I wanted to say thanks to everybody on the forum here for helping me address the tire/shocks issue with my 2008 Mazda 5. I bought the adjustable rear camber arms from speedyracer, but one was defective. I still need to exchange it. I ended up putting on two new shocks, the camber arms (well, one so far), new tires, and getting everything aligned for about $1,400 at a local shop. ~$525 was labor.

 

Looking for some help. I tired installing the adjustable rear arms last night and ran into a roadblock on the drivers side. A metal hook for one of the exhaust hangers prevents the bolt the holds the top of the control arm from coming out. Any ideas? Just wondering what others have done to get the bolt out. Any suggestions for a good place to have them installed in the Raleigh NC area?

Thanks,

Paul

 

I have been researching this on another forum (Rear wheel camber is eating tires - Page 2), and the discussion is similar. 2 key things I learned:

1- You CAN install those SPC arms yourself, but the driver's side can be a pain. The passenger side is incredibly easy. Tips on how to deal with the driver's side are in this thread. Good photos and tips also on page 5 of the thread.

2- Camber and toe-out BOTH are the culprits. Again, read through the thread. I found post #29 very telling.

 

My wife and I have been pretty fortunate with our 2007 Mazda 5. The original tires lasted 40K miles and we recently went through another set at around 80K miles. Now my 2000 Saab 9-5 Aero Wagon is a tire-eating machine. I had tires only last on it from between 10-15K miles. And everything was within spec. Probably the wrong factory specs if Saab thinks tires should wear out that quickly.

 

It's happening on my 2012 Mazda5 with about 25k miles. The rear tires still have about 7/32 tread left but they're howling. Of course, the dealer recommended that I should rotate tires more often. I guess I just don't believe that's the problem. I think it just spreads the issue around.

I hate to re-engineer the rear suspension on a still under-warranty car but I may consider those adjustable camber links.

 

I have a 2007 Mazda 5 and replaced the rear cambers arms with the adjustable SPC 3 years ago. We have around 25,000 on this set of tires and they still look good (even wear and good tread left). What everyone needs to understand is that this is a Mazda 3 or Ford Focus with a bigger, heavier body, basically; a heavy car on small tires. I have the tires rotated every oil change (5,000 miles). To answer everyones question: Yes! replace the rear camber arms with the adjustable ones. While I was replacing my factory, non adjustable rear camber arms with the adjustable SPCs, the bushing were wearing so they were slowly getting out of alignment and the original tires were having uneven wear. Now, if there is a issue, there is a adjustment if needed. Thanks for all the forum help with the other subjects on this vehicle (and there are a few that I needed).

 

Thanks, mattmk555. I see a lot of people also adjusted their toe. Did you do that? I'm the only person I found that had problems with a 2012.

 

I guess time to bump this thread...

I've got a '10 5 and its getting due for its 3rd set of tires in 82K miles. About 30K miles on the stockers and 50K on the Pirelli P701 AS tires. Actually 5 of them because one wouldn't hold air and finally failed at the sidewall, but... thats another story. Which isn't bad. Really. I'm cool with it considering the usefulness/effectiveness of the van.

Reading around, I contemplating a suspension upgrade as well, both to hopefully cure the tread eating problem and well... yeah the shocks on the 5 were never all that great from new. Probably contributed to the poor tire wear more than the small wheel size.

 

I've had my mazda5 for 10 years and have bought between 20-30 tires for this car.

 

I had bad wear on the inside of the rear tires on my 2007 mazda 5 (almost blew out driving through the Smoky Mountains while driving past Chattanooga!). I took it to a body shop and they sold me aftermarket brackets that altered the camber to a more positive angle; took care of the problem and my tires have last 60k+ ever since.