rx8umd

Hi, Rosental Arlington Mazda replaced my wife's RX8 engine, clutch, throw out bearing, pressure plate, spark plug, radiator, water pump, thermostat, ignition coil, and cat. The car is back at the dealer and they are giving me a run around why it threw a check engine light and why the oil cooler is leaking.

The car is our third stand by car but I drive it more than her as I have a company PRIUS to bore the leaving crap out of me from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday is when the 8 gets to be driven mostly by me.

We both understand the care and maintenance RX8 needs. We have owned several cars (all manual and most RWD) drove most of them over the 150K mark. My personal best being 177K on a 1999 328i. We loved and took care of the car for the last 6 month until it run into several problems (quiet aware of the need to rev it all the way at least once). The dealer is just giving us load of crap as to why one thing after is happening.

Does anyone recommend and ASE certified shop that could work on this car? The warranty company has spent over 6.5K so far and 2k out of our pocket for a total of 8K. The car is just killing one thing after another. My co-worker who endorsed this dealer at some point. But, all I see is that the car is dying day by day and boat load of money is going down the drain.

My wife wants the car gone despite a 2K investment. And, I am tired of fending off stupid reason why the car is falling apart. Please help.

pistonhater

- Paragraph division would have been helpful. Reading that gave me a headache

- Not sure what you are asking specifically.

Sounds like you needed to vent some of your frustration?

rx8umd

Where do you guys get your 8 maintained? The after market warranty I got states I need to get the car maintained at ASE mechanic or the dealership. I have been trying to find an independent mechanic but I could not find one around DC/VA/MD. Please suggest.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

I'm 99.999% sure any dealership will have a 1 or a few ASE certified mechanic.

but just because he/she is ASE certified doesn't mean ****, I seen "smart" ASE mechanic did stupid ****, not to mention they have no training (at least I don't recall) on Rotary engine whatsoever.

I'm not sure in VA but in NYC almost every shop has a certified mechanic, when it's as common as like this, u know the quality goes down.

rx8umd

I agree with you that not all ASE mechanics no what they are doing around rotary engine. My hope, initially at least, was that the dealership will have trained mechanics on RX8. However, from the way things are going, I am not sure if they know what they are doing or care about make sure that customers are taken care of.

I believe they are turning my car into an excellent revenue stream for the dealership/stealership.

I am looking for someone to chime in and let me know who services their car. Or, I am going to have the "For Sale" up on the 8 very soon. I do not believe my wife would be interested in the BS reasons the dealership is giving and would want the car gone for good. This was our first Mazda experience, and it will be our last crushing any hope I have to own an MX5. Please let me know where you guys service your car... i.e in dc/va/md.... NY will be too far.

pistonhater

Your other challenge is that if you find a 'rotary specialty' shop in your area, most of these guys are small operations. They may have the certifications, but many of them are mostly people that know a lot about rotary engines and do custom work. Not sure they would qualify under the guidelines of your warranty company.

Why don't you go to another Mazda dealer?

ken-x8

Rosenthal Tyson's Mazda. Go see Rob of the Purple Team.

Ken

zoom44

how long between the work mentioned in the first sentence and the problem now?

when you say run around have you asked "what code is causing the check engine light?" have they told you where teh oil leak is from? the cooler? the connection? the hose?


Rosenthal has always been a reputable dealer but different locations have different people at them. and people suck. did you go thre in person and ask for the info or did you just call them and got some guy who didnt know and whose customer service skills suck?

darnellm

iTrader: (1)

www.firsttowin.com

Steve Culmer is the best rotary mechanic in the area

usnidc

Bill Britt in fredericksburg is ok. they did my tranny under warranty with no issues.

I've test driven a few cars at the Arlington Mazda dealorship and I will never go back, they used very high-pressure tactics.

MariesRX8

I'm guessing every employee can be different. I order parts through them, and they've always been really great and honest with me even when it cost them a sale.

Bladecutter

How about you give us some information that we might be able to help you understand what the trouble is with your car, so that you can then tell the dealer, in the correct way, what the problem is that you're experiencing, so that they will be more willing to resolve the trouble you want fixed?

So, lets start with the obvious:

What year is your car, what transmission does it have, how many miles are on it, and exactly what is wrong with it according to you?

Then, what was it that you told the dealer is the problem, and what did they respond is the actual problem, and finally, what was their explanation as to why they can't fix it?

Oh, and ultimately, if the wife isn't happy with the car, you either need to sell it to make her happy, or grow some *****, and tell her to back off, its your sports car, and you're going to get it fixed properly, its just taking time because the dealer you have to work with sucks.

