I’ve recently been having problems with the ride on my new mx5 and found out that it was sold to me with potenza 040s on the left side and 050s on the right side. Having changed them so the 050 are on the front and 040 on the back the ride still hasn’t improved. I think this may be because of the difference in wear from 1 of each of the pairs being on the rear axle.
I’ve noticed that the pilot sport 3 are very highly rated on tyrereviews on the mx5. Just wondering if anyone uses them.
Sounds a strange combination, I wonder if the 2 nearside were damaged?
040 are still current I think but are an older design.
The originals would have been the 050A (the A is important as A are assymetric wheras non-A are directional) in 205 45 17 84W.
I’d check them all carefully as you may have a mix of designs and load ratings. Have a look too in the oval date panel for week and year of manufacture which may give a clue.
Whatever, none of these brands are cheap, and you want a decent result, so be sure to get the correct spec for the car be they Michelin Bridgestone or Conti. I think Yoko also do the right one too, but it isn’t a very common size and you may need to order them in.
Hi, You’re welcome, we went through it last year, it’s a minefield and they’re not cheap. I suspect many less-than-optimum replacements are put on for reason of what’s available at the time, so it’s definitely worth bottoming the issue now.
AFAIK, 040 is directional and I don’t think there is an 040A,
050 is directional. 050A is assymetric but not directional.
So yes as you say, it would not be so good to have directional 040 on one side and assymetric 050A on the other.
There will be other markings to confirm; the 050A will have “outside” on (hopefully!!) the outside and no direction arrow. The 040 should have direction arrow. The date oval seems usually to be just on one side - the outside - so be careful if you can’t find it…
In fact thinking further, if you’ve switched sides for one of the 040 without turning it on the rim then one will be going backwards, or if is is now ok, it was going backwards before.
the 040s are instead directional and the 050 are indeed 050A. I checked direction of tyres and they’re all facing the correct ways and both sets are the same type. 205/45/r17 84w (remembered that of top of my head, so I hope thats correct)
050A are on the front with OUTSIDE written on the side of each one and the 040 on the back with the arrow facing forward. Well I paid to get the car serviced about a month back to fix a knocking roof and the steering issue and they found nothing and wanted to charge me £95 to fix the roof as it’s supposidly not covered by warranty and this was at a mazda servicing garage. My dad got onto Mazda themselves and the mazda technical department have contacted the closest mazda garaged and today left a message on our phone saying that the mzda garage will be RECTIFYING the issues with the steering and the roof. So it sounds like I may of hit some luck seeing as I’ve dealt with these issues for a good 5 months now.
If tyres and alloys weren’t expensive then I’d buy an identical set to see if it really is the odd tyres causing this but at £120-140 a pop, it’s not a cheap thing to replace.
I’ve done 13k miles now and have about 4-4.5mm tread left.
Well, the original post was enquiring about a new set of Mich’s and told of mixed Potenzas and a ride issue, so checking/moving the existing tyres first is free and sensible. It may yet be worthwhile trying the 040’s on the front and 050A’s on the rear. Also check for mis-shape and balance.
I can see what Jon is getting at thinking there may be a bigger underlying issue but this is quite a new car and it’s surprising what a difference tyres and alignment make to the Mk3. You don’t need to be a genius to know something’s not right. I’m proof of that(!) as despite being new to it ours was obviously a bad and dramatic handful when we got it but was easily sorted with tyres and alignment.
Rich, it might just be me being a bit autistic and taking him too literally… I understand how tyre brands, directions, tracking, etc affect the handling of a car (how it corners, tracks, turns in, etc), but I fail to see how it can have any significant affect on ride (comfort, bump absorption, etc), unless they are much lower profile to standard, or run-flats, or van tyres.
If the ride is significantly worse than other examples of the same model, and the OP really means ride, then there’s something properly up.
Fair enough Jon but “ride” is just a loose term without specifics. What we might define as ride/comfort/handling can cross over a great deal as they did on ours when we were fighting the car all the time and it was noisy, tramlining, hopping and skipping around. The mixed types mentioned suggested there may be a problem there before shelling out for new ones or garage work.
Without labouring it, Ewar said 050 originally but that alone can mean directional, assymetric, or RFT, and they might be 84 or 88 load rating. Then mix them in with the directional 040 which might also be RFT, 84 or 88, and fitted for wrong directional rotation, and we start to see what can be checked easily if you know what to look for.
Just a thought - I found that on my 1.8 mk3 summer tyres ( originally Yoko Advans now Goodyear GSD3) give the car a skittish feel as he weather gets colder (mid-October onwards) until about the end of March, even when the alignment is good. Switching to softer Winter rubber akes a big difference.
Give the date of your post, is it possible that that is what you are experiencing?
I can confirm that the actual issue I am having is uneven steering. Steering to the right is considerably looser than steering to the right.
A way to describe it is:
when I steer to the right I feel attached to the road and gripped.
When I steer to the left I feel un-attached and slippy.
The ride on the car is fine, baring in mind the fact I have summer tyres on during the winter. The ride is stiff but that is mostly because of cold tyres and the stiff sport tech suspension which is OEM installed in the sport model. The car does tramline and the steering can jolt when going over small bumps but again, I would imagine that is due to summer tyres in cold times.
