Engine failures..
 

I know this has been covered before, but I am increasingly concerened about the engine failures being seen in the US and Canada. I know all manufacturers have problems - (BMW replacing V8 and straight six engines springs to mind), but the thought of having to have an engine replaced - plus the undoubted crappy temporary car is worrying me.

Thoughts & Comments people?

So far theres supposedlt (by canzoomer) 60+ faliures for various reasons, mostly due to oil injectors.

Pff, I'm buying a mazda, I know the rotary is seen as a bit of a risk but mazda build solid cars.

I would be more interested in how many engine failures in Japan and Australia there have been. I think that the US cars were completely screwed up when imported (reprogrammed ECU), and that the engine failures could be a natural consequence of this.

As long as I get a decent level of service from my local dealer, it doesn't really bother me too much.

Dont get me wrong, I have owned two Mx5's, neither of which ever gave me any trouble. 60 replaced engines is still more than one would think a "normal" engine would be replaced in a new model?

dunno, cant bo worse than the BMW M5 fiasco, or Rovers 1.8k head gasket anyhow.

Its a new engine, new design, 'rare' tech. 60ish out of what 10000+ in US? No reported problems in Japan.

Thanks, I feel better now....
Now all I ask is that I get my car in November, as promised. Fingers crossed.

And you always have to remember that the rotary is very sensitive when it comes to oil ;) However, I dont really understand how the injectors could malfunction. What, they suddenly became stuck or something ?

I agree - 60 dars in 10,000 - 0.6% - and these may be due to oil issues as people haven't bothered checking them - it seems a non-issue to me Ed....

Hope you are right!

I'm a bit wary of blaming everything on this. Besides, I don't think there is any evidence that the US cars were actually reprogrammed at the last minute in port.

All mods done to those cars resulted in a "Port Campaign" sticker with a code being put somewhere on the vehicle. There have been threads on this, and it seems the only code common to all cars referred to the dipstick replacement (Mazda originally fitted the wrong type). There is no sticker for ECU upgrade/replacement.

The bodged ECU upgrade theory seems to have become a bit of RX-8 folklore, but that doesn't mean it's true. There was no reason for Mazda to revise the ECU code at the last moment - they had known what the goals were in terms of US emissions regulations for a long time.

Having said that, it would be nice to get some feedback from Japan, where the cars have been on sale for over 6 months now. Unfortunately, I assume due to the language barrier, we seem to get almost no information from there at all.

that's what warranties and heavy duty lawyers are for.

Case closed :D

I think the main thing from our point of view is that Mazda investigate these problems throughly and find out which cars are affected and perform any necessary fixes.

If, for example, there is a design fault with the oil injector, they need to replace it on ALL cars. If they just replace the engines as they fail, then what happens if your engine fails outside the warranty period? And what about long term durability if the injector is not operating properly? We don't want Mazda to just quietly fix it for future production and ignore us.

Unfortunately, Mazda do not seem to like releasing any information that makes them look bad or might potentially cost them money, and will even occasionally resort to straight lies when cornered (e.g. the horsepower saga). This does not augur well for getting to the bottom of problems like this.

I suspect our most reliable source of information will continue to be this forum, not Mazda, and we are going to have to keep a close eye on these kinds of issues.

I agree with jimbobjoe and I don't think it is an issue.

Cheers
Thepenn