Wheel Problems of Mazda MAZDA3 - part 1

January 10, 2025, at low city speed, I struck a small pothole. The entire car felt like it had been in an accident—a violent jolt—followed by immediate vibration and a pull. Inspection showed one oem 18" rim was bent. I contacted Mazda after diagnosing and was offered a slight discount on the replacement rim, not a warranty repair or full diagnosis. I have the bent rim in my possession. July 2025, at low speed, I barely contacted another small pothole and immediately felt the same drivability issues. A second rim was found damaged. This was only 4,500 miles after the first incident. I called the dealership manager; he said he would get back to me but never did. I later sent a letter that went unanswered. My subsequent research shows innumerable similar owner complaints for 2020–2025 Mazda 3s experiencing rim deformation from ordinary road irregularities. Why this is a safety issue (technical points): bead-seat deformation & air loss: a bent alloy rim can distort the bead seat, causing slow leaks or sudden deflation, especially after heat cycles—creating a loss-of-control risk. Dynamic instability: a rim that’s even slightly out-of-round produces high-frequency vibration, steering pull, and reduced traction in turns or under braking; it can trigger abs/esc interventions and increase stopping distance. Load path & suspension stress: the 18" low-profile package leaves little sidewall cushion. On normal bumps/potholes, impact energy transfers directly to the wheel. Repeated “bottom-out” events may damage shocks/struts, alignment, and tires, compounding instability. Repeatability & foreseeability: two events under ordinary use within a short interval indicate a systemic integrity problem, not random abuse. Requested resolution: a no-cost remedy: (1) replace all rims/tires with more durable parts and inspect/repair suspension; or (2) provide comprehensive wheel/tire protection and repair damaged rim; or (3) exchange he vehicle for a comparable model with no issue.

The tpms light goes off when traveling over 50 mph, indicating low air pressure on one or more tires. I pulled over, assuming I had a flat; upon visual inspection, everything looked normal. I drove to the nearest air station, checked all four tires, had the proper psi, and reset the tpms; the light turned off. Then, 10 minutes into the drive, the tpms light turned on again. I verified again that all tires had the recommended air pressure.

See all problems of the 2018 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Abs module malfunction all four wheel speed sensor not read in the same time and powersteering cut off cause by unready wheel speed check engine light abs light and steering light on.

See all problems of the 2010 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

For the past 7 months (since July 2023) the passenger rear tire keeps loosing air pressure about every two weeks requiring more air. It always drops to 10 points below the other tires. The tires have been rotated twice so it is not a problem with the tire. I believe there is a recall for the same or similar issue on Mazda 3s just not including my VIN#. I brought my car to good year a few times unable to stop this from happening.

See all problems of the 2021 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

This new car has less than 8000 miles on it and suddenly 3 of 4 bridgestone tires turanza el440 215/45r18 89 have sidewall bubbles. Interesting that there are a ton of issues w sidewall bridgestone tires on line yet the dealership keeps claiming the car must have been run over a median? without any damage anywhere on the car? come on. . It is clearly a manufacturer defect. They have history with sidewall bubbling. Consumers getting shafted at best and maimed at worst. Do something please!.

I can be turning left from a full stop and a few times almost went up onto the median seperating traffic. The car doesn't keep straight in it's own lane unless I put a lot of pressure with both hands on steering wheel and that doesn't always keep it straight, it veers left and right going down the road. Tire pressure light keeps coming on. When backing up hear like a grinding sound in passenger front tire. I bought this used at a Ford car dealership in June 2021. Thats all I can think of right now. This has happened more than once no just one time.

See all problems of the 2012 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

As the original owner, I have now experienced (4) faulty/broken/corroded valve stem as part (attached to the tpms-tire pressure monitor system). This happened over the course of 12 years. I do believe all of them were oem parts. All of them broke when attempting to air up the tire. It is a safety issue because once broke, you can no longer put air into the tire. The first occurrence was while still under warranty and I had to argue with the Mazda dealer to replace it . The dealership gave me some sort of unofficial receipt which I actually kept, found, and attached to this complaint form. During my second set of tires, sams club graciously replaced 2 more as part of their tire warranty package (I dont think they documented this on their receipts). Now, what I believe to be the final oem stem left has broke. Unfortunately, I have a third set of tires through costco and they wont replace without a fee. This should be a safety recall absolutely no doubt in my experience!.

