I wrote on another thread that my car wouldnt start last week. Flatbedded it into the dealer, who called Mazda.

Mazda sent a couple of engineers from corporate to take a look.

They found the front rotor was not generating enough compression and want to take my engine back to California for analysis.

Dealer said he'd know on Monday what they are going to do with me in the mean time. Hmmmmm.......

looks to me like you will be getting a whole new car as they simply don't have enough engines built to just bolt a new one in. unless they airlift one from the factory?!

wow. sorry to hear about tha. i think they owe you another 8.

dealer does have a nice looking titanium with appearance package....

so what are you waiting for? :)

Makes me want to go do a compression test on mine.... just in case!

Sorry, you're not getting a new car. Several people have blown their engines through one means or another; even after battle with MNAO they get a factory-new engine in their old car. Maybe you can finagle extended warranty or something for the inconvenience.

But, if they do not have a engine avaliable, what will they do? They already did the buyback, whats one more car to them?

Maybe you get a new one, my question, would you still get the free maintance?

hmmmmmmmmm...........

While your at it, insist on a facter installed hook for your suits!!!!!!

I hope this doesn't mean something like last gen. rx7. I mean I know engines arent blowing, but still, no engine problems at low milage is best.

for those that did have an engine replacement, I wonder how long it would be? Very very inconvenient to be without my car for a long period of time- its been two weeks so far. I do have a loaner car (Grand Am!)

For me, 168 miles into ownership, new engine. Came from the assmbly line what what I was told. Took 3 weeks from the time I took it in to receipt.

I bought it after the buy back so I did not get the free maint. I did get a free full factory warr., 2 mos payments and a few options that I wanted (car cover, spoiler, CD changer, rotary accents and some other stuff).

If I knew this was a bigger problem, maybe I would have asked for more.

--Brad

Originally posted by miata2rx8
for those that did have an engine replacement, I wonder how long it would be? Very very inconvenient to be without my car for a long period of time- its been two weeks so far. I do have a loaner car (Grand Am!)

Document everything and start looking into the lemon laws for your particular part of the country. If Mazda takes an unreasonable amount of time to fix the car, they've got to give you your money back or a new car. This varies from state to state, as does the period of time before that particular clause kicks in.

in Tn, 4 attempts or 30 days for the first year.

Though ours has only 400mi so far no problems to report. I'm hoping that I got a good one. I'm guessing that the problems were on the first batch released and hopefully now the big bugs are worked out.

My VIN ends in 00502. Just passed 4,000 miles and have had no performance problems.

Originally posted by 8_wannabe
Sorry, you're not getting a new car. Several people have blown their engines through one means or another; even after battle with MNAO they get a factory-new engine in their old car. Maybe you can finagle extended warranty or something for the inconvenience.


Why are you so sure? My engine blew at 1300kms! and lookie what i got =)

Does anyone out there remember the introduction of the Gen 3? How many months were guys driving their cars before we started hearing incidents of blown motors? Just curious. Oh wait.... 1993 was early internet, hence no Forums, hence MAYBE email lists. In other words, most owners were probably unaware of other owners problems. Aren't you guys lucky to have the car introduced in this day and age when every nut, bolt, and minute problem can be discussed and compared at length.:D

well, week and a half after I took my car in and still no news on what Mazda is going to do about fixing my faulty engine. Very frustrating. I preordered on Jan 8, get one of the first cars whose engine fails, and Mazda keeps the car a week and half without telling me if they are going to replace the engine, replace the car, or give me my money back.

I call every day! Anyone know the number of Mazda America's president?

Ask for the CEO of Mazda USA. Bare in mind that he/she would be a busy person.

You can have them contact you by requesting it through customer service. Ask to be escalated to them. The CEO will most likely already know about the problem (did in my case) and await their call a few days later. Be nice tho.

this is terriable
keep us posted please

So for those of you receiving new engines -- do they reset the odometer? And is the title still clean? I know on my old car when I had a new engine put in, the odometer was not reset and my title was salvage. I also did not get to keep my old engine...they claimed they had to ship it somewhere by law or something. Did I get reamed? Who knows. But I don't care, I don't own the car anymore.

I can't see why the title would have been listed as salvage. To have a salvage, the vehicle must have been wrecked or in a car fire, etc...

There are some FD's out there that had the coolant fire issues and have been restored to perfect working condition, but they are listed salvage anyway. That's the only time I can think it applies.

As for resetting the odometer, why? The engin isnt the only thing thats worn during all those miles.

The rest of the car has to travel them too!

Mine was not reset and I did not have a title yet becuase it was still new. If it shows up with a salvage title, you'll know. I can't see why though -- salvage titles cover vehicles that are in wrecks.

How about flood damage? I've seen cars 'resold' after being flooded and I know the dealer has to state those damages. Don't know about the title issues with that.

