captain_pie

Minor update: After telling me "we'll call you some time tomorrow when Mazda calls us back" 3 times, the manager from the dealership says the only person he can talk to to get a decision on this is on vacation until November 8th, so it's going to be at least another week before they even start on my car.
I've heard good things about Mazda warranties before, but so far in my experience they have yet to do a single thing right...
You'd think they could at least keep one person around to deal with this stuff rather than leave me high and dry for a few weeks. Ugh.

Bladecutter

Call Mazda directly again, and push harder.

You shouldn't have to sit on hold until someone gets back from vacation.
This isn't Italy where nearly the whole country goes on vacation at the same time.

BC.

Karack

i'm wondering if it isn't a similar issue to what RIWWP ran into with the clutch disintegration issue jammed up into the starter, except worse, jammed between the starter and flywheel. i'd suggest they remove the starter and see if that frees up the engine.

almost always you cannot hear the apex seals crunch, it is a silent failure. what you can hear is stat gear failure where the rotor can reclock it's position and jam up in the housing.

"when good rotors go bad"


i never did figure out why that stat gear failed, but the e-shaft was modified for more flow, not like they need it...


or a lack of lubrication that killed a bearing, where you will hear loud pitched squeaks before the engine locks 100%, they wouldn't even be able to rotate the engine 8 degrees.

at any rate they should at least keep digging to find out whether the engine is in fact toast or not. they might be spinning their and your wheels for nothing.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Agreed Karack. Prior to this weekend, I wasn't thinking about that possibility, but now I definitely am.

Captain_pie:
Check out my thread of my issues with my clutch (https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/shattered-clutch-repair-starter-removal-224849/). There are some similarities of situation with what you describe. Is it your clutch? No, I'm not going to say that. But this is something that you might want to at least think about. If you can get the tech to actually read anything, maybe pull the thread up on your smart phone and show him the pictures or something, and just see
Basically, the short story is that my clutch failed, a chunk of the clutch disc completely separating from the rest of the disc, along with clutch spring sections breaking off, and the debris lodged into the nose of my starter housing, and then locked against the flywheel, preventing me from not only turning over the engine with the starter, but even putting a breaker bar on the pulley bolt, I could only get ~10-15 degrees of engine rotation (maybe less, I'm terrible at judging that) before I hit a mechanical limit on each side. Once I had the transmission separated from the engine, the engine spun freely.

If your engine was seized due to heat, the tech wouldn't be able to move it even the amount he has.

captain_pie

Time for another update!
The manager didn't call on Monday like he said he would, so I called him. He said he'd go talk to the mechanic about it and call me back... 45 minutes later they were closed, still no call.
So, I called again today at lunch and got the same result, except at about 3 PM I get a call from the mechanic and he says they've changed the status and are going to warranty it and already ordered the new engine. He said Mazda agreed that it looked like the front apex seal broke and that was what jammed up the engine.
So if all goes well, I should have my car back in about 1.5-2 weeks with a new engine... took 'em long enough, but it looks like I can finally relax!

Edit: Dealership says they have the engine now and plan on starting on it this Friday (25th). If I'm lucky I might have my car back on Monday!

Bigbacon

iTrader: (4)

sucky bit is you'll still pay bunch of money out of pocket and that they don't give you any kind of loaner car.

captain_pie

Time for another update!
5 days short of two months later, I finally have my car back!

They also replaced an engine mount and the cat (they discovered each, and ordered separately so that's part of the reason it took so long). The mechanic said that the insides of the cat were all busted up and laying in pieces and that if it was plugged up that that could have contributed to the broken apex seal. I didn't notice anything wrong with it (no rattling, no noticeable power loss, no stinky exhaust) but if they're going to give me a new ~$1,700 part, I won't argue...

And after all that time and work, my total cost comes to... $0.00. All the paperwork shows all the parts as covered under warranty and they didn't even ask for any kind of financial info from me, and I've got the keys in my pocket and the car in the driveway.

I haven't decided if I want to do any advertising for them (good or bad), but it seems eventually everything worked out just fine.

Bladecutter

At the end of it all, I think the dealer did the right thing, it just took a bit of pushing on your end to get them to do the right thing.

They also went further by replacing a bad cat and engine mount, too.
Not too many dealerships go that extra step, most of the time.

Congrats!

BC.