I recently purchased this vehicle used with salvage title on February 6, 2021. I took it to be inspected and I needed both belts replaced, they had to tighten back down my struts in front, my power steering was acting funny and making noise and my intermediate speed shaft sensor is going bad because the check engine light keeps coming back on for the same code. There was damage to the vehicle but they didn't tell me that it was serious damage. When driving barely turning the wheel the car makes a whining noise, the vehicle still sways a little to the left and right but the alignment was just done yesterday. Before I was able to pay for the alignment etc new tires and mount and balance my car and steering wheel were both shaking really badly and jerking all over the place.

See all problems of the 2007 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

It has happened twice in 6 years and 5 months. Road hazard like a torn wheel from other car or divider on road. If when driving it goes over it during night time the computer within the Mazda 3 triggers automatic deflation of the car tires.

See all problems of the 2014 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

I have, had (2), two brand new set, of tires from firestone put on this car. I was also told only those two sets can only be put on this Mazda 3. The car keep bucking on every street and every road. Every day and evening.

See all problems of the 2006 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

I purchased a car over a year ago for my son from crystal auto mall in greenbrook, NJ, a Mazda 3,2018. The day after I got the car the tire pressure light came on. I took it in for service and they advised that nothing was wrong with the tire or rim. On the way home from that service visit the tire light came on again. My son commutes so the car is not used on a daily basis, if it sits more than 2 days the tire is completely flat. This has been a consistent issue from that time until now. I have taken the car in for service several times for this same issue and this dealership has been completely unresponsive and careless about my situation. They have not fixed the problem and have not attempted to remedy the situation. I am deeply concerned about the safety of my son and other drivers who could be potentially harmed because of neglect by this dealership and the defect and or issue with this tire. Your assistance is appreciated.

I had my 3rd flat tire in a parking lot, my husband came to change my tire, he used the breaker bar he used before (only way to get tire off) and 4 bearings broke, this led to me needing a whole new hub assembly and tire, I don't feel that a 2 year old car should need a new hub assembly especially because the tire replacement tools that come with the car do not work when trying to take the tire off my bill was over $600 and the car is only 2 years old.

See all problems of the 2017 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Tl the contact owns a 2012 Mazda 3. The contact stated that the rear camber was set at a negative angle, which made the rear tires wear out. The contact stated that only the inside of the rear tires made contact with the road and the design was set up for racing rather than normal driving. An unknown dealer stated that nothing could be done about the design. The manufacturer was called and the contact was supposed to call them back with the VIN. The failure mileage was 15,000. The VIN was unknown.

Mazda3 factory-installed tire inflation valve stems are prematurely failing resulting in an immediate tire deflation with no prior warning or indication of failure. Failures have occurred when the car was parked and when moving. There was no prior indication (I. E. No warning or slow loss of pressure) of a problem with the valve. Prior to this vehicle, I have never had a tire inflation valve stem fail in the 35+ years I have owned vehicles. However, this has happened three times to this specific vehicle (which we purchased in 2014) with the most recent occurrence happening today, 16 Jan 2019. A quick internet search revealed this is a wide-spread problem with Mazda 3 tire inflation valve stems. I've attached pictures of today's failure as well as an exemplar website printout of identical complaints by other Mazda owners. Given the unwarned and rapid failure of these valve stems, this is an immediate safety hazard due to the potential loss of control should the tire inflation valve stem fail at highway speeds, especially during adverse weather.

Abs, and traction control dash board lights are on. The abs relay is faulty, so the abs module needs to be replaced.

