Mazda 5 Alignment

[M5Gonz]

I have been having problems with my M5. Anybody?(argh)

 

[KBrian]

Yesss?

 

[SGT_OKINAWA]

When I put $3,000 worth of rims and tires on my Premancy, they said the alignment was good. Later went back, they said no alignment was needed. I could tell even on new tread that it was GOING TO wear on the inside.

I know not everyone has the use of a million dollar auto hobby shop at their disposal, but when I change the oil I rotate my tires just to balance out the tread a bit, in the next few weeks Im going to get the tires 'true rotated' i.e. take the tire off the rim and swap left to right, for now all I can do is move front right to back left, etc.

We all know there is NO camber adjustment on the 5, so if that is your problem, do what I do, rotate every oil change, then once a year tire off the rim rotate.

If it is pulling left or right, YES that needs an alignment.

Peace!(rei)

 

[BANANA2387]

When we first got our M5, it would pull to the right. We thought if was an alignment problem. We had to bring it back 2 more times before they changed out the tires and that seemed to fix the problem. We've had it for 15K miles and no uneven wear on the tires.

 

[M5Gonz]

When we first got our M5, it would pull to the right. We thought if was an alignment problem. We had to bring it back 2 more times before they changed out the tires and that seemed to fix the problem. We've had it for 15K miles and no uneven wear on the tires.

What do you mean? The dealer installed new tires or they did a rotation?
Is going to be my 5th alignment with only 5600K miles.(nailbyt)

 

[WhitewaterPearl]

What do you mean? The dealer installed new tires or they did a rotation?
Is going to be my 5th alignment with only 5600K miles.(nailbyt)

Welcome to Mazda5 world of numorous alignments, been there...

 

[BANANA2387]

What do you mean? The dealer installed new tires or they did a rotation?
Is going to be my 5th alignment with only 5600K miles.(nailbyt)

They tried aligning it twice - THEN they fitted it with all ne 4 tires and that seemed to take care of the car pulling to the right. Apparently (this is what they told us), it had been sitting for a while on the lot before we purchased it and the tires went out of round - if that's possible. Anyone else experience this problem?

 

[rweatherford]

It's possible.

 

[5zoom]

I've found the 5 is very sensitive to crowning on the road and to tire pressures. The conditions of both of these can make it appear that there is an alignment problem.

 

[opus]

Welcome to the wonderful world of negative rear camber. Great for handling, horrible for tire life. I went through the original Toyos in 16,000. It really chews them up when the vehicle is loaded, as on long trips. You can get adjustable control arms installed for roughly 300 to 500, and if you plan on keeping the vehicle for a while, it would be worth it since you would probably double the life of your tires.

 

[bulwnkl]

Welcome to the wonderful world of rear toe-in, combined with camber other than zero. It's the toe, not the camber, that eats the tires. The 2 combined make it worse (and more obvious), though.

I zeroed the rear toe on ours a few thousand miles ago, just when we replaced the junky OEM tires. The new ones haven't been on long enough to make a sure judgement, but so far they exhibit no signs of uneven wear.