paradigm

If you followed my post on the RP midpipe in the aftermarket forum, then you know that while on a test run after we soldered on the (non-working) O2 fooler, my friend missed a HARD 1-2 shift and something broke in the tranny..............


Also, some of you may remember the many posts on the difficulty that some people have with the 1-2 shift at high RPM's........


Anyways, to get to the point. I got the call from the dealership. After tearing down my transmission, it was discovered that the shift forks for 1-2 had broken. Broken, as in snapped in two. Along with a few other choice broken bits (I believe some bearing/synchro damage...I'll have a full estimate on monday) this equals one FUBAR tranny.

And now for the best part......the only way to cause this damage is to run the car hard.....and abuse of this nature is NOT covered by warranty, acording to the dealer. My repair estimate......tranny remove, rebuild, reinstallation, necessary parts, and a mazdaspeed flywheel (why not? Tranny's out so I might as well :D).......$1750.

The moral of this story.......be careful when you're out flogging your car. ONE missed shift is all it's gonna take for this transmission to blow chunks.

RX8_GT

Ouch .... but I will say $1750 for removal, rebuild and flywheel seems reasonable - at the dealer ! John

Booster MPS

Hope your buddy that did the damage kicks in...........

islandsoon

Personally, I would fight the 'not covered ruling. It's in warranty, it's covered. Maybe if you hit a tree, but a hard shift???

paradigm

Not much I can fight with. The only way this damage can be caused is by hard shifting at high RPMs.......racing. Racing is not covered.

zoom44

they cant prove you were racing because you weren't. spirited driving doesn't void the warrenty. however is it possible that it was not just one-missed shift? that maybe there were some other not great shifts that contributed to the break on the miss?

paradigm

It's certainly possible. I, like a few others here, have had an issue with missing the 1-2 shift sometimes.

As far as how they come up with the racing thing........let me ask this. If it was up to you, and you saw a modified RX8, with nearly bald tires at 12000 miles come in with the shift forks snapped in 2, what would you think? Think of it this way. "You break it, you buy it".

zoom44

well now that explains it. thanks

rxeightr

Thanks for posting - I will indeed live & learn from this.

Sorry for your misfortune tho.....

islandsoon

I would complain about crappy tires that don't last very long and try contacting Mazda. Bald tires or not, I think you have a chance with Mazda. You did take the "test pipe off before you gave the car to the dealer...?

paradigm

No. I didn't take the test pipe off. The mods I have are only affecting this by the fact that people with intake, midpipe, and exhaust don't exactly drive 5 under the speed limit while buying groceries and picking up the kids from soccer practice. It's simply a nail in the coffin. Even if the car was unmodified damage of this nature at such a low mileage indicates heavy abuse/misuse.


Why didn't I take off the midpipe? Well.....if I'm a mechanic and I go to pull the tranny and I see the O2 sensor sheathing has been cut, and there's this strange thing spliced into the sensor I'm gonna think something's up. I thought it better to not put the dealership into a defensive "he's hiding something" mode.

As far as contacting mazda....It's already been done. At this point there's just not much I can do except to finish this deal on decient terms with the dealership. I'm getting all of my parts overnighted for no extra cost, which is good because my dealership charges a premium of 20% of the parts cost to get overnight shipping. With nearly 900 dollars worth of parts that's an awful lot of money.

I should also have a nice new MAZDASPEED flywheel to look forward to, unless availability is a problem. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it works out. :D

Mr M

Sorry to hear about your dillemma, but you seem to have taken it well.
I don't think Mazda rejected the warranty claim for hard driving though, the RX-8 is a sports car, it is designed for hard driving. More likely they viewed your experience as a driver induced problem rather than product induced - know what I mean? (i.e. driver error)
And no! to the skeptics, I don't think any manufacturer needs to cover driver error claims, but they do need a process to verify if it was driver error or not, and I think Mazda does.

djmano

i dont know about everybody else but having to shell out 1k for a new transmission would just about kill me. there is no way i could afford to be stuck without a car for transportation and id be hard pressed to save up a grand to repair the trans.

after reading this thread ive been VERY reluctant to redline my car at all seeing as that one missed shift will cause my 8 to be screwed for a while. is anybody else feeling the same way?

Genom

Nope. He's admitted he had missed several hard shifts before and has been in general driving the car hard. Hitting redline is not comparable to that kind of abuse.

julian

this should be covered under warranty. did you get the official word from mazda that they are denying the dealer the warranty claim? the dealer's screwing you. try to get in touch with mazda's field analyst to take a look at your car before you pay out of pocket. dealers still make a profit on warranty work. they just need to do more paper work to get the money back from the OEM manufacturer and they're often lazy a$$es so they try to avoid it. i'm sure the mazda trans engineer would like to take a look at this failure mode. i would if that was my part.

looks like you have money to spare though.

paradigm

Don't be afraid to take the car to redline, just when you go to shift don't yank on the stick. I've missed my fair share of 1-2 shifts, but I don't shift nearly half as hard as my friend did, nor do I try to force it through afterwards.


julian. the dealer is not screwing me. I have talked to mazda. This is not a failure due to faulty parts/assembly. If this were the case, then there would've been many more cars with this kind of failure, and warranty coverage would be no problem.

TheGreatRenesis

Sorry about your misfortune.

As Mr M said, it does sound like they chalked this one up under 'driver error' and not for 'hard driving', which is understandable.

These things are built for hard driving! Exhibit A: Laguna Seca run ((http://www.mymazdarotary.com/rx-8_vi...ime-attack.avi))

rx8miami

they can probably hook up the ecu like the cops do when there is a deadly accident to see where the rpm were before the car went kaplunk . that way they know exactly how hard you were reving. but the dealer sells you the vehicle with e premise of how superior the gear box and engine are. I would fight it, but prob . lose. it's worth a shot!

Hou-TX-RX-8

Hmm I would not have been so honest with them... I would have said something is wrong with the transmission and denied any allegations of racing if I was questioned about it.