Smoothing out my Mazda 3
My dad bought this 2010 Mazda 3 new. It had tire noise from day one. The rear tires would develop cupping in just a few thousand miles. He had to rotate them often but that just helped mask the problem and never solved it. He went through several sets of tires of various quality brands and all had the cupping issue on the rear.
When I took over the car at 95,000 miles the first thing I did was ditch the stock steel wheels for a set of Enkei Compe wheels. I installed a set of Hankook tires in the stock size at the same time. I even reused the original TPMS sensor even thought they have to be getting near the end of the battery life.
I now have 15000 miles on these tires and so far there is no cupping whatsoever. I have rotated and balanced them every 5000 miles but the wear front to back is completely even.
Dad rode with me this weekend and he said the road noise is less than when it was new. He was amazed I was able to get rid of it.
We suppose that it must be the wheels since nothing else really changed. I am still running the original shocks and springs. I have not made any changes other than the wheels and tires.
