I've owned a 2006 uk Mazda 3 sport 2.0L since 2011 and the tyre wear is driving me mad.

Essentially the front passenger tyre wears unevenly on the outside even with normal driving, the drivers side does also but to a much lesser extent. In june 2012 the car failed MOT and had both front wishbones replaced, tyres at this point were an MOT advisory.

The front tyres were then replaced in September 2012 with hankook ventus prime 2 k115s 205/50 R17 93W XL. The car went through MOT again at the start of June 2013, the passenger side wishbone and CV joint were replaced this time, again tyres were advisory after only 9 months and under 10k!

The only problems I've been able to find similar to this all refer to the mazda 3 wearing tyres on the inside of the wheel not the outside which is why I'm totally stumped. I'm going to have to spend some more £ on new front tyres again after only 9 months and its killing me, I wouldn't mind if the car was driven hard but it's really not.

Any ideas what it could be? Could the car have been misaligned to compensate for the cars known negative camber?

I've heard that going for lower rated speed tyres (e.g. V instead of W) may help as the compound on Vs is harder than W? At this stage I don't want to risk going for budget tyres but I don't want to spend nearly £290 on two tyres that'll get me 9 months and 9k down the road

 

My first inclination is to point to the alignment as a cause. It is best to have a 4 wheel alignment done with brand new tires, properly inflated and, depending on the manufacturer's recommendation, with some weight on the driver's seat.

Many shops will tell you that the camber cannot be adjusted. Still you would want to know if the camber is in spec and even on both sides. If camber turns out to be out of spec you can assume that there was an incident such as kissing a curb or worse that knocked camber off. In that case it would be advisable to have the frame measured by a competent body shop. Depending on the readings it may be possible to correct the camber with excentric bolts on the struts, or it may be necessary to straighten the frame.

I do not know how lower rated tires would fare. I doubt they would fix the problem.

 

Correct wheel alignment is critical.

 

Why exactly did they replace the wishbones? Were they bent? Maybe they weren't bent but the attachment brackets at the subframe were bent.

Some additional thoughts: there is a subframe that holds the drivetrain together and bolts from underneeth to the body. The control arms (=wishbones) are attached to this subframe and the strut mounts are attached directly to the body. That means if the subframe got whacked out of its place it messed up the lignment, on both sides.

Principally there are 3 angles of alignment: caster, camber, toe. Camber and caster are factory set and are considered non-adjustable. However a good alignment shop will be able to tell you if camber and caster meet factory specs. If they don't meet factory specs then the toe in alignments they were doing are for naught.

I would insist on getting it all measured out. I would insist on getting a report that states factory specs and actually measured angles. I would go to a collision specialist.