Hi, just wondered how you were getting on?
I was in Tesco's this afternoon, I saw a 55 plate 5 and noticed the tyres as I went past. Looked like ours did @ 6500 miles.
When I came out I saw an old boy and his good lady getting in, I thought I needed to let him know because he probably was blissfully unaware. Good job I did, his car had 6000 miles on the clock and all 4 tyres were worn on the inner edge. He was really shocked.

I am disgusted that Mazda are not doing something about it. Surely they have a duty of care to ensure their cars are roadworthy!

I have rung the Dealer Principle at my local dealer, and he is going to get back to me tonight. I am going to suggest that he as the person who sold the car owes each and every 5 owner a courtesy call to have the car checked just in case.
Nig

 

Greetings all!
Just had the return call from the Dealer Principle and it is generally good news I bring you all.
MMUK have acknowledged that there is an issue and are in discussions withthe factory for a fix.
At the moment there are a few tweaks that they will suggest dealers do when cars are returned and MMUK will give a mileage allowance on any tyres that need replacing prematurely.
One line of thought Nicole at MMUK suggested might have a bearing is the make up of the tyre wall and the load bearing therein. MMUK may suggest a different rating of tyre which would then mean a completely new set of new tyres F.O.C!
Not the remedy we would all require, but a big step in the right direction.

Get down to your dealer and pester them to get onto MMUK and speak to Nicole to get upto speed with the situation......

Nig

 

I have been speaking to the Service Manager at my Mazda dealer. He says that he has been in touch with Mazda as he has a number of customers in the same boat as us - no surprise there. Anyway, he says the following 2 things have been recommended by Mazda to overcome the tyre wear problem.

1. Fit Dunlop SP Sport 205/50 R17 93V tyres. Sadly these are the tyres that are already fitted to my car! Furthermore my dealer can't source any of these tyres as there has been a rush on them - wonder why that is? Mazda will pay I am told.
2. Realign all 4 wheels to 2 degree toe-in. The theory goes that the wheels are currently parallel and as the car is driven forwards the wheels slightly splay outwards to a toe-out angle so the toe-in will compensate for this. Seems plausible in that toe-out will cause inner tyre wear but not sure about wheels splaying out when car is moving forwards even if it is only 2 degree. I also think 2 degree is quite a lot as I have seen toe-in values of minutes rather than degrees

If my dealer ever get any tyres I will go ahead with this suggested remedy. Have you had this toe-in alignment applied to your car? Perhaps I will be complaining of outer tyre wear in 2 or 3 months time :-)

As for making a fuss I think we are in a weak position. Saw Watchdog last night with bonnets flying up whilst driving in Renault Clios and Renault are just doing a Gallic shrug - amazing when this problem is extremely dangerous. Bit of tyre wear seems a lot less serious.

If my 5 still has tyre wear as now after this remedy I will get rid of it and put it down to experience - never buy a car until it has been on the market for at least 12 months. Knew I should have bought a VW Touran ................................

Dave

 

I forwarded your post onto my dealer, he responded this morning saying that he had forwarded it onto the delightful Nicole at MMUK!
He assures me that if she gives him any advice we will be the first to know.

On a slightly different note: When we first got the car I noticed that the wind noise on the drivers side was terrible. It is not the noise that was reputed to be coming from the door mirror area, this noise appears to be coming from the area between the front and rear doors. We have had the seal around the door replaced, but it did not remedy the problem, I let this ****le lie for a while because the tyres were far more important in my opinion,also my wife, who drives the car most often had restricted hearing in her right ear, so she couldn't hear it!! Fortunatley her hearing has improved, and she refers to it as the whirlwind!!
However, I have mentioned it again, and am interested to hear if anyone else is aware of the problem
Nig

 

No news of any replacement tyres yet (Monday 29th) - now been waiting over 2 weeks (tyre wear noted Jan 11th) . Been informed that the replacement lower suspension arms are in so hopefully the suspension will be set up ready and waiting for some new tyres and also stop creaking!. I agree with you telling your dealer to call all his 5 owners (previous post) but I also think Mazda should recall all 5s to have the suspension realigned and have new tyres fitted as appropriate (assuming this works of course). I wonder if we will end up beta testing this solution......get the feeling we and others have been beta testing the car up until now.

As for wind noise my 5 doesn't suffer from the wind noise as you describe. Reasonably quiet on a motorway. Does the door sit tight on the door seal - it could be the hinges or catch that need adjusting? Is it above a certain speed as the door could be lifting off the seal if the catch is slightly misadjusted?

I'll post when I have new tyres (hopefully sometime this year) and also monitor the tyre wear and post again with a verdict on the alignment 'repair' as concerns my 5.

Let me know the reponse from your dealer and the now legendary Nicole of MMUK

Dave

 

just been looking on ebay paste the item number in and have a look. Item number: 8045567906. may be a possible cure if mazda do not do any thing and cheaper than new tyres do not know what mazda would do about the warranty though .

 

Hiya,

yeah i agree with the majority of the stuff you are all saying here guys, I too am having wear problems, had tyres replaced at 12.5k, and god the pictures i've seen on here are nothing compared to mine - will get round to posting them. Mine that i had replaced were fronts, and had old tyres put on front and new onto back as had to have slightly different size. HOWEVER have now had to have the ones on the front replaced again, at 15.5k as were doing exactly the same.

Will join you in complaints, but feel we must be carefully as we could shoot ourselves in the foot about resale once the news is public.

Mazda are being incredibly slow in responding to this problem, and i agree safety must be questionned. any idea how many 5 sport carshave been sold in uk so far?

i feel because of the slow response the problem must be more complex than just geometry, if it isn't then why the delay in solving it???????? surely if it was a camber problem then the rest of the tyre would wear at an angle, not leave the inner edge disappearing and the rest of the tyre pattern wear being consant?

helen

 

Saab owners have been dealing with this for a while. We found a shop that sold shims to correct the negative camber. The Saabnet board always recommended tire rotation between 3-5K miles. I did mine every 3K. We called it "cupping".

 

Our car has been at the dealers now since Thursday. They are looking into the hurricane that blows around the drivers ear at 45mph+, the sluggish performance and clunky 1st gear and of course the tyres, which are wearing as before. The dealer gave us a brand new Mazda 5 TS2 2L the car is a completely different beast to ours. It is perky, and responsive, the wheels are only 16", but they look completely different when you look at them from the rear. i.e. straight.

 

Hi Nig,

Look forward to hearing the outcome.

What model etc is your own mazda 5? Thought problems with the tyre wear were only on sport model, hence diff suspension?

Helen