And luckily the specialist I spoke about has a Hunter!
Will go this weekend and see what they can find.
Will still be going to the dealer though as I have an issue with my hardtop which they are due to fix.
I had the wheels laser aligned today using a hunter.
Here are the results, can you let me know if they’re alright? Steering feels a bit better, I think I need new tyres now as since 1 tyre from each side has been switched it means that there is uneven tread that will never be even.
BEFORE
AFTER
Well I think you have the answer as to why it steered differently left to right.
I would still say you have a about a mm too much rear toe, but at least it is even.
Not that I know much about alignment but have they adjusted anything but the front and rear toe in? Why have they left such uneven camber on the rear? The site of the accident is easy to spot.
It is only 24 minutes, one third on one degree, it is not that much, you will get that in tightening a bolt.
Feels no different, at all and I’m getting fed up now.
Constantly spending cash that’s making no difference and it’s making me quite close to selling the thing now and buying something else.
Does anyone have the actual mazda specifications at all so I can go back and make sure they did the job properly.
And the greyed out boxes I was told are unadjustable. How the hell can my camber be unadjustable, I feel like I’ve been ripped off here.
Get yourself to Brands on Wednesday, we will take a look.
I can’t get to brands anymore due to work reasons and I was generally putting it off until Summer as there’d me less chance of rain.
Hi Ewar,
Your cash was well spent. The rear tracking was within total tolerance but was set more on one wheel than the other. This would have given some rear wheel steering causing the rear end to travel nearer the gutter on a different line to the front (“crabbed” travelling slightly sideways) and would quite likely have steered differently one way to the other.
Ours has been done 3 times and one of the print outs is like yours; the grey boxes are within tolerance both sides and did not need adjustment. I also have a settings print out for all the tolerances for 5 ride heights and have checked yours which are well within and nicely matched side to side.
You’ll see changing the right rear toe has also brought the rear camber into better adjustment; the LR camber changed just 3’ whilst the RR which had too much toe in is now 9’ better matched. As Nick says the remaining difference on rear camber of 24’ is barely 1/3 of a degree. Consider that the tolerance for camber is +/-1 full degree.
Perhaps explain this poor rear toe alignment to your dealer and if it is under warranty ask them to refund the cost or knock it off your next service.
The tyres have been running in different positions and will have worn to them. If you like the car otherwise (summer is coming 
) I would try and relax with it a bit. Check it runs in a straight line on a flat road (most have cambers) and put some miles into those tyres to let them run-in to their new positions. Have some fun and get used to the handling. Then if you think you’ll keep it treat it to a new set of matched rubber 
and have the alignment checked again in 2k miles.
You were in the UK last year weren’t you? 
Thanks for that Rich.
Thing is, I can’t enjoy driving it. It feels so crap to drive that I don’t enjoy it and spend all my journeys I do thinking about it. I was going round a 45 degree corner last night barely going 10-15mph and my back end slipped out a little. No pot holes, no ice, not even wet on the road at all. The only ever does this when I turn right, I could’ve probably done that corner @ 20mph+ going left and the 5 would’ve gripped like a champ, like it’s meant to.
Why did they leave the left camber so far away from the right though?
It’s not nearly as far as it looks. Those printouts are deliberately scaled so that a very tiny difference looks huge. Helps them when they try to persuade you to get a small problem corrected.
If it’s within the tolerance band, it’s as near as damnit spot on.
As Jon says, just numbers Ewar. Did they check for other damage? Have you checked pressures recently? Shame Nick couldn’t drive it to check it out and reassure you if all is well but I would have some fun on those tyres and see if it improves 
Here’s ours followed by the settings with tolerances. They take a minute or two to digest, remember toe may be quoted per side or total. The tolerance is expressed in different ways but they all agree that I can see.
Ours went in with out-of-spec negative front toe and max rear toe. It’s also running a fair bit of neggy camber at the front. It felt like it too, it had scrubbed the inside front tyre edges and was very lively! He only made a couple of adjustments, one thing affects the others so they just change what’s needed.
Your spec sheet is quite a bit different to mine…!
I’ve done 14k miles now and am really thinking about getting new tyres but I’m lost on what to get. My current choices are:
-Continental sport contact 5
-Bridgestone Potenza 050A (again)
-Michelin Pilot Sport 3
I’m debating the bridgestone again because I know they’re great tyres as many people have them and they’re put on new 5s when built. The continetals are known for bad tread wearing and wear out quick and I’m debating the michelin PS3 as the PS2 are discontinued now.
Any help mucho appreciated.
Well, any of them should be good and they all cost about the same. So far you’ve not had the car on a matched set of tyres so any of them should be better.
The safe bet is the 050As as they’re OE and known to work. The others might be better or worse but you’ll never know anyway if you don’t try it original first.
Ewar,
Give me a call, we will try and sort this odd handling out for you.
I am just about to fit Michelin Sport tyres to my Mk3 the current tyres are the originals having done 25,000 miles so I will let you know the performance.
Interestingly these are the only Michelin’s available for the MX5
Holy thread revival