hey playa- glad they charged us approx the same.. that' a good thing... I guess.

Hymee- as soon as 3 years is up, we're gone... only 2 more services to go...

Rowds

 

Why 3 years?

 

Ahem...ah...Hymee...have you not yourself posted along the lines.."as long as you do what Mazda says during the the warranty period, including their scheduled services, how Mazda have any comeback on warranty claims"?

 

As far as I know it is still serviced in accordance with the Mazda scheduled service. He even used genuine Mazda parts, and spoke to them about what oil they use.

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Well, dropped the beast off at Crookie (I'm stealing that from Rowds ) this morning.

This young bloke who reckoned he had worked on the parcel shelf rattle last week went for a little ride with me. The rattle has gotten worse in recent days so he couldn't pretend it wasn't there. The face saver was that the noise is different from the one he heard last week. Yeah right! Other than being a bit louder it's exactly the same.

I tried to suggest that other dealers had figured out how to cure this rattle and he might like to contact some of them to see what they did. This was met with a blank look and I gathered there is next to no contact between the various dealer service centres. Although I understand they're competing for the same business, what's the point of a so-called network of service centres if they don't network and share fixes for these kind of problems??

Surprise, surprise nothing was said about pricing and judging by the effusive promises to clean the car properly this time and fix the rattle, etc, etc it looks like they think they can just smooth over the fact that they overcharge and don't do the work they said they did (e.g. the rattle, the carwash). It didn't help that the dealer principal swished by in his brand new white 300C with 22 inch (!!!) bling blings on.

As stated previously, I'm a bit stuck with them if I want the extended warranty but I wonder if there might be some merit in the guys on the north side fronting a private Mazda specialist as a group and seeking a good deal in return for a sizeable increase in customers. Surely most mechanical workshops would see the commercial sense in wooing a group of 10 or more customers away from the horrid dealers? North side guys, what do you reckon?

BTW, playa's comments about the injector clean rationale offered by his service guy rang some bells with me. Not sure if it's my imagination but the car seems to be idling a little rougher lately. The car seems to shake a little more (but not jarringly so) and the revs seem to flutter a little more (and I'm not talking about on start up here - even when properly warmed up). Any comments guys?

 

Just to clarify...playa, are you saying you were charged $450 in total vs the $320 Rowdie paid...and Rowdie even got a $12 bottle of injector cleaner as part of his. Just want to be clear on this

 

no, i was charged $130 extra for the injection cleaning.. i didn't get my car washed also which is $25 extra.. and i think $12 injector cleaner is extra Rowdie paid.

i want to tell you the aftermath of the whole saga. I went back to pick up the car and pointed out my displeasure at the fact it may have been something that wasn't really required and pointed out a printout of general comments and views of us, RX-8 owners on injector cleaning service. also I have found a letter from my previous dealer who offered the same service for $85 (special price actually) which was cheaper than what they could have offered. so I let them know about that too and in the end the service guy John was decent enough to offer me $60 discount on my next service to try and keep me happy.

the only thing I'm not too impressed about is the fact that they didn't carry out the actual things that I requested.. starter motor upgrade and i still feel there is some issue with either clutch or drivetrain.. especially when doing reverse or engaging the first gear.. it feels too clucky but they didn't feel there's any major issue with it.. this is after i tried other rx-8.. the starter motor upgrade parts will be carried out when they get the parts in, so I'll have to come in for servicing again.. i mean they could have told me that on the phone as I was in no hurry to carry out the oil change service... and they led me to believe they have everything there to fix the problem once again.. well, these are some of the things I wasn't too pleased about i guess.. oh and they again left some black grease on the interior last time on the right side roof and this time on the passenger leather seat... maybe they want me to pay so they can clean the interior after making it dirtier..? but then again, I had already accidentally cleaned my car the day before so i didn't want to waste $25 on nothing. next time, I will remember to leave my car uncleaned so i can get them to do the job.

well, I only find problems like these when i get back home..... will have to mention it at the survey or something i guess..

 

Well, I reckon that deserves a well-drafted letter to the dealer principal, with a cc to Doug Dickson at MA.

That injector clean crap is just a rip-off -- close to fraud, surely

And this 'bring it in...oh we don't have the parts' is just crap, although all dealers do it, if you let them. I have now adopted the practice of driving in before any appointment, checking the issue with the SM, and then making a booking when they have the parts.

No one's ever happy with their dealer service, but playa, your experience would have me spewin'

 

Engine mount failure....it's relatively common.

 

Yeah?? It doesn't seem that bad!?

Great! Don't know if I've got the energy for another fight this week.

 

..and guess what the service guy is going to say

 

No $hit Batman.

The joys of ownership are fast disappearing...

 

Think of it as free karma adjustment.......just bottle up all your work frustration, tension, kids screaming and download it all at once into some "pocket billard's champion" 20 year old tool.

Shitty service, the odd rattle and a dodgy engine mount......could be a lot worse. Could be a 380!

 

The engine mounts in the RX-8 are oil filled to dampen vibration. Some originals in the earlier cars leaked due excessive exposure to exhaust manifold heat.

Looking at the part numbers, there have been three different engine mounts fitted to Oz RX-8's since it was released here. The original mount never made it into our cars.

The first revised mount was supplied to cars built in May '03, the second revision was fitted to cars built from Nov '04.

The third (and latest revised mount) has a new heatshield fitted...it made the production line in August '05.

Gomez.

 

Ahh Gomez, the resident "Irving Rosenwater" of the RX-8 forums

On-ya, 'mez!

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Bugger ya....now I've gotta go and google and find out who this bloke is.......

 

Rosenwater:Wisden=Gomez:Mazda Parts Spec catalogue

 

The late Irving Rosenwater was the foremost Cricket Statistician in Australia. So anything you needed to know, he could put his finger on the information.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

pfft.. thats London/Scotland....
there are bad eggs in every basket.
still dont know why ppl would live over there ;-p

/me goes to call up rockdale and book for a service and some warranty works

 

Got my 40,000km service done at Penfold's Mazda Service Centre in Burwood Rd, Hawthorn. Total cost $398.00. I have to take it back next week so they can change the engine mounts as they say thats whats causing the unusal vibration I've experienced lately.

 

It is not strange for me to hear that engine mount need to be changed. It is actually not the first one that has a crack.

If there is some vibration at hand - please ask dealer to check it before the warranty runs out.

Brewer, do you mind sharing what kind of engine vibration you are having?

 

Taka

You know I am hopeless with the tech talk but basically my car feels like it is idling very loudly and roughly. The mounts are to be changes under warranty and I'll let you know if it fixes the problem.

 

Tech talk?? I bet I know what the mechanic reported to the workshop foreman. "Those mounts are f@rked" :D

Cheers,
Hymee

 

got my starter motor/spark plug/battery upgrade under warranty yesterday. (they got the parts after my servicing was done last wk.. geee..)

wow, what a difference it makes in start up.. gone are the rough idleing and waiting for the engine to warm up, needles going up and down like mad during start up.
now the start up is instant and it feels like i got a whole new different car LOL
i highly recommend all those to get it done if they can, if you haven't done so already.

 

my turn...

called up Rockdale SC for my 8,0XXkm/2 years service....

got quoted $240 with a loaner for next friday

have also asked them to do warranty check/fix/replace for:
- front squeeky breaks
- squeeky driver seat
- steering column rattle
- gearknob discoloration

well see how it goes...