BC.

zoom44

this^





is brilliant.

rx8umd

Year: 2004
Tranny: 6 speed manual
Mile: 73000

Problem:

Initially car went to dealer as it overheated (not necessarily overheat but had the temp gauge approaching high). I diagnosed the problem as the fan relay. But, the dealership determined that the thermostat was sticky. They said the temperature also damaged the over flow tank. When replacing the over flow tank, they indicated the radiator neck which is made out of plastic is also damaged and they replaced the radiator. I asked them to flush the rotary housing (engine block) before putting new coolant. They found oil in the coolant and did additional investigation and they said there is some coolant into he rotary housing as well.

The warranty company inspected and approved a re-manufactured engine. After putting in the new engine, they also found out that the fan relay was bad. They fixed that too. The day they said the car is ready, I went to pick it up and found out the car has check engine light on. I stormed back to the service advisor and indicated that there is a check engine. They took the car back and determined the connection to the secondary air pump was not good. They corrected it and gave the car back. After driving the car for few miles, I the low oil light came on. Checked oil level, it was ok. I drove back to the dealer and said there is low oil light on. Apparently the light went out when they started it the second time. They said they went through the car thoroughly and they should not be a problem.

Apart from the engine under cover coming off on 495, the car was fine for a week when I put about 750 miles on it. On Tuesday I saw oil residue on the floor at work by the right front fender, I checked oil and found it be ok. I again saw oil residue on Wednesday at a different parking space and saw oil leak. I scheduled the car for service early that afternoon when I went to run errand. However, the car threw check engine light on my way back to work. At work I borrowed a code reader from a friend, and I found three codes:

1. Secondary air pump
2. Car running lean
3. Crank angle sensor

I showed the service advisor that there are three codes. I also showed him the oil leak. The next day the service advisor called to inform me that the check engine light was due to low oil pressure at the oil cooler. I chuckled at this one. I was very aggravated and informed the advisor that is not possible. The advisor checked with the master mechanic and indicated that it was a vacuum hose by at the oil cooler. I chuckled again and said not quiet right.

I decided to drive up to the dealership this morning and talked to the master mechanic (Ray...seemed to be very knowledgeable...I have also spoken to him previously). A vacuum hose caused the car to run lean. He also indicated that the vacuum hose was the reason for the secondary air-pump issue. He said he is still diagnosis the crank angle code. He indicated battery and starter are fine. He also asked if I can leave the car at the dealership so that he can drive it on Monday and verify that there will not be anymore additional issue. I agreed.

The reason my wife and I are frustrated is that our current 2009 328i (my wife’s dd) and my old 1999 328i (sold to make room for the 8) are/were serviced at BMW of Fairfax. The work was done right the first time and we never run into so many headaches in our ownership of the 1999 for six years. The service advisors at BMW of FF new what they were saying and never left a room for doubt. Here I am being told that oil pressure at oil cooler am causing a check engine light.

My wife loves cars as much as I do and drives as well. And, the sport car belongs to both of us. If either of us is not happy, it will be sold. But, Mazda is leaving a bad test in our mouse and ownership of an 8 for six month is more painful than anything I owned prior to this point. I am convinced if I find a good shop the car will be ok again.

rx8umd

I am definitely going to check if it fails again.

QUOTE=darnellm;4296956]www.firsttowin.com

Steve Culmer is the best rotary mechanic in the area[/QUOTE]

rx8umd

Thanks for the reply.

rx8umd

Ok...so after almost a week of maintenance, the service adviser is telling me that they do not feel comfortable or guarantee that the car won't fail right when I leave the dealership. They told me the same story on Friday, and asked if one of the techs can take it home...I said NO.....and today the master mechanic wanted to take it home or else the service adviser thinks that I might come back with a problem again.....I am just fade up with everything....This sucks....I think they had JOY ride over the weekend and may be more tonight.....Does anyone want to buy an RX8 for 9.5K? It has got new engine, clutch, ignition system, and more.....I am serious it going to be sold to CARMAX over the weekend...I will be going back to what I know works....BMW....I also have installed an R3 suspension on it....I have the old suspension also...

FNLR3

Another angle on this is get a service advisor who cares. Face it, you're not likely going to fund a service advisor who is even close to an expert on the rotary engine. The is a comparison to the BMW experience, because their service guys are seriously trained, and the cars share enough that technicians can really get good. By contrast, how many RX-s do Mazda guys see anyway? Experience counts.