I wrote the following description of what happened to Mazda customer services: on the evening of December 4, 2018, I was on my way home from work. I was driving 75 mph, the posted speed limit for that stretch of texas highway. The surface of the road is brand new and driving conditions were ideal. At approximately 6:10 pm, about 10 miles from home, there was a loud thud and my car dropped and lurched toward the center line. I thought I had hit something huge, and expected to find significant damage to my car and a shredded tire. I managed to keep the car under control and avoid being hit, and with a sound of grating metal, moved over to the shoulder. To my surprise, there didn't seem to be any damage to the car. No other vehicles had to swerve around anything in the road. There was no debris in the road. I called a wrecker service to change the tire. He discovered that the front drivers side wheel was split in half, and said the wheel needed to go back to the dealership. Mazda customer service folks sounded sympathetic but took over a week and several calls to tow the car to a Mazda dealer. They inspected the car and determined that I had hit something, thus they would not cover any of the cost. There was no evidence of rock, wood, or animal in the tread - I remain convinced that the rim simply broke while I was driving. No metallurgist looked at the split rim, and the other three rims were only visually inspected. I paid $601 for a new wheel and tire but am concerned about potential accidents caused by metal wheel rims breaking. I have photos and the broken wheel rim and tire.

I have purchased multiple sets of new tires for this car because I am having the same issue that all the complaints say about the tires wearing on the inside walls. I have had a few professionals look to find what is causing this and none of them can find anything. I now experience shaking of my car while driving over 40 mph. My tire pressure light comes on and off whenever. Just in the past year I have purchased 6 new tires. I am afraid I will die in an accident if driving on the freeway. Please help!! my tire pressure light comes on, the car shakes, the inside of the front tires and back driver side wear down to the threads on the inside.

Was traveling at highway speeds on the bypass when the valve stem and tpms sensor broke off and immediately deflated the tire shaking the vehicle violently and almost causing driver to lose control. Have brought this complaint to Mazda in the past and they said they know that it is caused by using dissimilar metals on the tpms sensor causing erosion to the stem and ultimately the stem breaking off. This tpms sensor was already replaced on the vehicle at the tire change interval and still failed long before the vehicle was due for another set of tires. Mazda knows these are defective and refuses to do anything about it. I'd rather not have tpms and not know what my tire pressures are than to have that system endanger myself or my family any more. It is currently more dangerous to use these defective faulty tpms sensors than it is to not have them. That should tell you something. . .

I was driving on the highway when I had a complete loss of air pressure while traveling at approximately 60 to 65 mph nearly losing control my my vehicle. I was able to safely pull off the highway and examine my tire, and saw that my valve stem was completely missing from the front left wheel. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the wheel threads shows signs of corrosion which may have resulted in the tpms monitor and valve stem breaking off.

As I drove along a major route, I came to a stop light. When itturnedgreen, I proceeded to drive forward and felt car pulling to right side. As my speed increased to 25, the pull became stronger but, I proceeded slowly and remained under 30mph. After driving approximately 1 mile, I heard three tone alerts followed by low pressure warning light. Pulled over, called aaa who replaced flat tire. The sidewall was spidered pattern and blown. This morning, I noticed that another tire has that same spider pattern but is not blown out. I contacted dunlop to inquire if there any recall and was informed there was not. I was told these tires dunlop sp sport 5000 215/45r/18 89w have reinforced sidewalls that prevent blowouts and flats; I inquired if the grade of rubber could withstand the salt covered roads of new england because I had witnessed damage to rubber soles of baretrap boots with a similiar spider pattern a few winters ago caused from rock salt. I was told they are unaware that rock salt could be a cause of degrade in rubber . In addition, it had been raining heavily at times and according to Mazda, certain conditions will push/shift load to front of vehicle. Whether this added load caused the tire to blow and add spider pattern to tire still on vehilce but not flat (puctured beliw) or the manufacturer selected tires that can't carry the load, or the tires are defective.

I was driving around a turn going approximately 25-30 mph when I lost control of the car. It is believed that the tire suddenly lost air pressure and ran me off the road. I was left in the creek with my two and three year old. Two guys helped me get the kids and myself out the car safely. My car is now totaled due to the failure of the passenger side tire. Tire size was 205 55 16. There was no puncture holes on the tire so no reaason for the sudden loss of air.

