My car died while on vacation in the USA :(
 

HI Everyone


my Car died today in the middle of nowhere on my way home from Florida going back to Ontario. Was Driving around 130KM for 5 hours or so. Then our of no where the car turns off. I pull off to the side of the highway. I tried to turn it back on it turned on and was running super rough and sounded terrible.. after 3-4 seconds it shut off again. I was able to start it one more time just to get it off the road a little better so I felt safe to exit my car. Then it would not start anymore. Not the Battery all electrical was fine. The Check engine light came on and flashed 3 times just before it died. and that was it.

Any idea what could have gone wrong?

Of Course the dealership in this small town is closed tomorrow but they said the would look at it first thing monday morning.
So now I am stuck paying 100 a night till at least monday assuming they can fix whatever is wrong on monday.

Car is a 2005 with 75XXX KM. is the motor still covered by any warranties?

Thanks!

Also

Don't if anyone has ever tried to call the roadside assistance while in the USA. But it Doesn't work for call from the USA. The paper I had said call from Canada and the USA.
I called my Dealership and they gave the USA roadside assistance number to call. I called them and they said to cll the 1-877 number..lol I explained that it wasn't working. They were really good and got me a toe truck within 15 mins and they had to toe my car 47Miles to the nearest Mazda dealership and COVERED the whole trip even though my car had 75XXX KM and is over 3 years old. So I was out of the Roadside assistance warranty.

I was happy...:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...dio/photo3.jpg

Questions to you are:
Do you premix?
have you ever removed the cat?
Auto or Manual?
do you redline once a day?
driving habits?
used any oil heavier than 5w-20?

PS warranty for the rotary core has been extended to 8 years 160k km

Ok, I'll bite..

check the CATS......I am also certain your cats are clogged.

1. High KMs..

2. you said your CEL flashed a couple of times...(that states cat failure, I believe)

3. Your car's drivtrain warretny should be still good..
but i don't know if that covers the cat. check with your warranty book.

Thanks for the comment
Premix? I don't know what your talking about
Manual
I haven't hit the redline in 6 months give or take a month
Driving habits - No city driving .. Just regular driving I don't kill it.
All my oil changes since new I have done at the dealership.

Thanks for the comment

I was diving and noticed the pick-up wasn't as responsive just before it happened , then the Check engine light flashed 2-3 times back to back and 3-4 seconds later the car shut off.
Now that you say Cat.. thinking back when I did re-start it . the mufflers sounded so loud that I though they fell off and the first thing i did when i got out of my car was look and see if my muffler fell off.lol..

Any chance it damaged the motor? If it was just a clogged CAT? Anything I should be asking the dealer if they say that to make sure they didn't miss anything?

Thanks Alot



Thanks for the comments!

Sounds like a clogged cat. Have the dealer check it.. refer them to tsb 01-014-08

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...4-08-1924f.pdf

Yep, I was almost certain you had a clogged cat.

just take it to the dealer and say WTF.....my car died in middle of my damn trip..

see what they say....

check if they have any recalls done on the car.

from your driving habbits and info you are giving us, its pretty much sounds like a dead cat.

If dealer is willing to help you out..nothing come out of your pocket

if they want to be dicks...

its like ~1400 for a OEM cat...but that I 'm not sure of.

GL

75000km isnt high mileage it = 46k miles

Premixing is adding addicitves to the gasoline to help clean out carbon deposits and lubricate the apex seals of the engine.
Manual is good
Rotary engines love to be driven hard...saying goes redline once a day keeps the carbon away.
Oil changes...are good but did you ever try to do some extra maintenance? I change the oil every 4000km or so, and top it off when needed.

Unfortunately the rotary engine isn't as easy to maintain as a piston engine and it involves a little extra TLC.

But if the cat is clogged then the dealership should replace it as well.

Oh man, keep us update on what the dealer says.........

Check the coils as well as the cat.

when i took my 8 to florida and back the only issue i had was the secondary ports were sticking. i had to make sure i redlined it every once in a while to prevent it from happening

Dealer called me this morning and said its my coils that need to be replaced. And Since I am past my 36/80000 warranty I have to pay.
They said the Cat looks fine

The dealer said it will be 1200 and change to do everything

Dose this sound right? Coils are not covered on any other engine warranty? I did look in the book but I could not find anything for coils so I am assuming I am out of luck.

And I am stuck for another day! yay...

They said they were going to overnight the parts so I could be out of here tomorrow.

No I have never done any pre mixing -- I use Shell V-power.lol they claim to clean the engine..I guess not
I will make sure to redline line now at least once everytime I take the car out.
I change my oil every 5000KM the dealership tells me every 8000km, but that seems to long. I check and top up the oil as needed. I usually check the oil every 3 fill ups to see where it is at.

The dealership said the coils need to be replaced. that make sense?

makes a little sense...

dont get them done at the dealer, you can opt for the BHR coil upgrade I believe they are around ~500, and the fair much better then the crappy OEM coils...our coils are known to fail....

EDIT: Tell to check our cat as well....

Thanks for the advice, I am going to get them done here since i am in the middle of nowhere and I want to get out of here since I have been stuck here for 4 days already paying 100 a night at the hotel. :( They said they will have the car ready first thing in the morning.

I asked them to check the cat and they said its fine..I don't know if they actually checked it our not.

Thanks

sorry to hear about your dilemma bud. My 8 just died this morning :( I am pretty sure it is flooded though as I didnt drive it from last Fri...My sister's fiancee went to move my car into the garage and did not rev it before shutting it down. Gonna use the deflood procedure, hope it works man

Kill him!!!!

Well I got my car back today

Runs great feels great!

and I and 1200 less bucks in the banks!

Tomorrow I hit the road to come back home!

Finally everything is done eh.......... drive safe!!!

Thanks for the comment

Where in Richmond Hill you from?

I am at Bathurst and Regent Street

I am at Yonge and 19th.........

MY car is down again :(

I lasted about 3 hours....

now I am at ellis Mazda...

They just took my car in so hopefully its going to be back on the road soon....

I am never going to get home

Stuck in Georgia for life

Dude, that is bad news. I feel for you. Stories like this get me a bit nervous about getting my car