Engine died Dealer is Refusing to work on Car
 

So my engine went out yesterday and I had it towed to the dealer. They just called me and said that they cannot work on the car because of the modifications it has. He says pcm recalibration is a problem and does not work on my vehicle. Can Mazda refuse to work on it like that?
Mods: Aem intake, SR pullies, bhr midpipe, and bhr coils. He is saying it needs to be back to stock before he can work on it? Should I call another Mazda dealership and see if they can work on it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act

The only thing they could give you grief over would be the coils.....easy to just borrow or buy a used OEM set and go from there......

The AEM intake is the same as the Mazdaspeed one...and the midpipe and pullies should not be an issue...

They are contemplating keeping it now! The issue is that when they plugged their scanner in there is a bunch of zeros so they've been asking me if the computer has been modified now.

Say no :)

Yes they can. I'm a tech at a mazda dealer and it's not so much of the dealer but the warranty reps, I had an 8 come thru our shop a few weeks back that had a mods and the PCM recalibrated and the reason Mazda gave us not to work on it is our diagnostic computer (IDS) has to go into the PCM and gather data from the mode6 files (only obtainable from the IDS) that provides info of the engine (compression, Cat converter status, fuel trim info, etc..... that info will not be accurate to the IDS or might not even connect to the PCM depending on calibrations, and if it does and that dealer puts the engine in they there is a chance it wont start, since the IDS wont be able to connect with the PCM to do the resets.

Also they don't want to be reliable if anything is damaged during the repair. For example the Pulleys if you have a Modded crank pulley they wont touch it cause the oem one has to be returned to Mazda with the bad engine, and they can't take the new pulley that comes on the new engine cause they will know that pulley wasn't the one with that engine it will be to new, same for the Mid pipe the Cat readings from the IDS (if it connects) will show that the cat isn't present and that will deny the warranty claim.

They can't legally refuse warranty coverage on the engine because of the mods you listed. However they probably are within their rights to refuse to start service at all because of it. Any one of those mods could give a dealer pause by itself, depending on the dealer. The full list and yeah, I'd expect some resistance. Nothing insurmountable though.

Given that you are in CA, and CA's emissions regulations, I'm surprised you brought it there with a midpipe installed.

I have a set of functional (weak) 28,000 mile oem coils in a big ziploc in my garage if you need a set. Drop me a PM if you're willing to cover shipping.

One of these days I'm going to clean up my parts piles / boxes and stuff like this will just hit the dumpster. heh... i may even take the time to actually find the cd mount tablet holder I promised to 9k 3 months ago DOH

Compression? Seriously? Some sort of magic? You mean ltft and stft kind of stuff, i have ids, dont rrmeber whats in mode 6 but compression?

Dont get me wrong i agreed with the rest of ur stuff, just not compression. And its easy to tell if its modded only if its tuned by anything other than rb-like tunning(which just modifies the enrichment table, slight timing and fan on temp) Even you cant access it, you can always get as built data from techinfo and force flash it. Cuz some ppl like mm tuned will change the default checksum, when that happens ids will be like wtf and stops working

Yeah I broke on the side of the freeway and only had one free tow left so I took it to the dealer. If they want me to put it back to stock I can do it, but will it be too late by then??
Thanks for the input so far everyone.

you didn't say what PCM mod you have, but if it's a Cobb AP just set it back to the factory stock program by uninstalling the AP :dunno:

So I can't help but feel that my engine is probably perfectly fine. The car had full power, was properly maintained, and throttled on a daily with only 56k miles on it. Do the 13b's usually go out out of nowhere? What happened exactly was that i was getting onto the freeway until the engine began to break up and bog down until it stalled. Since then the engine spins fine, but does not fire up! Maybe its the fuel pump? Electrical issue? The only engine code I found with my cobb was U1900.

Have you verified fuel and spark?

When they go, they go. There is an old gear head saying, "and engine always feels the strongest right before it blows".

No its stuck at the dealer until I bring them a stock intake (will be in tuesday) and stock catalytic converter. They won't begin diagnoses until they have them.

That's ridiculous though. It sounds as if they are impounding it if they won't let you check fuel or spark on it.

i'm quite sure he can pick it up at any time.

what some people tend to ignore is if you were the manufacturer and built a car, then someone goes and start modifying parts and expects you to warranty it... they may but you should be thankful that they will if you simply put it back to stock. even a simple modified air filter can shorten engine life.

i have seen dealer reps come in and void factory warranties on vehicles due to modifications that were not even half way through the warranty period.

there's always 2 sides to every fence.


it could be compression related but it sounds like a hydrolocked fuel pump to me, my 8 did it the other day out of the blue but started up after we had dinner at a nearby restaurant 30 minutes later. it would crank and sputter for a second then immediately die again, fuses were fine and swapped the relay to no avail. if it wasn't even giving a hint of wanting to start then i would assume ignition related(swap in your factory coils) or compression related with the lesser possibility of it simply being the crank position sensor(my 8 had a CPS fault but it wasn't giving me an indication that it was the problem we had, as i didn't have any diagnostic tools at the time and had to go with common sense symptoms).

A quick update. So I brang the dealer the stock parts to put on, but they got the car started and decided not to install the stock parts after all. They did say however that the car was smoking alot now! They asked for permission to do a compression test. Is this normal? Shouldn't that be a part of the diagnostics fee? They also said that it probably needs a new motor and that the warranty would not cover it because of my intake and midpipe. However, after reading up on the Magnusson Moss warranty Act I believe that those parts have to directly cause the engine failure correct? Will the dealer atleast look into what caused the issue to begin with or will they stop once they know the engine is toast? The reason I ask is that I don't want to install another motor only to find out that the fuel pump failed me and then have to replace it again.

I should have a more clear update later today on what steps the dealer and I will be taking.

Anyone have an ideas on a good local place to San Diego to take my car to get a new engine installed if the dealer doesn't honor my warranty?
-Lucky 7 racing?
-Mazdatrix?
-Speed Force Racing?
-Any shops local to SD?

You can get a compression test without them pulling the motor. If it fails, you know you need a new motor. If it passes, you know the problem is something else.

It is a 1-2 hour total process, so it's usually not included in the fee for anything else.

You have to have OEM cat on for engine to be replaced under warranty. LS coils are fine Trust me I just went through this. Screw Mazda for being so picky

Any good garages can install an engine, I mean there is nothing unusal about it, the only problem I can see is if the garage never worked on any RX car before, they will have no idea where the vacuum lines go.

screw mazda for being so picky?

put yourself into Mazda's position and say that again ?

so if I install a turbo, overboost and blow it up, Mazda should honor replacements too ?

smoke would be oil or coolant burning, a compression test doesn't have anything to do with those 2 things.

What dealership did you take it to? And if they would let you take your car on sunday i could probably get a trailer, tow your car to get the stock parts back on and take it back. Just another option in case they keep screwing with you.

So verdict is in front rotor has zero compression. Dealer just told me that he is forwarding the information to mazda and included the aftermarket parts I have installed on my vehicle with it. He said its up to the mercy of mazda now, which im guessing means im screwed right??? Do I have any cards left to play?