See all problems of the 2008 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Tpms/valve stem assembly failed suddenly causing an immediate lost of air in the tire on 2-lane marked highway(posted speed limit 55mph).

One of the two electricals broke loose that's connected to the battery that starts the car. My car literally stalled out on me in the middle of an intersection. I was almost hit because of that. Another issue is my right back tire. One of the lug nuts won't come off and that is a safety issue. If something happens to my tire, I'm not going to be able to get a new tire to replace the old one. Another issue is the light on the ceiling of my car broke. The wires are exposed. My dashboard in my car is also melting.

Ran car into side fencing put up for construction in regards to dodging debris on i295 from construction work. My tire blew out from having to run into the guard rail and I had to put a donut tire on. I believe this incident is correlated to the construction work going on for months now and that I should be reimbursed a new tire and rim for my 2012 Mazda 3/.

Air bags and bad tires - I hydroplaned on an interstate and totaled my car and another vehicle. I lost control and hit the other vehicle with the front of my car and continued to go up a 30ft embankment. On the way back down I took out a very large metal light pole with the front of my car and the air bags never deployed. After inspection of my car my tires were bad. I just bought the car brand new in 7 months ago.

See all problems of the 2016 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Twice now, when I was alerted via my tpms that I had low tire pressure in one of my tires, I stopped at a service station to add air to my low pressure tire. As I applied the air hose to the valve stem, the valve stem (and the attached tpms sensor, disappeared into the wheel and tire and the tire went immediately flat. . I believe this to be the result of faulty design of the tpms assembly. The materials used in the collar and nut that secure the tpms assembly to the wheel is not appropriate for the environment (exposed to road salt, dirt, grime, brake dust, etc. ) in which the tpms assembly must function. The collar and nut corrode and eventually fail due to that exposure. Fortunately for me, I was stopped at the time of those failures; had I been traveling at highway speeds the complete failure (no air pressure remaining in tire) could have been catastrophic. The first assembly failed at approximately 36,500 miles and this most recent one failed at 61,800 miles. Both tpms assemblies were oem parts and were installed on the vehicle when we bought the car new from Mazda. I have seen many reports online describing similar failures. To the best of my knowledge, Mazda has not yet recognized or acknowledged this as a problem with the design and failure of their tpms assemblies. I would like them to acknowledge the problem and take action to address their faulty design, before someone gets hurt or dies from an accident resulting from another tpms assembly failure.

Purchase 4 continental extreme contact tires (pk15-46-1960: 205/55r-16) on 1/12/2015 . On Saturday 8/6/2016 around 5 pm the 2 tires on the passenger blew out at the side wall at the same time. Lucky my daughter was just pulling into a parking lot (witness say she didn't hit anything). No warning lights came on indicating a problem. Had to go to firestone for replacement tires. Replaced the ones on driver side for I didn't trust them. File a warranty issue and even call continental they to bad about the other 2 tires. I believe these tires have a defect for they have plenty of life left on them.

See all problems of the 2013 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

At 78,000 miles one of my valve stems failed while driving at 65 mph. When I inspected the other three wheels, based on a recommendation from shop, I found another stem with about 2/3 of the nut missing along the entire length of the stem shaft. See pictures. If the front wheel stem had failed rather than the back wheel stem I could have had serious control issues.

