pottsy

New rx8 owner in New Zealand. Recently bought the 8 about a month ago (loving it btw). Seeing as it was at 67kms thought i should get a full service from a dealership, as i was having the radiator light come on and off i thought about doing this at the same time. Diagnosed it myself as being a faulty sensor (apparently it's common).

Anyways, long story short. Mechanic broke a radiator hose on the radiator getting the header tank out. Dealership replaced the whole radiator due to it being their faulty. All cool, but was a bit pissed off not being about to drive for 2 weeks.

Picked up the 8 today first thing before work. Gave it a burst on the way home, no radiator light....sweet. Get to work and the coolant light comes on. Lift the bonnet and steam comes out, along with half of my coolant from header tank onto the concrete. Couldnt be frigged taking it back so figured out how to remove the front to get at the radiator, found one of the clips that holds the hose in place loose!

I know i should have given them the opportunity to fix their stuff up, but, quite honestly they already broke the radiator hose and couldn't fit a clamp so i really don't have any confidence that it would be remedied.

Should i just put this down to the fact that i should have serviced myself? is that what you guys do?

xexok

Really when you get any work done at a shop before you drive out of there you should inspect whatever you can at the time. At least they told you it was their fault and didn't try and say that was your problem in the first place.

There are some good mazda dealerships but the ones I have been to have all sucked. I got my oil changed at one and they only filled it up 3/4 full, i just let that go and never went back there. Hopefully you have more than 1 mazda dealership around you.

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

Yea you gotta remember that these guys look at a bunch of cars each day and dont have the same care for the thing as you do. I actually believe there was a user here that drove off from a dealer service only to have his carbon hood pop into the windshield because someone didn't latch it down.

DarkBrew

Get them to repair the bad job, always check the work, enjoy the car!
Do work yourself when ever you can
Enjoy the mods to come

jasonrxeight

good thing every time I take my RX8 to my dealer, its always the same guy doing the work. seems like hes the only guy that allow to touch a rx8.

Razz1

I'm surprised they used the old stock clamps.

paimon.soror

iTrader: (15)

Just a heads up too, dealers usually have someone that does search forums like this to see customer reactions. If you search the threads that I started, you will see one where i go on a rant about my dealership. I was surprised to get a call one day from them apologizing and the manager telling me he read my post and felt bad that i had those feelings. Although in my case things turned out to benefit me, just remember to watch what you say if you mention the name of your dealership in the thread

edit: Mazda is going through this huge "customer satisfaction" thing where now if you purchase a car, they basically ask you many times to go and rate the service for the dealership. I think Mazda is cracking down on some dealerships that arent performing well, so thats why you see more and more dealers checking forums to see their rep.

ASH8

The OP comes from New Zealand where Mazda's customer satisfaction rating is either #1 or #2.

I would definitely take car back to the DEALER, get them to fix it, they will not learn and I would be more concerned that your cars engine got so hot and you lost so much coolant...NOT GOOD.

Do it to protect yourself, you could have possibly shortened the life of your engine...possibly, or even cooked it.

I am guessing YOU have rectified it??, so I hope engine and car is running OK, but, by doing the repair you have just released the Dealer from ANY liability.

pottsy

Just an update.

Have spoken with Mazda nz, and they have rectified the situation and have given me a written assurance that I will have a free service next time for my trouble. I wasn't too concerned with a free service (although im not complaining), more so that they were practicing on my car or anyone else's for that matter.

Having learnt my lesson i will be taking more heed of the extensive knowledge on this forum for maintenance rather than having a 'mechanic' touch my baby.

Have just got back after a long drive approx 400kms up north. No problems with overheating etc.

ASH8

/\ Good out-come and GREAT Service by Mazda New Zealand.

DocBeech

iTrader: (1)

You got more than a lot of places would have done for you.

On a side note I spent two weeks in christ church, and then two weeks in the BOP with a friend of mine. We stayed with her family in the BOP and it was absolutely beautiful.