Winter tires on and get excessive camber? rust on rotors?

[KL3]

Hi all,
Two things, my camber on the rear wheels and rust on the rotors.
I had winter tires installed at beginning of November and I noticed that there was some obvious camber on my rear wheels. I didn’t really notice if there was camber with the all seasons on (not sure actually). Both rear wheels seem to be symmetrically cambered. The front wheels seem to be okay from what I can tell.

Is this natural camber? After looking at my friend’s, gf’s 3’s, and other 3’s on the road I’m trying to convince myself that it’s normal (does look similar if not the same). For some reason I just noticed more with the winter tires on. The pictures directly behind the car make it look somewhat extreme, but my friend saw it the other day and said its actually not that bad (also looking the angled pictures)
Some pictures below.


Right Rear Wheel



Left Rear Wheel





Second thing, I also noticed some rust on in the middle of the centre piece of the rotor (?). Over the past 3 weeks the rust seems to be getting worse, what are my next steps? Are there centre caps or something I can cover them with? Or buy hub caps for the whole wheel? From what I read there is suppose to be rust and that it's normal, but it seems to be a lot of rust developing from when I first put my winters on to now. Just wanted to make sure.
Right Rear – beginning of November



Right Rear – Today


Front Left – Today

[Cab0oze]

1) That camber looks excessive, get your alignment checked
2) Those things (your wheel hub) are gonna rust no matter what you do... i mean unless you like paint them or sandblast them and spray them with rustproofing compound regularily....If you cant stand it, your best bet is to get alloys with a center cap.

[KL3]

The car is still fairly new. Just reached over 9000 km, I wouldn't expect the alignment to be off already. I guess I'll could call the dealer and check.
Thanks.

[Cab0oze]

The car is still fairly new. Just reached over 9000 km, I wouldn't expect the alignment to be off already. I guess I'll could call the dealer and check.
Thanks.

These cars do have more negative camber than some cars (helps for cornering), but that left rear picture looks ridiculous. Maybe you hit something...? Get it checked ASAP, if its as bad as it looks it will wear the inner shoulder of the tire like crazy

[KL3]

Yeah, its the angle of the pic for some reason that makes it look more extreme. Looking at the pictures of the car on an angle, the camber looks more symmetrical.
Both tires seem to be symmetrical than the pictures may suggest. Yeah, I'm concerned about the tire wear. More hassle when rotating because I'll need to remount and all, if I don't need to buy new winters. :/


I'll inquire

[aris]

1) That camber looks excessive, get your alignment checked
2) Those things (your wheel hub) are gonna rust no matter what you do... i mean unless you like paint them or sandblast them and spray them with rustproofing compound regularily....If you cant stand it, your best bet is to get alloys with a center cap.

What would getting an aligment help? The factory camber is non adjustable... He would have to install adjustable camber kits then go for an aligment

[babyblue3]

I noticed a little bit of that with my winters too, but maybe not as much.

[Cab0oze]

What would getting an aligment help? The factory camber is non adjustable... He would have to install adjustable camber kits then go for an aligment

wow thats news to me, i thought there was a small degree of adjustability... good to know =S

-but still, an alignment would tell you if its out of spec... although I guess that could be done at a dealership

[Hyperion]

What would getting an aligment help? The factory camber is non adjustable... He would have to install adjustable camber kits then go for an aligment

wow thats news to me, i thought there was a small degree of adjustability... good to know =S

-but still, an alignment would tell you if its out of spec... although I guess that could be done at a dealership

It's minorly adjustable, go for the alignment.

And for the rust, it's just how the cookie crumbles.

[aris]

It's minorly adjustable, go for the alignment.

And for the rust, it's just how the cookie crumbles.

The 2010 and up must be different cause mine are not adjustable from factory

[gotak]

For the rust you can try some of the rust reformer stuff. Suppose to form a layer to protect but I am not sure how it would work in this applications. Personally I just leave the rust as it you can't win the long run.

[wmzda5]

The camber looks normal for a Mazda I have a Mazda 5 with camber link installed and set within factory specs after lowered by 2in. And still looks much worse than this.

[wmzda5]

For the rust try spraying with wd40 for the meantime, its too cold t paint it now. When it gets warm you can paint it wit rust paint.

[Zuluwun]

The 2010 and up must be different cause mine are not adjustable from factory

2007 here and mine was adjusted, so to speak, after I got springs installed. All I know is when I went in for the alignment, my camber was out of spec and after the alignment, it was (just) within spec.

So, like Hyp said, there is some adjustability one way or another.

[Tokic_o]

The camber actually looks normal especially from thr second set ofnpi s you posted. Maybe you think it looks different because the design if the tires are different so it looks more cambered? Ie. softer compound n rounder sidewalls?

You better put some of that copper paste a lot of shops hv around that hub ring orelse after winter your steelies will mever come off (personal experience 1st winter when i used steelies)

[kilo4321]

What would getting an aligment help? The factory camber is non adjustable... He would have to install adjustable camber kits then go for an aligment

+1

IIRC rear camber is non adjustable, atleast for 2010+. Unsure about genwan, never owned.

[Hives]

Get an alignment. Dont worry about the rust.

[sarujo]

The OP should just go back to the dealer where he bought it and ask for the alignment to be checked. Free adjustments are available for the first 20,000km. These cars come in on trains and trucks chained down and alignments can easily go out of spec from the factory.

[wmzda5]

They simply adjust the position of the bolt when tightening.