Ok,

I'm usually one of those guys that will take one on the chin and move on, but this REALLY PISSES ME OFF.

Last year I started a thread that was asking about intermittent power steering failure on this forum to find out if I was the only one that had this issue. I learned that there was a simple fix regarding an issue with the wiring harness and a plug that comes separated and causes the steering to malfuntion.

Tumminia Mazda on Strang Line Rd in Olathe Kansas had my car for OVER A MONTH trying to diagnose and repair this issue when I had told them repeatedly that I heard from a few reliable sources that this issue was caused by the connector. After me having to scream at them over the phone to fix my car they finally did repair despite reading a TSB on the issue and ignoring it and low and behold the problem was solved...temporarrily.

About 2 to 3 weeks after the repair the car started having a power steering issue FAR WORSE than before. Now the steering wheel would twitch and jerk when I was driving and at times if you didn't have your hand on the wheel it would make almost a full turn in either direction and nearly cause my wife to have an accident. I called the dealership and they were pissed that I was going to bring the car back. So I just decided to wait a while and take the car to Rob Sight Auto Plaza here in Kansas City. They have an OUTSTANDING service record with Mazda NA.

I took the car in at 7:15 this morning and Erik the service advisor was great to deal with. I explained to him that I am also in the car business and I used to work in a dealership service department so I know that intermittent things are hard to verify and repair. At 10:15 this morning he called me to follow up and told me that there were a couple of things it could be. At 4:45 today he told me that they had fixed the problem and there were a couple of other housecleaning items that they did as well, updated battery, starter and my routine service. What he told me next is the meat and potatoes of my whole story/rant.

It appears that instead of following the instructions included with the TSB Tumminia Mazda short cutted the repair and used butt connectors to splice the wiring back together instead of soldering the connection to ensure that there was proper connection and resistance in the wiring loom. The TSB SPECIFICALY SAYS not to use connectors and to solder the connection together or there are known issues that can occur from a poor connection, in my case they can cause your ******* steering wheel to turn on its own. Rob Sight did the repair the RIGHT WAY and now my car is fixed. He also informed me that at 46,000 miles I will now also be receiving a new engine - SWEET! Since my car was losing power at high revvs and they wanted to make sure that when my warranty was out on time that I wasn't going to have a car that was worthless.

What a ******* load of bullshit. Shortcut me, put my wife in jeopardy when driving because you can't follow directions. BULLSHIT. My hat is off to Erik and crew at Rob Sight Auto Plaza. Thanks guys. You have made me a customer for life. As for Tumminia Mazda, you'll be hearing from my attourney very soon. I just hope you followed the directions for your dealership's sake.

46000 miles - New engine. Sweet.

 

Wow... that is crazy. You did the right thing by taking it to another dealer to have them "look over" what others did.
I too had the same issue with my power steering and narrowed it down to the connectors (under the air box). I would bend the contacts in the connector for better connections (those stupid contacts are so thin) and it would fix my power steering for about one week. I ended up getting so frustrated and cut the wires and spliced them together! Works like a charm now!
Anyway... good to hear that all is well and at least you got a free engine out of this.

 

Yeah dude. Rob Sight is awesome. I left Tumminia when they claimed my MSP was fine when it obviously was NOT producing boost. Their sales staff sucks and their tech department is crap.

Glad you got it taken care of and found out about their shoddy work.

 

Damn those guy really suck. I when there to purchase an "8" and when I test drove the car I told the salesmen that it needed a new clutch and he shot me some bull about " how long have I been driving a manual? I rotorys just drive that way." So I got pissed and went somehere else for and I test drive and it turns out he was full of sh*t!

 

Yeah Rob Sight Rocks, by far the best dealership I have ever been in they really take care of you.