Contact the Service Manager, ask him to get the Regional Rep involved. If service manager does not help, go to the General Manager or Owner of the dealership. Keep going up the food chain in the dealership.

As for Mazda Customer Service, they were no help to me. I could not get past the 'front line' person.

Ha ha, I can see where the salvage title came from then. When I renewed registration I told her I had the engine replaced and I guess she assumed I had wrecked it. Oh well, like I said I said, I don't own the car anymore. And as for the odometer, I was just curious. I didn't think they would. I've always thought the tie between the odometer reading and the engine was strongest, vs say the odometer reading and the interior of the car =). Especially since it is much easier to replace something like tires rather than an entire engine. But like I said, was just curious.

I emailed/ called Mazda corporate since I wasnt getting anywhere with my dealer. My dealer told them more than me, and what was relayed was that the dealer is waiting for the replacement engine and they would contact me in the next couple of days. I just wanted to know that- what are they doing and in what timeframe- and if they dont know- tell me that!

Ugh! This really is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth.

Originally posted by miata2rx8
I emailed/ called Mazda corporate since I wasnt getting anywhere with my dealer. My dealer told them more than me, and what was relayed was that the dealer is waiting for the replacement engine and they would contact me in the next couple of days. I just wanted to know that- what are they doing and in what timeframe- and if they dont know- tell me that!

Ugh! This really is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth.

My girlfriend's mother just went through this with a Mercedes CLK 55 AMG . . . that's in the neighborhood of a $90,000 car, and all her dealer told her was that it needed a "block replacement" at 2,400 miles. When she tried to get estimates of when it would be ready and that sort of thing, they said absolutely nothing and stopped taking her calls. Mercedes North America told her that it would be repaired under warranty and that was all she needed to know, then they hung up on her.

Believe me when I tell you that, yes it would be better if the dealer would actually talk to you, but mazda is dealing alot better with you than other companies, particularly mercedes benz.

It is also notable that you are getting a whole new crate motor from the line. All she got was a rebuild on a new block. This was particularly irritating since the car was sold on the "hand crafted German engineered" pitch. It is now "American crafted", and it will probably work better.

I guess that all I am saying is that nothing will really make this suck less, and nobody handles it well. Wouldn't it be nice if someone just apologized and told you that they would do the best that they can to fix it. Somehow, they never say that. Sorry for you, and I hope that it gets fixed soon.

wow and mercedes is know for their customer service

that is BS

Thanks for putting it all in perspective.

I got an email from Mazda corporate, and a call back from the dealer, who really is working hard on this. They just dont have the answers from those higher up yet.

I know Mazda is really trying here!

I am meeting with the district manager on Tuesday.

Man I feel good that Mazda did what they did for me. If I had the MB, I would be yelling a lot!

Maybe we are lucky in that Mazda really cares about the success of this car and MB has their 'history' and one bad problem won't marr it.

If that was my MB, and someone asked me what I thought of the car, they would get an earful. Other than this list, I've told a bunch of people what happened to my car especially when it was in the shop. I talked to most of those people after getting the car and told them that Mazda did a good job in making things right by giving me extra stuff. At work, people I normally don't see asked me about the car. Word travels...

Originally posted by miata2rx8
Thanks for putting it all in perspective.

I know Mazda is really trying here!

I am meeting with the district manager on Tuesday.

Good luck,

If there are 'freebes' you want for the problems this created, make sure have them ready on that meeting date. I would go for a max Mazda Warrantee if you don't have one and maybe some car payments for the lost time in the car.

If they replace your engine, does that lower the resale value of your car? Do you get some sort of extended warranty?
I wonder...

Originally posted by f1 tech
If they replace your engine, does that lower the resale value of your car? Do you get some sort of extended warranty?
I wonder...

I would not think that it would lower the resale at all. If you were buying a used car, depending on milage, you might expect some major work to have been done by the owner. In fact, depending on the car and the mileage, you would expect it as part of general maintenace.

I got an extended warrantee because I negociated it as part of the consessions when the car died so soon after ownership. If it needed an engine at 30K and was still under warrantee, I don't think you would have a stong case for anything.

It appears my engine arrived on Friday, and should be ready for my meeting tomorrow at 11. Wish me luck!

I wish you well, and make sure to keep us posted of your progress.

met with the district manager today. I am pleased with our meeting. I must say there are probably not a lot of car
companies that would take the effort Mazda has with me.

The guy is a real car nut- so I really felt I was heard. And the accessories didnt hurt either!

They showed me the replacement engine in a crate (its SO SMALL) and it should be in my car and back to me on Thursday, ready for my 10 year college reunion.

Good job, Mazda-

Please keep us posted on how your car feels / looks after you get it back. Also of interest would be your new gas mileage.

Glad to hear you're finally getting it back tomorrow.

It seems this failure is caused by a fault in the oil injection system.
There are two injector per rotor.
Front injecto on front rotor fails to squirt, usually at highway use above 4,000 rpm over sustained time.