But I've been happy working with David Ledgere at Koons Mazda. Gwaine is the best mechanic at the shop. Find out what day David works late (usually Wednesday), because he always makes Gwaine stay with him.

Neither guy is a true expert, and the Both guys (and a few others there) care enough to alwasy get it right. Hell, they know that getting it right every time builds business, so it's also smart.

I had an odd problem that had me a little freaked. The check engine light did not come on, it flickered at a high rate of speed. Silly me, I thought that had to be worse than just a steady light, you know, like it was trying to get my attention. Took my R3 in on a Wednesday night, and the driving behavior (which would incriminate me, so no specifics) did not bring the light on again. So, no problem, right?

I wasn't satisfied, so I asked them to pull the codes. Gawaine hooked up his laptop, and spent seven minutes staring at every code for the past three months. Turned out to be a code for a timing error which the engine computer fixed itself after a few minutes. Another few thousand miles, no further issues. Taking the time to find a code -- and costing me nothing -- that's service.

Bladecutter

Post doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, have you done the 20 brake pedal stomp procedure in order to reset the ESS profile in the ecu? If you haven't, that might resolve your crank sensor code.

You should be able to check the air injection system yourself for functionality, and correct connection. If that pump doesn't turn on when you cold start the car, then that needs to be fixed. If the pump turns on, but the parts aren't correctly connected, that could be the cause of your lean code.

You need to go to a different dealer.
I think that's the true answer.

Also, did you even ask the SA why his guys wanted to take the car home? It's a strange request, yes, but if they told me that they had an idea in mind, and wanted to test it there, I might consider it.

BC.

rx8umd

I am not understanding anything also. I picked up the car yesterday after whatever extended test they did (LOAD of BS). I did not have any problem with my tranny when I dropped. Yesterday, I pick the car up with empty, when I say empty oh my God I probably will stop by the side of the road empty. Even worse, I tried to shift the car to second, and the car grinned so hard that I thought the shifter came off. Now this car has never grind before. And, myself and my wife owned manual tranny through out our lives. My first car being a French made Peugeot (18 years ago) and the same goes to my wife with (1974 VW bug). I am thinking they kept my car since last Wednesday and taught someone how to drive manual tranny. I am so pissed.

What pissed me even more is that, my wife decided to take it out for herself this morning and the check engine light was ON when she started it. Really!!! After over 20 days of service check engine light again? To top that, I pulled the code and it was crank angle sensor code. Now this a load of BS..... WTF....

Even more, on the ticket the SA wrote that they replaced the tranny oil cooler and I was standing there and saying really. I went and asked her does this car has a tranny cooler. And, she said the master mechanic indicated that it was a mistake. She corrected the ticket. But, she gave me the old ticket also, I am going to post all of the service tickets here. Maybe you guys, who said Arlington Mazda is good, defend them more....I do not see how but I will be interested to see...

Now do I go to one of the independent shops that someone gave me here. Or do I try another stealership.

By the way how do you do this? You want me to drive and stop the brake 20 times. How is that supposed to help?

"Anyway, have you done the 20 brake pedal stomp procedure in order to reset the ESS profile in the ecu"

I finally thought I found a very well balanced car and a car that drives like a dream (though not enough power). But, it put a smile every time I drove the car. But it turned out to be PITA to keep it running correctly.

Further, the SA advised I get rid of the thing. the SA further said "Mazda stopped making it because it was a bad product. You made a smart decision when you bought the car." But, SA indicated I will visit them more often as long as I have the car. The remedy is to get rid of it. Not my word but SA's word...this sucks.

rx8umd

Is this in silver spring? Is this off of colsville? I probably will attempt to take it to another stealership before taking it to an independent shop?

Dinhx8

Who was your service advisor? I have taken my 2004 there since I've owned it..and had nothing but great service,...

rx8umd

Tori deVries

rx8umd

Who is yours?

Dinhx8

i've worked exclusively with Shaun Fauz since i've had my car (8 years). He's been excellent-

i recently had a few cels, and a lack of power...instead of the run around, we went for a spin with a mechanic (brent or brett) and he ordered me a new engine and it was extremely painless. Most of my 8 years has been like this as well. I've worked with Tori once on a saturday- i was not happy with how she handeld things (tried to charge me for a warranty repair). i vowed never to switch from anyone other than him after that-

if you have the time/patience, perhaps voice your frustration of Tori to Shaun or the service manager. While they are a 'team' i sense they are all competitive against each other and may be able to better fix your problem? Or you could just go to another dealer if you feel you've gotten all you can out of em.