I have a 2 year old Mazda 6 SL Estate with 33,000 M on the clock. Two days ago while driving at high speed on the outside lane of a Motorway the TPMS warning came on. I immediately slowed and by the time I had pulled onto the hard shoulder the car was difficult to control. In the UK it is illegal to effect repairs on the hard shoulder of a Motorway so I called Mazda Assistance. The outcome was that the nut securing the TPMS valve to the rim on the nearside rear was missing and the valve was loose. After being trucked home as it was late evening I examined the wheels by torchlight and found that the nut on the nearside front was cracked in two places and would have disintegrated any time. Needless to say if this tyre had suffered a sudden deflation at speed a serious accident would have occured!



Next morning I telephoned my Mazda service centre to be told this was an ongoing issue and would be fixed under warranty. All four valves were replaced under warranty as was the tyre which had been damaged by the high speed deflation. I was also told that there was an ongoing issue with the timing chain so this had been checked as well.

The message from this is that Mazda obviously do not see fit to notify owners of issues which could cause, in some cases, catastrophic results. They only seek to check for faults when the car comes in for a service. This is most distressing and is causing me to wonder if I should change brands but what to? I have written to Mazda UK expressing my concern.

So from now on I will be checking my TPMS nuts on a weekly basis and advise all other owners of cars (not just Mazda 6) fitted with TPMS to do so also. If I find one more cracked the car goes!

Best of Luck!

David