The wife and I had a baby nearly 3 months ago, and the wife promptly stole my Accord estate so I’m driving the 5. I didn’t drive it very often before and now it’s doing more mileage I’ve been keeping an eye on the tyres. The front ones were wearing on the outside so took it to have the alignment checked and when it was up on the ramp it was obvious that the inners were wearing aswell and the alignment was fine but only against the standard Mazda settings. I checked the pressures and if anything they were slightly too high so the opposite of what I’d expect. I have noticed tho that at parking speeds when approaching full lock the front wheels seem to scrabble and scrubbing so I’m thinking that might be the cause of the wear. Is it likely to be a ‘characteristic’ of the car or is something wrong.
The car is a standard NC 2.0 sport hardtop if it makes any difference. I don’t mind if the answer is to lower it slightly now that I’m driving (and enjoying) it more it’ll be a good excuse for a set of eibachs.
I’m in Bridgend in South Wales and work in Swansea so somewhere close to there would be ideal if anyone knows somewhere. It seems to drive well otherwise, but I havnt got anything to compare it to just big saloons, so it could be way out for all I know.
The scrubbing you describe can be a characteristic of a car with an LSD, although not sure if it’s supposed to happen with the mx5 standard lsd, as the wheel on the outside of the turning circle turns more than the wheel on the inside.
Happens to me too even with a proper alignment done, just assumed that was the cause.
I’m not sure what the pressures were, but don’t think they were run under pressure, but the LSD suggestion sounds like it could be part of the problem. The last couple of weeks I’ve been trying not to use full lock and it doesn’t seem to scrubb. The back tyres are starting to get a bit low so I may change them some time after Xmas and then keep an eye on things.
Anyone got any recommendations for tyres? It had cheap chinese ones on when we bought it and we quickly changed them to bridgestone potenzas on the basis of thats what Mazda put on from new, but I’m open to suggestions. I don’t necessarily what cheap tyres, but don’t want to go over the top either, so probably about the £100 a tyre range.
I’ve replaced all four tyres about six months ago from Nankank NS2’s which stuck to the road like the proverbial! Issue was quite noisy given they are super sport rated and they wore relativEly quickly. Swapped over to Dunlop MAXX, super touring rated, much quieter and very good wear. Road holding is not quite NS2 but still very good in the dry and better in the wet. Cost was less than £100 a corner. There’s a lot of posts here regarding suitable tyres and a few experts. Good like finding the right ones for you.
Bridgestones go hard after a while and grip falls off big time, a lot of us use Kumhos which will set you back about £275 for four fitted, great wet tyre, sticky enough and worth every penny.
I’ll have a look after all the Xmas stuff is out of the way. What model Kumhos do you guys recommend?
I’m quite enjoying driving it, its a bit of a change from my Accord, which I used for work the other day, and whilst lovely on the motorway felt really heavy on bends. The most I’ve used the 5 for before this has just been 2 or 3 days in a row so never really enough time to get used to it. I like it enought that I treated it to a set of footwell lights which are on their way so I fit them over Xmas. Couldn’t quite justify the illuminated gear knob tho.
The lsd in itself won’t affect the front wheels, but If both rear wheels are moving at a similar speed rather than the inside wheel moving slower, it has the effect of trying to push the car straight rather than allowing it to turn freely. This causes scrubbing by the front wheels as they’re being pushed straight at low speed and full lock.