I was taught to solve issues thru personal negotiation and when that fails bring a gun.

All this talk of lawyers is ridiculous.

 

should i be expecting a call or txt from you shell?

 

all 8 times I was towed to the dealership were due to engine flooding. Maybe the first (and only first) time it was due to a short distance restart the engine and move the car.

It was so lemon that I should have tasted it. Either I've found the wrong lawyers or there's no (quick and easy) case. Its hard to find a lawyer for anything in this city who doesnt want a quick and easy case.

You're right, Carbon8, it does require multiple tries to get the lemon law to be applicable, unless it is in a dire situation like brakes failing. They only get 2 tries for major issues like that. Replacing an engine 2 times, a transmission 2 times, invokes the stronger case. Statute of limitations may have worn out on me because I followed the warranty's 8 years. If it were 5yr/100k, I'd have a new car right now.

But who knows. maybe mazda will do the right thing and help me out. I couldnt get ahold of them today. thanks for reading.

 

how do I test the coolant system to see if the radiator is ACTUALLY cracked? I drove the car back from the dealer and it had full 2.5 liters of water in the reservoir, drove for 20 mins in traffic to get to my house and shut itself off just before I put it in my garage. There was nothing dripping under the car.

 

Pull the plugs, and get a coolant pressure tester. First pressurize the system and check for leak down. If you have leak down look for pressure escaping from hoses, radiator, water pump. If all those check spin it over and see if any coolant comes out the spark pug holes. Also check the oil for milky white before and after.

 

Still at capacity after driving for 20 minutes and no fresh coolant leaking from the car when you get to your destination is pretty conclusively not cracked to me. At ...12psi or so? a cracked radiator would have a steady stream of coolant spraying from it somewhere. Even a pinhole crack would create a mess when it's up to temp.

 

Autozone will loan out coolant system pressure testers for free!, you have to pay for the kit but when you return it they give you the money back. As RIWWP said should be 10-15PSI Max for pressure, as long as it holds pressure you don't have any leaks.

Just to be safe, do this test both cold and hot to confirm that when everything is up to temp you don't have a small leak.

How do you flood it 8 times, no offense but I have never flood a rotory that I have owned and I have shut them off cold, you just have to know what your doing.

 

#1 thanks for the info. I might just zip over to autozone right now.
#2 I dont know -exactly- how it flooded regularly, but I had major problems with batteries going bad, so most likely it was due to low capacity of my battery. IE: the engine didnt have enough CCA ("cold" being relative since the lows here are 12C or mid 40's Fahrenheit). not too long ago I salvaged a wall wart (19V) to use as a battery recharger. (Lead acid batteries are cool to recharge, because excess energy gets turned into heat, within reason.) There might be other issues with the computer being misprogrammed (pcm), which was eventually fixed.

 

I just refilled the reservoir (water has rust in it, as expected). The radiator, warm or cold doesnt have any water spraying from it. there are drops of water, so it might bepossible that there's a hose issue.

After reading the 30 pages of papers I got from the dealership, it looks like they didnt do a damned pressure test on the radiator. I bet the retards (no offense to those who are mentally disabled and benevolent, unlike THESE retards) didnt do the test and just said "gee cleetus, some of dat der fluuuid is a escapin' from da shiny bumpy thing there, let's just tell that there city slicker that hez gotta replace the whole she bang!"

I'm starting to wonder, maybe shotguns are a better option than lawyers. KIDDING.

I'd have to replace the reservoir before I could do the pressure test myself, because of the cracked threads for the cap. Or do I not have to do that? can I attach it to the hose instead?

 

No, if your loosing pressure at the cap the tester will to if its the bottle, and not the cap. And you can also loose coolant threw the bad cap as well. If you have rust in the water you should have the cooling system flushed, and your playing with fire if your running straight water in that climate.

 

the engine is shot anyway. am I going to have to replace the exhaust too?

like where the combustion gases pass from the engine to the exhaust?

 

No. If you think its toast then you only need a short block, or a rebuild. Depending on your housings and plates it could be a few grand and up.

If your cat is clogged you will need to replace it with either a new cat or a mid pipe. I know mine was loud as ****. with the mid pipe and rear exhaust, had the Sheiks really mad at me. But then a rotor dont sound like and uncapped Aventador.

 

ok I'm sure the engine core is rusted, though it works, as it uses up coolant.

Mazda declined repairing it.

I just wish they wouldnt have taken 30 days to get back to me and just say "nah".

I'm still exploring DIY. will keep you guys posted.