Front seals fail, seizes, ECU throws a check engine, andpower drops.

Will run on limp mode a few miles.

Re-starting is difficult, and if achieved will make a sound like a bad old clattering diesel.

About 60+ in N. America have done this so far.

How do I know?

Happened to me on Tuesday.
New engine is on it's way from Japan.
Apparently they have used up all the ones in stock over here.

In the meantime I will be driving a Camry from Enterprise at Mazda's expense.

sigh...

damn canzoomer....

I know it's traumatic, but engine replacement is, for better or worse, very common thse days.

Don't worry - it's just another replacement "part" and does NOT adversely affect warranty, resale value, etc. This based on lots of BMW M3s, Porsche Boxsters, Porsche 911s, Audi S4s and other vehicles that have had multiple engines replaced under warranty.

Also, the odometer obviously should not be reset as it tracks the mileage for the car, not for the engine per se.

Canzoomer, is this the same car you have been working your magic on in the other thread?

Originally posted by LesPaul
Canzoomer, is this the same car you have been working your magic on in the other thread?
Yeah.

It is unfortunate in that I can't drive the car until it is done.
On the other hand I am not stressed as we finished the testing that I would not want to do on anyone else's car, and we are now at the stage of installing a couple of test kits on other cars, and will do so in the next few days.

And, the bonus is I get a new engine.

While I did not abuse my car, the simple fact is that in the last few weeks I did work it hard.
Series of WOT runs, and so on , DO cause wear, so in the final balance I am really quite relieved in some ways.

PLUS, now I get a new engine, and Adam at RX-7 Specialties is installing ceramic seals in it, so I can break in the engine with these seals. It is way better to break in on the seals you are using rather than retrofitting them.

And after break-in I can dial up quite a bit more advance.
With the creamic seals installed the engine is essentially "knock proof".

In all our testing we have had to stay quite conservative on the settings as we are testing at 3,000 foot altitude.
That is about the equivalent of running 89 octane at sea level.

makes me a little nervous with the few on here that have had to have engines replaced? I hope they work out the bugs when I get my car in spring? But I guess this isn't the first time an engine has been pulled under warranty.
With 60+ being shipped back, I wonder if they will do a recall of current vehicles on the road, or maybe that is a small %, so not to worry?
Never had any engines replaced on any new vehicles I own, or have owned, and it makes me wonder if this is a big deal?
Kinda surprises me a bit that there have been more than a few on here that have had this issue.

Canzoomer,

Will ceramic seal install void your warranty?

Originally posted by miata2rx8
They showed me the replacement engine in a crate (its SO SMALL)

Why not get a spare and put it in the glovebox? :)

Mine wouldn;t start one day for 20 minutes ! It finally did after I almost killed the battery, and smoked out the neighborhood !

canzoomer-

your description didnt really fit me. though I had taken several long trips- 150 miles sustained- I didnt notice any issues immediately after those trips. My oil light had come on on those trips (well, the second one) but never the CEL. My CEL never went off. When I couldnt start my car, it was after starting it cold and then immediately shutting it off, and then not trying again until the next day (stupid, I know...) It was my first rotor that had a problem- 78 PSI vs 118 PSI for the rear. I wonder the fact that I didnt have a CEL and had low compression were the reasons Mazda wanted to ship my engine back to Japan?

In any case, the new engine is running great- does feel stronger! Maybe I never got to experience the total experience until now. What a sweet car....

BTW, I had them check the A/C- they found a loose connection and it works much better now (the limited time I've used it). Or maybe its in my mind- it does seem better, but I had my car out for 3.5 weeks- hard to remember details that long.

Originally posted by canzoomer
It seems this failure is caused by a fault in the oil injection system.
There are two injector per rotor.
Front injecto on front rotor fails to squirt, usually at highway use above 4,000 rpm over sustained time.

Front seals fail, seizes, ECU throws a check engine, andpower drops.

Will run on limp mode a few miles.

Re-starting is difficult, and if achieved will make a sound like a bad old clattering diesel.

About 60+ in N. America have done this so far.

How do I know?

Happened to me on Tuesday.
New engine is on it's way from Japan.
Apparently they have used up all the ones in stock over here.

In the meantime I will be driving a Camry from Enterprise at Mazda's expense.

sigh...

You know, I have to hand it too you for sticking it out with your car. If it was not for bad luck.....

My engine is being replaced at 4800 miles. The symptom was a coolant leak, diagnosis was leaky seals. I totally babied the engine (1000mi break in period) too, so I know it isn't my fault.

Bottom line guys is that these engines are still all hand built in Hiroshima, JP. Until Mazda can come up with a way to mass produce these engines using a more automated process, variation and deviation will continue to creep into the process. Does anyone know if Mazda has ever tried to automate rotary engine production?

I personally feel better w/ hand made. Do not know, but I feel they have not based on volume requirements and the nature of assembly.