• Bringing this back full-circle, I cannot think of a single 205/50 R17 tire better suited for duty on your Mazda5 than the three outlined in a previous post. Granted, this advice is only worth what you're willing to pay for it, but someone would have to do one heck of a sales job to get me to consider a tire other than one from the list.

 

Whether or not I would really call the Barum some sort of super sticky summer tyre is a contentious point. Lot of good reveiws on tyre reveiw sites, and the only person with any common sense at Bourne road mentioned them before I was offered. He likes them, and judging by the chat we had, seems to think they will suit the car very well. Wether having a summer tyre on will cause issues, I would doubt, as we don't really get the extremes for more than a couple of days in Southern England, and then the roads are not treated correctly, so you couldn't drive on them in anything but 4x4's anyway, at the mere hint of a snowflake.

The tyres you mentioned won't be anywhere on my radar until the wear issue is sorted. As long as I get a reasonable tyre, that has decent grip, no way will I be paying almost twice the price for the tyres you recomend, until I know there is no longer an issue with the car. Possible mileage is the last thing I am worrying about until I know that the inner edges don't wear to the threads in 8K. The 5 being heavier should mean that it would use it's tyres a bit quicker than the 3, so not sure what would be a great mileage, but I would kill to make 20K.
Sure, I don't think I would ever choose the Barum if it was solely me picking, but it's another tyre to cross off the list, so goes someway to gathering data to cure the issues that the mazda 5 has.

BTW I have used Yoko's on bikes and cars. You won't like the mileage form them. One of the grippiest tyres I have ever used on both counts, but also wore out quicker than anything else I have ever used.

Shipo, does your 3 run tyres rated at 93W extra load ( XL) ? That is apparently what should be fitted to the 5, which makes the price of the premium tyres a lot dearer.

 

Just so we're clear on this, I'm not advocating using All-Season tires for their "All-Season" capabilities, I'm doing so because as a general rule, All-Season tires last roughly twice as long as summer tires. If you put those Barums on your car you won't stand a chance of getting much more than 20,000 miles out of them, if you even make it that far.

Seriously? Twice the price? Here in the States the Yokohama AVID Envigors can be had for $119 per tire; are you suggesting that the Barums can be had for $60?

I believe you've completely missed what I've been saying. Yokohama, like all manufacturers, make lots of different tires with different tread compounds. Said another way, just because a tire says "Yokohama" on the side does not in any way mean good traction and poor mileage.

Consider the following:

• Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08 (Treadwear rating of 180) has great traction but would be lucky to get to 20,000 miles
• Yokohama ADVAN Sport (Treadwear rating of 180) also has great traction but won't make it to 20,000 miles either
• Yokohama AVID ENVigor (Treadwear rating of 560) has pretty good traction and should make it to 50,000 miles

Believe it or not, I expect to get at the very least, 50,000 miles out of my new Yokohamas.

Yes, the Yokohama AVID ENVigor carries a 93V with an XL rating. The only difference is the W speed rating of 168 mph versus the V which is only rated for 149 mph. If you plan on driving your Mazda5 at speeds of 150 mph or greater then you should opt for a Summer tire with the high speed rating.

BTW, unless I'm missing something, Mazda does not specify such a high load rating, all documentation I have indicates that a load rating of 89 (1279 pounds per tire versus 1433 for the 93/XLs) is what they specify and what (typically) comes from the factory.