The cold does affect the drive, when it is a little warmer(has been about 10-14c the past few days) I feel more grip but steering is still well uneven.
I may go to a showroom and test drive a new model with a matched tyres and see the difference.
Can anyone confirm what their Potenzas are like in the winter?
The 050A’s are fine in the winter and the wet and well within normal expectations. Yes I’ve noticed suspension seems stiffer in the winter on this and other cars. Maybe it’s the oil in the shock absorbers and the tyre rubber etc. Last summer I was actually thinking ours (which has Bilsteins and Mazda blue springs) felt soft. Recent trips though have found it feeling firm again.
You now have similar tyres on each side so within reason what you’re feeling doesn’t sound like tyres. I’d take it to a good 4 wheel alignment centre and get them to inspect for damage and check and adjust it. That will be typically £60 to £100. It may fix it - end of - or improve it to the point where you feel a new set of matched tyres is the next worthwhile step.
Just had a call from the local Mazda and the car is booked in for Tuesday and pick up on Wednesday.
Its the same place I got it serviced and they didnt find anything last time. Maybe I’ll get more in depth checks this time?
A local place about 20 minutes away does wheel allignment checks for free and if there are any problems then they charge. If mazda find nothing then I will get it checked at the specialists.
Any idea on good sets of winter tyres? If it really is due to the cold weather then shelling out for a set of tyres that will be used for 5 or so months a year will most likely be the fix.
Re-reading your earlier post about your local specialist - have a look at this web site ( www.alignmycar.co.uk ) and see if your local is on the list or has the right kit - the reason I say this is that you need a 4 wheel alignment not just the old front-wheel tracking (just in case you hadn’t already twigged!) My local does a check for £10 if nothing needs changing, or quotes for the work if it does. The most I have paid is £50, for two corners to be adjusted. It goes up on a hoist with some sort of device attached to each wheel, and lots of flashing lights - all very star trek but it seems to work! They are Jefferies in Bromsgrove, if you are located in that part of the world.
But it is a good idea to see your dealer first, assuming you have a warranty, just in case there’s a bit more to it than just alignment.
While the temperature can affect the level of grip you get from a tyre it wont affect your ride.
This is the construction of your average tyre
This is the sidewall
There is very little compressive strength and it takes no effort to squash them and I could put this in the freezer and it would make no difference. If you get a puncture your tyre will still be totally flat. Flex in the sidewall is what creates heat in the tyre, which is why you pump the tyre up for high speed or load to stop sidewall flex and heat build up. In the cold weather air pressures drop in the tyre, sidewall flex increases and it is sort of self balancing. Even extra load tyres don’t have a great deal of strength in compression, they tend to have an extra layer of reinforcing as the rubber its self has very little strength. Put a rope in tension it has strength, push it together and it just folds. Put two ropes in tension, you have double the strength, push then together, they still fold just as easily.
Directional tyres have tread patterns designed to clear water from under the tyre when rotating in a certain direction, however if they are a symmetrical pattern like the RE40, when it is dry there is no detriment to which way they run. On track we even have virtually no difference in lap times either way around. The general principal of asymmetric tyres is that during cornering the tyre contact patch changes and becomes focused on the outer edge. The outer edge therefore has a more grip orientated tread pattern than the center and inner edge which has more water clearance. So it can be expected that there would be a difference in performance if you run an asymmetric tyre backward, however it won’t make a huge amount of differences in road driving.
I believe in this instance, the differing pairs were on the same side of the car. Since they have been changed to the same axles and so now the tyres are in the correct orientation and the left, right steering thing can not be put down to this, it suggests that one of the directional RE40’s originally came from the other side of the car, or potentially that have been bought from a third party to fit to this car to replace damaged wheels as has been suggested in this thread.
If the the car has suffered an impact that has broken wheels, and fitting two differing pairs of tyres to different sides of the car seems a pretty amateur thing to do, so certainly would support this idea, then I would strongly suspect that the wheel alignment on one side of the car is at least highly suspect.
Unless you are going to the Mazda dealer under warranty, I would bypass and go straight to the specialist, especially as the dealer did not pick up that the tyres were on the wrong way round, or that they put them on that way.
Thanks for all that information. On each pair, the 050s and 040s, 1 of them each came from the back of the car.
This means that in theory they would’ve burned through tread quicker than being on the front due to it being a RWD car. So essentially this means that 1 tyre on each axle may/will have less tread than the other on the same axle.
One thing that I have failed to say is that the car has been in an accident, not a big pile up but it was reversed into on the back driver side corner behind rear wheel. It was with enough force to collapse the corner of the bumper. The car has been repaired and bumper replaced, now I think about it, could this of been the cause the whole time…
I am visiting the mazda dealer under warranty so there is no charge other than them having my car for 1 night and day.
I would get an independent 4 wheel alignment check on a Hunter or similar machine. This will give you a print out of existing settings. The front has adjustment for caster, camber, and toe. The rear has camber and toe and could well be crabbed.
Do not take any bs from the dealer. They should have declared this to you. If the car is damaged get it repaired replaced or refunded.
