Speed3 uneven tire wear

[bj21]

I have a 2011 Speed3 and I am burning through tires like crazy.....crazy bad tire wear on very inside edge of both front tires (worse in drivers side). Car is bone stock - no suspension mods, OEM rims. Burned through the OEM Dunlops right to the belts in the last 6 months (about 15k of highway driving).

Just put new Michelin pilot super sports on - and have been twice to Altech for alignment and they claim that alignment is well within Mazda specs and that it's the Dunlops that are defective. The wear on the tires is so rapid and so concentrated on the inside edge of the tire that it makes me think its not the tires - its gotta be my car that is causing this...

Other than finding another alignment shop and getting another opinion....anyone got any ideas what's going on here?? AFAIK I haven't hit anything - no major potholes etc etc in the last year....car drives perfect. Just in the last year I am eating tires with no end in sight. Think I am gonna try Level Auto in Scarborough and get them to take a look at the alignment....and bring them a tire to show them what's going on.

Anybody have a similar experience? Any guesses?

[loki]

possibly rubbing the suspension?


upload some pics if you can, also get another shop's opinion

[loki]

Also if you're having this crazy issue, I would try and pull of the PSS tires as you don't want to ruin those in the meantime

[Mr Wilson]

breakfasteatre boyracer

Didn't you two have similar issues?

Pu problems.

[bj21]

just put the new PSS's on the front last night....it was unsafe to drive the Dunlops any more....I was on the belts

taking it to Budds tomorrow - they do a free alignment check and I figure that if its not the alignment - then they would probably be the best at troubleshooting the problem if its an issue specific to the Speed3 or Mazdas.

I will post a pic of the tire wear - I kept one of the tires just in case the alignment shop or dealer wants to see it

[breakfasteatre]

What's he going to do, but another set of tires in the meantime?

I had very similar issue. Two common things:

1. Extreme inside wear. To the god damned chords. Stock Dunlop's. This happened in only a couple months
2. This was after an alignment at altech.


I went to ksl automotive in Scarborough and had them do an alignment and so far so good.

[bj21]

so when I went to Altech in July - I had this issue as I had just burned thru the first 2 Dunlops. They did alignment, gave me spec sheet and told me that the alignment really wasn't bad at all but they did minor adjustment to bring it within Mazda specs. Moved the 2 Dunlops from the rear to the front (they had even wear on them and lots of tread) and in 7K I was down to the belts again. Took it back to Altech and they put it on the machine and said the alignment is perfect....just blamed it on bad tires.

No way that the tires would wear that fast unless alignment is out or there is something drastically wrong with the car...and you would think that would be apparent when its on the alignment machine

[optiklenz13]

Looks like Altech is the issue..

[bj21]

Looks like Altech is the issue..

yeah - logic would suggest that's the case but I am hoping that I am wrong...Pat seems like a stand up guy and I know they do alignments on a lot of Mazda 3's...that's why I went there in the first place

[Flagrum_3]

yeah - logic would suggest that's the case but I am hoping that I am wrong...Pat seems like a stand up guy and I know they do alignments on a lot of Mazda 3's...that's why I went there in the first place

I wouldn't be too fast at blaming Altech (completely). The alignment could have been dead-on and there still be other issues. Did they give you a final spec sheet to check?

You could possibly have an issue with them for not checking other possible causes, such as ball Joints or control arm bushings, even possibly struts. A bad ball joint for instance could wear the inside corner of a tire in no time, the tale-tale sign is a indent running on the inside tread/sidewall.

I'd suggest having all suspension components checked thoroughly

_3

[loki]

similar I wonder?!

http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?77587-Uneven-wear-inner-tires&p=1234008#post1234008

[Kamikazee]

similar I wonder?!

http://www.torontomazda3.ca/forum/showthread.php?77587-Uneven-wear-inner-tires&p=1234008#post1234008

i think its similar, went to scamboro mazda this morning to check whats wrong and they told me that my front outer tie rods are loose ($200+ each if im not mistaken) or alignment is off ($120) crazy prices! left dealership ended up @ level auto for alignment lets see if this will fix it. if not maybe tie rods then? or something else?

[miako]

I burn through my set of dunlops real quick after dropping the car on springs. I dont know man something tells me you need a second opinion on alignment, it a shame to burn thru the pss i would get it looked after asap if i were you.

Oh..and stay the fock away from altech, heard 3 individual cases on messed up tires after alignments. Maybe too much coincidence? To an average guy like myself, 3 times is enough.

[Cab0oze]

I had this issue on my 08 speed3. Do you have the same issue on your winter tires? I do not. Burn tHru summers, winters are like new. I bought extreme contact DW this summer and I haven't checked lately but I think they are doing fine. Their downside is they are soft as he'll on the track. My theory is that this issue is due to a combo of our aggressive stock alignment with tires with excessively stiff sidewalls.
Zero'ing your front toe should help too. That's what I did but I also only drive on the highway.

My theory is that it is related to toe in +

[captobvious75]

I had the same issue. Switched to the extremecontact dw tires and 2 alignments later my car is finally wearing evenly.

Hope you find out what's wrong soon. Can be an expensive problem.

[5_Alive]

Common issue.
I had it happen on my 07 and my 12.

These cars are shit.

[Pacman]

I had 45k on my car when the Dunlop went, and I had 2 season of snows car is 3 yrs now.

[zoomzoomtech]

fyi the factory alignment settings on all of the mazda 3s is a more aggressive set up to provide the cars with a better feel and driver connection. zoom zoom.. and the speed 3s are set up even more aggressively point in case its a performance rendering of a already sporty car, your tires will wear out regardless of the brand and driving habits, also factory tires are junk just a cheap tire to cut costs... all in all if you want to have super long lasting tires buy a vehicle that's designed with fuel economy and no sportiness in mind, other wise next time you get an alignment ask them to set it up to true zero, not factory settings... your car will not feel sporty after though...

[captobvious75]

I find the Dunlops were more to blame.

[bj21]

So took the car to Level Auto and the alignment is fine...they said it must be a tire defect as the area of the tire that is separating (belts exposed) is not even in contact with the road...only thing to do is monitor the wear on the new PSSs but it looks to be a tire issue. So it appears as though Altech was correct in their opinion

will post up a pic later on.

[breakfasteatre]

http://i.imgur.com/kEWCYe2.jpg

they were pretty much dead, almost at the wear bars but this was just retarded. all 4 corners extremely worn, and the fronts were worn through the belts!!!

[bj21]

breakfast - that's exactly what I had....except I still had a lot more tread on the tires....but that same split with the exposed belts.

[DominicMS3]

my rear tires are pretty much bald on the inside, I changed my blown shocks the same day I noticed them, im wondering if driving with blown shocks for awhile could have caused this?

[loki]

my rear tires are pretty much bald on the inside, I changed my blown shocks the same day I noticed them, im wondering if driving with blown shocks for awhile could have caused this?

Excessive negative camber would cause that