I actually think they do give a damn to some degree. I would imagine if someone is viewing this post or someone is watching the inventory on these parts they are noticing the high number it seems of replacements. I would also think that they are probably trying to redesign the part, but not sure how long that process actually takes.

Then again I could be wrong and they are all about the money and this $5 part to them is going to make big money when cars are out of warranty and you have to pay $100 for the visor to replace it.

 

we should get everyone to complain to http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ and force a recall for visibility problems after unexpected sun visor breakage while driving.

 

My driverside sunvisor broke with 3200 miles on the clock ('06 RX-8). All visors are back ordered and my dealer said it's covered under warranty but other people are being told NO. WTF?

I filed a complaint with the NHTSA and their website gave me a complaint file number (10162790). It was quick and easy and I hope others with this problem will do the same. Hopefully if enough people file a complaint, maybe Mazda will step up and issue at least a TSB?

 

Dont count on a recall issued by NHTSA because it is not really a safety issue. Now maybe Mazda can issue a voluntary recall or an SSC (special service campaign) for customer satisfaction reasons. We have done many visor replacements at our dealer, although my RX8 with 30k on it has never had a visor replaced. Maybe it has to do with how much you use it.

 

Welp, with temps around 100 yesterday, my driver's side visor split too. #&%*!

 

It is a recallable problem. there are several recalls for similar problems on other cars. It's visibility problem. you don't expect your sun visor to split and flop down and hang and not be able to put it back up.

 

The 100 degree temps got to my visor too...

 

Well I got sick of having the visor blocking my view so I removed it. I figured I could run to the dealership, grab a new one, and reinstall it that evening. So I called the parts dept. at the closest dealership to make sure it was in stock and had to spend 5 minutes just explaining what a sun visor is. The girl simply could not understand. She then tells me that she needs my VIN to look up the right part because there are about 30 different ones listed. Where do they find these people? When I mention that it should be covered under warrantee, she asks if I bought my car at that dealership. I tell her no, I bought it 2 states away, and she says that I need to return to that dealership for warrantee work. After contesting her, she instructs me to call the service dept.

So I give them a call and the service advisor tells me that a technician needs to install it for it to be covered. It took me less than 2 minutes to remove and will take about the same to replace but now I need to sit in a waiting room for an hour and a half because apparently I'm not competent with a screwdriver. But I can understand their reasoning so I just made an appointment. I then had the service advisor check if the visors were in stock. Of course they weren't but they can't order them until they verify the need. So now I need to take a day off from work (they’re not open weekends) drive 30 minutes to the dealership and wait an hour so I can have a "professional" tell me what I told them, go home, wait a week, take another day off, drive back and wait again for them to plug it in and install the two screws themselves. Has it been this difficult for everyone?

 

My dealer has replaced mine twice in less than anhour each time. I undertsand the need for them to install it though. Because somewhere ther is an idiot who tried to install something as simple and ended up breaking it.

 

I strongly advice Mazda to redesign their sun visor on RX-8. This is my thrid time that I has to go to dealer for a broken visor. And this time is not only driver side but also passenger side. These visor simply just melt when parked under high temperature. It has nothing to do with use. Even my cheap 2000 Toyota Celica did not suffered from this defect. Be passionate or Mazda will suffer from bad mouth.

 

BTW, does anyone know any place that sell aftermarket sun visor? I am sick of these stock visor.

 

I understand your frustration, but that is the only way they will get paid by Mazda corporate. Stuff like this it takes them longer to write up the service request and close it out then it does to replace the part.

 

i thought i broke mine but seeing this thread, i think it's the quality luckily i bought my 8 new so it is covered by warranty but im still waiting for the dealership to call

 

I tried to find my own solution to this problem falling short of gluing the broken visor myself. I sent both broken visors to a vinyl speciality shop in NY to see if they could use only the arm that holds the visor to the headliner and fabricate a custom visor.

I took this route because I know that the replacement visor that has been back ordered will probably split in half again if the design and materials are the same.

No luck. The vinyl shop said that the metal rod or arm is too short and they had no way of attaching a fiber board to the arm to wrap it with vinyl.

They also stated that the spring clip that holds the arm in the plastic bracket that holds the visor to the headliner is too restrictive. The tension from this clip causes more force to be used on the metal rod to move the visor in place which then puts stress on the already flimsy plastic visor. Add heat and the visors will eventually crack along the back seam.

As a side note: The vinyl shop strongly suggested that I file a complaint with the NTSB which I did report in a post above.

As of today, I've been waiting almost a month for the visors to come in. My Mazda dealer has been really good about this. They apologize each time the release date has been pushed back. (3X's).

 

Weird, the dealer just called yesterday to let me know that the passenger visor just came in for my car, only been waiting about a week for it.

 

I just got a call from my dealer after I posted above and they are IN!! Hopefully the replacement visors will hold up!

 

Wow, that's fast. I've been waiting for about 2 weeks for the driver side one to come in. Finally, the dealer apologizes and says they are back ordered and will be another month.

 

Maybe the drivers side visor is in higher demand.

 

RE: The holes in the visor...

Gotta love the comment about the RX8 sunvisor in, ehhh, I think it was Car and Driver's Patrick Bedard:

"A perforated sunvisor makes about as much sense as a perforated boat"

Heh heh heh

But seriously, I sit so high in the seat that when I use the sunvisor I have to fold it completely forward, otherwise it totally blocks my view. In that position, no direct light makes it through the holes and into my orbs.

And mine hasn't broken yet.

 

My driver side visor broke in the same way. My dealer replaced under warranty, said it was a common problem.

 

My driver side visor broke the exact same way. Was told it is covered under warranty, but Galpin Mazda of Valencia is so completely inept I have no idea when the replacement visor will be here. Customer service at this dealership is definitely not their priority!!!

 

i know this is old news, but both of my sun visors broke and my car is only 3 months old. mazda ordered some new updated ones. just waiting for the call.

 

New updated ones? Yeah right, I am on my second pair.

 

My driver's side visor broke like this and I glued it back together with some super glue stuff that my brother bought at a motorcycle show that we went to. The stuff smells just like crazy glue, but seems to work better (supposedly "fuses" the plastic back together) because it's still holding fine and my visor looks and works like before. If it re-breaks I'm taking it to the dealer - hope they don't give me crap for trying to fix it myself and replace it under warranty . . .

 

i didnt bother to read this whole thread but this happened to me just this past week, gonna take it down to mazda soon