Just in case some of you guys missed this recall , i believe it will effect Australian cars.

FOUND THIS ON THE TECK GARAGE SECTION

Control arm / Ball joint problem

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...6&page=1&pp=15

B...free
michael

 

Only us old buggers, though. They are talking about '03 builds

 

Not sure.. the later part of the thread nominated a VIN number that is built in 04, but called an '05 car... So we newbies might also be included..

 

I read 2004 in the posted letter.

 

US 2004---always a year ahead. But this will need to be confirmed when Mazda identifies the affected VINs

 

One guy mentioned that he had a squeaky front right suspension.

I'm getting that alot.

And massive tramlining which seems to get worse, tires perhaps?

 

Haven't heard any squeaking but I definitely notice the tramlining (admittedly at slowish speeds).

At my last service they pumped my tyres to 38psi (I'd previously had them on 34 for around town comfort) and not surprisingly it is more noticeable since then. I'm about to go back to 34 for comparison purposes.

 

I'm due for a 40,000km service probably in a week or so. I'll definitely put that on my list of things to be looked at when I book it in. Anything else I should mention, eg, any new official flashes?

I can confirm that 2003 builds are 2004 cars in the USA. Their next year's models come out in the summer of the previous year.

 

Labrat ...............as valpac has stated your local mazda dealer will not have the correct equipment needed to to inspect .

Most likely they wont even know of the recall , Mazda Australia so far has kept most of us in the dark about most fixes .


Do not be convinced that you can check out the control arms in the garage.

You cannot perform any of these analyses with a flashlight and a jackstand.


eddy current


ultrasonic


X-ray (using film)


resonance method, such as Fokker Bond or tap test


magnetic particle


fluorescent and dye penetrant


video inspection


thermography

All these NDI's are used in industry to check properties of aluminum forgings in the aircraft industry. You cannot trust your eyes alone.

B...free
michael

 

Can someone tell me what identifies an 04 from an 05? My car is factory stamped DEC04.

Andrew

 

In "our" terms, yours is an 04 build.

In US terms, as in the text of the recall... Well, they are different. Like my 03 build would have been called an 04 Model in the US. Go figure.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Yikes - thanks for posting this in the Oz forum. My car abruptly started tramlining a month or so ago, and I've noted some oddly inconsistent steering response in corners too. I thought it may have been an alignment problem but this has me wondering. Will be interesting to see if MA is up on this as I plan to take it in next week....

 

I'm sure the tramlining is just due to the shocking tires...RE040..pffft!

Others have noted with other sorts its alot better.

And the squeaking was extremely noticeable mainly going on to speed humps.

Mines a DEC04, and it just might be affected...Let's wait and see.

 

I'm getting the squeek on the left hand front suspension, a lot of vibrations from that side and tramtracking when that side goes into ruts.

 

Sorry, Mines an December "03" model. And I think that fits into the US

04 as Hymee was saying.

What build date is yours rotarenvy?

 

has anyone ended up walk into the dealers and ask for details?

 

noojoc?

 

What is Tramlining?

 

Okay, I'll take this on so the rest of you can shoot my explanation down in flames (labrat, BVD, Gomez, etc??).

Tramlining is when you feel that your front wheels are following a rut or groove in the road and 'fighting' the steering wheel in terms of changing direction.

 

I would suspect 'tramlining' is not a symptom of this recall issue (but I stand to be corrected ). This recall is about the lower suspension ball joint. That is an item which, if the casting is faulty, will simply fail, rather than degrade progressively.

 

early 04 from memory

 

What do you expect the symptoms to be if your suspension isn't securely mounted to the car? Depends where/it it cracks or brakes is a catastrophic failure or just one of the mounting bolts.

 

Spoke to the person at my dealer who deals with Warranty and they are unaware of any recall at the moment and sounded like they wanted to get off the phone and call mazda to find out.

Andrew

 

Well, as the US information talks about faulty ball joint casting, ie, the ball...I would expect catastrophic failure...but I purposely avoided that term in my post

However, I would expect (hope!) this is a relatively unlikely occurrence. But I'm not punting into any corners too hard, until there's more information

 

OK i spoke to Mazda head office customer service they dont acknowledge a recall concerning a ball joint or lower control arm , after questioning this i was told that recalls in America and in Japan dont necessarily effect Australian cars.

Our Australian RX8 workshop manual lists the Lower control arms part number as 49T-28-3AO

The American recall parts number for the Lower control arms its F151-34-300 AND F151-34-350 .

Could it be possible that they are made of different materials in different countries by different suppliers ???

B..free
michael