My RX-8 was purchased on 07/03, has everything but the Navigation upgrade. I have had just about everything wrong with it. 80 percent of the service bulletins apply to my car. I am still having problems with it. Another problem I have is that my service department is run by total idiots and assholes. I have bumped heads with the service manager many times. I have complained that they drive my car way too much for no reason. They put 10 miles on my car when they changed the two old spark plugs for the hotter plugs. They claimed it was to make sure it worked properly, (bull shit). This time i caught them red handed. I took my car in again after it died for no apparent reason and left an engine code of P0336 (crank shaft sensor yada yada yada). well long story short I took it in for the stored code and for a chirping sound comming from my clutch. They kept my car for a day and a half. They put 79 miles :eek: on it for a sensor being out of wack. they didn't even fix clutch problem. My sister called me and told me she saw some punk kid driving my car into a Wal Mart parking lot. I called and asked where my car was, they told me it was parked, and ready for pickup. I had them check again. they tried to cover and claimed that it was on a test drive. I had my wife go by and sure enough the punk kit pulls into the lot and parks it up front to be picked up. The kid's job tital is, porter. The service manager assured me that the car was not taken for a joy ride. I told him prove it, but he couldn't. All I got was an appolagy. I am no where near happy with this. What would should i do from here. Mazda claims that they had no part, even though i complained to them before of the problem. All I want is an RX-8 the runs like it's supposed to. Should i demand a new car? and from who? car has 29k on it.

all fingers point to the dealership. go somewhere else.

I have bumped heads with the service manager many times. Many?!?!? Why? Didn't you learn after the second time? First time, maybe you give them a second chance. After the second time you go elsewhere. If you go back, whose fault is is that you continue to be dissatisfied?


Should i demand a new car? and from who? car has 29k on it. Dude, that bus left long ago. If dealer ignorance & incompetance was reason enough for free cars (after you've put 29k miles on it over 2 years), VW would have bought me a whole fleet of GTIs by now. Unless you can exactly qualify for the lemon law in your state (which you won't given the age and mileage), your options are to find a better dealer that can address the issues or to sell it and get another one.

what state do you live in?

If nothing else, that is about 5 gallons worth of gas, and depending on where you live and what grade you use, that 79 miles cost you about $10-$12. That is too much for one visit. I tend to be a little passive when dealing with other people, but my wife is a probation officer, and she screams at screw-up probationers all day. She has jumped my dealerships ass more than once (and if she can make a guy who beats his wife/girlfriend cry in her office, you know she can put the fear of God into a service rep.), and they didn't want anymore of that. They have been pretty good to me ever since.

to answere some questions, I live in Texas and I thought i had put my foot down. I confronted them before about the extra miles, but they always pointed the finger at Mazda claiming that it was required to ensure the car worked properly. The reason I go back is because I have the free sceduled maintenance for my car. I don't feal I should have to drive 90 miles to have my oil changed or to have simple work done. I have sent Mazda many emails, I have requested to speek with a rep, I have gotten nothing from them but the same runaround. I plan to speak with the owner of the dealership and speak with reginal mazda guy to voice my complaints once again. I think the dealership should loose the ability to work on Mazdas.

If you live near a metropolitan area, call one of your local news stations, and speak to someone in the department that does investigative reporting. They look into scams and try to expose businesses that cheat consumers. If the news station decides to look into it, and they air any of it on the news, that dealership will get more bad publicity than they ever thought was possible. If you really think you are having problems with them, you need to start documenting things. Without some kind of paper trail, it's just your word against theirs.

to answere some questions, I live in Texas and I thought i had put my foot down. I confronted them before about the extra miles, but they always pointed the finger at Mazda claiming that it was required to ensure the car worked properly.
And you can just as easily require that you ride along when that ensuring is taking place to avoid the joyride scenario.


The reason I go back is because I have the free sceduled maintenance for my car.
How? If you have the free maintenance that was part of the early horsepower settlement, that should be a Mazda thing, not a dealer thing. Any Mazda dealer should honour it. If the dealer is giving you 'free' maintenance, well, you're getting what you paid for.

I don't feal I should have to drive 90 miles to have my oil changed or to have simple work done.
ok.....

I plan to speak with the owner of the dealership and speak with reginal mazda guy to voice my complaints once again.
Do what you like, but if it were me, I wouldn't take a car back to them after complaining. It's like sending an entré back to be 'fixed' in a restaurant - not worth the risk of it being sneezed/spit on. Don't keep putting yourself in the position to be abused.


