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RaymondClark

Hello
My wife has the above car ,and we have noticed especially on the open road and in wet conditions and not speeding when it comes to corners ,the car has a mind off it's own and seems to slipp into the corner, and a noise from the front off car , it's a weird feeling it's like the car is taking control.
I know these cars have AT control , but feels like its out of control
Have you heard of this before, maybe a fault with these cars , also seems to be a lot of road noise with these cars , I have put brand new Tyers on the car but road noise still there.
Thanks

ABayliss

Wet conditions, slipping into corners, noise from the front? Sounds like all the classic symptoms of understeer to me. But, in answer to your question, we are not aware of any faults with this model that could cause this. Maybe get the wheel alignment checked to see if there's a problem there.
Regarding general road noise, New Zealand course chip roads are known to cause a lot of road noise, especially on cars with big wheels and low profile tyres. Again, no real known problems with the SP23 specifically though.

snubs05

As said, get the alignment and tyre condition checked.

In regards to the road noise, this was a major concern of the Mazda 3 of this era. The best way to over come this is to get 4 new tyres (as you have done) and make sure they get rotated every 10,000km.

Also, have a look under the car and look at the rear subframe. You should find a black rectangle thing bolted to it in the middle facing backwards. This is the harmonic dampner. When the Mazda 3 of this era was new there was a service bullitin to repace the rear subframe with one that has this on it. Later models had it from factory. Under this bullitin the roof lining was replaced with one with more insulation.

These mods were not a recall so where only done as a customer complaint. If the previous owner in japan didnt complain, it wouldnt have been done

ABayliss

Very useful "inside information". Many thanks snubs05.