All he said was "Mazda just extended the warranty, so most of the cost should be covered." I haven't given permission to do any work at cost to me, and I didn't get the promised phone call yesterday, so now I'm just waiting. If I don't here anything by noon I'll be calling them myself.

It's a little easier to wait right now since it's either bad news (you're without your car for another 1.5-2 weeks) or bad news (Mazda's not covering it).

I'd be down for that idea, Nick, if folks are willing.

 

Man i feel for you.. Ive been with out my 8 now for 2 1/5 weeks waiting for Renton Mazda to rebuild my tranny, and get 30k service done at 28k because its there now... and brakes. at least you have a Mazda i have an 05 stock Mitsubishi lancer..ive decided to buy an extended warranty next year when manufacturer warranty is up. paragoncarclub.com has one with $100 deductible for $1500 with the repairs ive had so far it seems like a good investment.

 

Spoke with Scott last night. Everything is covered, no cost to me. Will hopefully learn the ETA of the new motor today. I'm officially a convert to the "It's totally random" camp.

 

YAY im glad for you!! no $$ is good news and you get a new motor!!

 

Oh, and the M3 is a go, assuming his maintenance work goes as planned.

 

Good news!

As for the "totally random camp", you were not premixing with good premix, correct? I have been burning Shell V-Power since day one, and premixing with ProtekR for the last 30K. So, this may have something to do with this:

When I Seafoamed my engine, both myself and the tech were amazed that I did not produce a large noxious cloud of skunk gas that we thought. It was small to the eyes and nose. Maybe the internals were pretty clean? dunno. But I am a firm believer in the ProtekR after talking to Cam about it, and running Jeff's tune on my AP, and data logging the OMP, makes me feel better.

Starting over with the new engine, I would do vacuum readings every month to monitor it's health.

 

Since I'm planning on adding boost next fall (or earlier) I think I'll pick up a vacuum/boost gauge and keep an eye on it. Hell, I might as well get the rest of the gauges now and maybe relo the oil filter and add a bypass filter. Who knows, I may have cooked the motor without ever knowing do to the lack of real gauges and unreliability of idiot lights.

Considering what I'm setting up to do next summer*, having all that info real time can't be a bad thing.

*I'll make the official announcement on Sunday, at lunch.

 

weird. I'd bet it's a side seal failure if it wasn't a clogged cat. I just had my cat replaced last month under the federal warranty. Mine was doing the exact same thing, though cold starts the mid-pipe area was really loud until it warmed up.

Hope they get it back to you soon, which dealer did you go to? I've avoided the Mazda in lynnwood hearing horrible recommendations. Mazda Everett have been great.

 

Well, it turns out I was right all along and the dealership jumped the gun on the new motor. The cat was "90% clogged" which was apparently throwing off vacuum and compression numbers. I did get an updated starter for free, but had to pay for new plugs (less than 30 miles on the ones they pulled, but they were fouled ) and labor for some of the diagnostic tree. I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be responsible for their diagnostics to figure out it was a warranty issue, but that's a pissing match I wont win, so I'm not going to bother participating.

Any way, Ruby's back on the road now.

 

glad to hear it!

 

I've been without mine for a month and almost 3 weeks now waiting for a local Mazda dealer to PROPERLY rebuild my tranny... (Have put it together 3 times now, has issues with 1st and 5th grinding the first time, and not able to keep it in the reverse the 2nd time, not able to even get it into reverse the last time)

The only good news is that pretty much everything in the tranny has been replaced at this point :\

 

its been a month now for mine and i havent gotten it back once, with no ETA if it doesnt get resolved this week im going to Call the MazdaUSA corporate office or something.

 

Will they let you keep the new engine they ordered?

 

I hope you have better luck with them than I had with Mazda Canada...

 

They figured out their screw up before it shipped.

 

Yeah, they're just trying to minimize cost. How did they retract their failed motor statement? They have a mechanic perusing this site as part of their diagnostics process? lol...

if end cost was less then $200.00 it's a fair trade for a new new 'new starter model' starter IMO... though it really shouldn't have costed you a penny for something they tried resolve.

 

Final cost was 666.24.

Of course, they installed the overpriced and pointless iridium plugs rather than the platinum ones I used. They also de-carbed, which I'd already done. Like I said though, it's a pissing match with an elephant, so I'm just not going to bother.

 

So how does she run now?

 

She runs nice and smooth, most of the time. Sometimes she stumbles a bit when started cold, and something seems "lose." But, that could be either my imagination or the transmission, or any number of other things.

 

Kristopher,

What year is your car? Good to hear it wasn't your motor.

 

She's an early '04.