Not so. I assume you are referring to the urban legend that the new starter motor is a 9v motor. The upgraded starter motor is a 12v starter as proven by a Mazda tech in another thread.

EDIT: Go to this thread and see the pictures of the old and new starter motors in post #14.

My local dealer, Mazda Gallery in Norwood, MA, said they will not do this until I flood my engine. I will not take my car there anymore, wont recommend them to anyone else, and hope you don't go there either. The service guy on the phone said that there is no need to do this TSB until I flood my car. He said getting this done isnt a preventative measure even though it says in plain english on the TSB that the "leading spark plugs have been revised to reduce the possibilities of fuel flooding at cold engine start". Bullshit

Thanks. I forgot to paste in the link. :spank:

I called another dealership and their service manager was much nicer. He said they cant do it because its considered warranty upselling, which basically means charging mazda to fix a problem that hasnt happened. he said he agrees 100% that I should be getting it done as a preventative thing, but he says he can't charge mazda to fix something that isnt broke. He said if I make a case with Mazda NA and they call him, then he will do it.

I took my car in originally for a leaking transmission (backup light switch was leaking). My car had never flooded. And they just replaced all these parts without me requesting it. My car did take a few seconds to crank over to start but always started everytime. Now after replacing these parts my car starts up immediately everytime. Definitely worth looking into.

Called Mazda NA and explained my arguement in nice and calm manner. They called the dealership and its being done next week. For once, I got some great customer service from Mazda.

Nice work, better than having to intentionally flood the car to get it done.

Very cool! Glad you had success with the national organization.

I can understand why this is not a recall, but I get the impressions that unofficially MNAO is willing to give the update to anyone that asks, even if the dealerships don't see it that way.

It is speculation, but my service writer was VERY quiet when I politely asked to be considered for the TSB upgrades. When he called to say the work was done he said "I got you the new plugs, battery and starter". Sort of like he couldn't commit to the work ahead of time but when he called the Mazda internal support line to get the OK (that Mazda would pay) they said "sure" without a whole lot of fuss.

- Mike

Also very cool that you were able to rub your dealership's nose in it!

Well after spending 3-5 minutes before it would start recently I finally made an appointment to take it back in. This is the third or fourth time for hard starts, First they did the pcm back in early 04 (IIRC, when the pcm software first came out). Later they did the battery. That they said was under the pro-rated battery warrenty so I had to pay about $50. Later they did the spark plugs. Now I hope they do the starter. I am so fed up with a car that is hard to start! And it's not just when it's cold. Right now I'm afraid to go on any trips because I may get stuck someplace.

I believe its not a recall because recalls are only for safety related information. This is not safety related, and so it is only a TSB.

I just bought a new RX-8, build date 8/05, so it has the new parts and this car starts up as quick if not quicker then any piston car I've ever owned. If the dealer will not put the parts in unless you flood then pick out a date that you can spare the time and flood it. No argument then.

That's a bit of an extreme approach in my opinion. Flooding can cause problems with the catalytic converter and that could result in problems in the future.

Better to directly approach the dealer service manager with the service bulletin in hand and ask politely if they will do the service on your car because it cranks very slowly and you're concerned that it will not start in the colder temps.

While (on this forum) I jokingly suggest intentionally flooding to get the upgrades, GO48 is right you really don't want to do that. The best path is to politely ask your dealer, relating it to any starting anomaly you have experienced. With the 2004s, that should not be hard as that 330 CCA battery is pretty much worn out by now. If you have several dealers in your area, try them all.

If that doesn't work then call (don't e-mail) the Mazda 800 number and restate your request, again in reasonable terms.