When I went to get the L flash in march, tech told me that was just one of four flashes available to deal with separate problems... is this an accurate characterization, or is it more like version numbers and updated in a linear fashion?

 

The mazda TSB says all cars should be at least "M" flashed

 

they are updated in a linear fashion. each new version containing what the last version did plus the new tweaks. he saw four updates available because he was four updates behind in upgrading his WDS.

 

My service department said they could only flash if there was a problem with the car (code problem). Can someone point me to where the TSB for the ECM flashing is? I would like to print it and return to the dealer with it to show the tech.
Thanks

 

here. this is the revised tsb. the revision is in the paragraph after the first note where it says " because of these revisions, all vehicles with previous calibrations should be updated to at least "M" calibration level. this includes vehicles coming to the dealer for repairs unrelated to teh no start concern, or for normal scheduled maintainence." this tsb is 12 pages long. might as well print out all 12 pages becaus e if they are like my dealership they will want to print it all out anyway thinking you are trying to pull a fast one on them or soemthing.

also make sure you find out what calibration their WDS(comp they use for this sort of thing) is up to it's most recent calibration or you might not get the "M". it should be at 31.x

 

Thanks ZOOM44 your a great help. Need to school my dealership. Just think I had a no oil pressure problem, turned out to be the gauge after I told them that was the problem in the begining, and they replaced the gauges about a week &1/2 ago. Just Sunday, since it is my wifes car I don't drive it much, I noticed that the gauges seemed really bright during the day, they tech failed to replace the tinted covers to the gauges and you can reach in and touch the gauges. I also noticed sinced it was an AT that the numeric display for trans shifts was only working during manual mode. I'll have to have another cluster replacement now. My bigest bitch about the whole thing, Technology as it is, Mazda can't send a one time only authorization to reprogram the dash to the correct milage. I will now have to compute three dash milages to get the correct amount for the car.
DUH HUH ON MAZDAS PART!

 

When the cluster is replaced have the tech capture the mileage into the WDs and it will match what you have now.

 

hmm... that doesn't seem correct. doesn't the display just display whatever the pcm says the mileage is? it shouldn't matter how many times the display is changed. the odo should read correctly.

 

The mileage actually is stored in the DIC (digital instrument cluster) it is one of the CAN modules.

In the programming menu of the WDS the tech has to press the tick for "module replacement". The WDS then captures all the info from the old cluster.

 

see i knew there was a simple trick to it. follow the procedures and everything works the way it should. now he is a cluster change tick behind though so now what. put the original back in then do the tick then change to the second and then the 3rd?

 

It should work..Hopefully they still have the original

It appears Mz is calling back every part the dealer replaces on a Rx8. This is normal for a first year car for quality control issues.