About a year ago, I had to replace my tires at just under 30,000 mi because the treads wore improperly. Fast forward a few months, my axle wore out and had to be replaced. However, the real problem comes when about 3 weeks ago, I was driving at about 75 miles an hour on a major highway, four lanes of traffic, and the engine starts jumping. The rpms go up and down, but the car won't accelerate. I get the car to the side of the road on pure momentum. The car then turns completely off with the key in the on position, but not lights come on. I remove the key, wait 5 minutes and the car turns back on. It died again a few min later so I have it towed to a mechanic, who can't find anything wrong. 5 min after leaving the mechanic's shop, my car starts jumping again; I barely made it back. The mechanic is at a loss and recommends the dealership since there are no codes. The dealer gets it and works with it for a few days and says that the mass air flow sensor (mafs) was clogged, which was turning off the car, and the bearings were also causing problems because they were worn out (from the axle being improperly installed). They replaced the bearings, cleaned the mafs, and reset the computer, under the warranty, and told me my car was ok. 2 days later, I'm driving on a major highway again and the car starts jumping again. I was able to barely make it out of traffic before the car died again. The car starts up again 5 min later and I take about 10 min to get to safety as this repeats. The dealer has my car for almost 3 wks, Mazda's field engineers get involved, they-checked the fuel components, the computer, filters etc, and then Mazda recommends checking the wiring harness. A clip had broken above the axle on the engine that allowed the wiring to wear out. They had to redo the wiring in a different way so it wouldn't wear--this seems like it has happen to others w/o resolution.

Valve stems on tires blow out with very little warning. It has happened three times on my vehicle, twice at highway speeds with my small child in the backseat. The sensor for low tire pressure goes on and within a minute the tire is completely ruined. And the most recent incident was with a tire only six months old and less than 10000 miles. There is not enough time to even pull over. This is very unsafe and scary.

2010 madza3 less than 40,000 miles. Went to have snow tires removed after winter season. All four tpms valves corroded and broken into pieces. Tire dealer would not release car with valves in this condition. Have temporarily replaced with regular, non-monitoring valves. Six year old vehicle with this few miles should not be having this issue. No recall issued, but obviously common issue with this model. Why hasn't recall been issued. Could be catastrophic on highway.

~tl-the contact owns a 2015 Mazda Mazda3 equipped with 215/45/zr18 wheels. The contact stated that on several occasions the wheels had to be replaced due to the wheels coming out of round. The contact was concerned that the metal was not strong enough. The vehicle was taken to mavis discount tire located at 1118 e putnam Ave, riverside, CT 06878, (203) 698-9599, to be inspected. The contact was informed that 3 out of 4 wheels were slightly bent. The wheels were repaired however, the failure recurred. Smith cairns located at 900 central park Ave, yonkers, NY 10704, (914) 377-8100, was contacted and declined to offer assistance. The manufacturer was also contacted and declined to offer assistance. The contact received case number: 1-1568373109. The approximate failure mileage was 16,728. Ah.

See all problems of the 2015 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Tire pressure sensors defective. I have had to replace all 4 of the sensors because of broken retaining nuts or corroded stems. 3 of the sensors failed during driving, causing an immediate loss of tire pressure, causing me to also replace 3 of my tires. Another failed as I was checking the tire pressure, falling into the tire. Per goodyear tire stores, other manufactures have gone to a replaceable rubber stem because of this, but not Mazda. First sensor replaced at Mazda dealership approximately mid 2011, second sensor replaced 6/01/2013, third sensor replaced 9/17/2014, and fourth sensor replaced 3/12/2016 all by goodyear tire stores.

See all problems of the 2009 Mazda MAZDA3 🔎.

Tire pressure sensors corrode and fall apart causing tires to go flat instantly. I have had 3 of the original sensors fail and the most recent one (2-16-16) also destroyed the tire. This happened to my wife on 2-16-16. These original sensors are a safety hazard and should be recalled.

Headrest unusable in safe driving position. Forces head to floor or prevents proper back placement on seat, sometimes both. The only way to sit in the seat comfortably is to have the seat leaning too far back where I cannot reach the steering wheel comfortably. Wheels would vibrate at speeds above 55, sometimes as low as 40. Recently fixed by dealership. Brakes were improperly adjusted and scraped against the inside of the brake assembly. Made a loud scratch sound. Took two visits to the dealership to be fixed. All events required individual visits to the repair shop, and I am uncertain of the long-term viability of the vehicle. Any small issue raises extra concerns. Vehicle has only 2k miles after a year of ownership because of either driving discomfort or the vehicle being in the shop to be worked on.