I think the dealership should loose the ability to work on Mazdas.
...in which case you'd be driving the 90 miles to the other dealer, so what's the problem?

Granted Mazda does require "post repair" time to verify things are done correctly. I can't imagine any explaination they could give for the amount of miles they put on your car.

This was possibly the cause of the problem in the first place.

BTW this is a new TSB and I haven't checked Tommy's site for updates.




01-017/05 2004-2005 RX-8 - DTC P0336 DURING ENGINE START - SERVICE TIP
APPLICABLE MODEL(S)/VINS
2004-2005 RX-8

DESCRIPTION
Some customers may complain of an illuminated check engine light after attempting to start the engine. DTC P0336 (Eccentric shaft position sensor range/performance) may be set in PCM memory.

The cause may be due to one or more of the following:


Loose/poor battery ground located on the front core support

Low or dead battery causing low output from Eccentric Shaft Position sensor

Damaged or or out of calibration Eccentric Shaft Position sensor.
If WDS P0336 Freeze Frame Data (FFD) indicates DTC set during engine starting conditions, repair vehicle using the following repair procedure. If WDS P0336 FFD indicates DTC set during other than engine starting conditions, repair vehicle using appropriate procedure. See Workshop manual section 01-02 DTC P0336 ECCENTRIC SHAFT POSITION SENSOR CIRCUIT RANGE/PERFORMANCE PROBLEM .

REPAIR PROCEDURE
Verify customer concern.

Remove engine cover and battery box cover.

Locate battery ground wire attachment point to core support. Battery ground is located between battery box and air cleaner box (Black with red tracer, held to body with 10MM bolt).

Clean/tighten battery ground contact to body.

Verify repair.




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I'm sorry this happened to you. I give you credit for not flipping your top. If that happened to me, I'd have totally lost my temper. They were using your car to run errands and for joy rides, and to me that is totally unacceptable. I think you should pursue this as far as you can. Make it clear what you have witnessed, and make this dealership pay for what they did. You have a legitimate claim to make them pay for their neglegence. Someone took your car for a joyride, and god only knows what they did during those 79 miles. They need to pay for this. In future, I'd express bluntly next time that you do not want this car driven, and you will frighten them, and this will not happen again. Good luck!!

Thanks for the tip... I pick up my car on Monday (only 1 more day!!!) so I'll check that bolt right away to eliminate that potential headache

Granted Mazda does require "post repair" time to verify things are done correctly. I can't imagine any explaination they could give for the amount of miles they put on your car.

This was possibly the cause of the problem in the first place.

BTW this is a new TSB and I haven't checked Tommy's site for updates.




01-017/05 2004-2005 RX-8 - DTC P0336 DURING ENGINE START - SERVICE TIP
APPLICABLE MODEL(S)/VINS
2004-2005 RX-8

DESCRIPTION
Some customers may complain of an illuminated check engine light after attempting to start the engine. DTC P0336 (Eccentric shaft position sensor range/performance) may be set in PCM memory.

The cause may be due to one or more of the following:


Loose/poor battery ground located on the front core support

Low or dead battery causing low output from Eccentric Shaft Position sensor

Damaged or or out of calibration Eccentric Shaft Position sensor.
If WDS P0336 Freeze Frame Data (FFD) indicates DTC set during engine starting conditions, repair vehicle using the following repair procedure. If WDS P0336 FFD indicates DTC set during other than engine starting conditions, repair vehicle using appropriate procedure. See Workshop manual section 01-02 DTC P0336 ECCENTRIC SHAFT POSITION SENSOR CIRCUIT RANGE/PERFORMANCE PROBLEM .

REPAIR PROCEDURE
Verify customer concern.

Remove engine cover and battery box cover.

Locate battery ground wire attachment point to core support. Battery ground is located between battery box and air cleaner box (Black with red tracer, held to body with 10MM bolt).

Clean/tighten battery ground contact to body.

Verify repair.




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Not a guarantee against joy rides, but I always write on my service ticket (in addition to whatever the service writer puts on there):

"Car was brought in at x:xx AM on mm/dd/yy with xxxx.x on the odometer. The car has no dings, scratches or other damage."

Then I make the service writer sign his name underneath. That puts them on the hook.