tcblank

Okay here are some details. I own an '04 make rx8. The actual make date is December '03 though. I am the original owner.

The car has 72K miles on it and I've taken care of my baby the entire time. Oil changes, proper gas, know how to let the RPMs open up on occasion, basically read everything there is to read to take care of this car and have done it. Including all the recalls.

Now, I've had hiccups as batteries have died, or I've managed to get shitty gas somewhere that causes misfires until I change it out. I also been changing most of my own stuff but now I am stumped.

Last Wednesday, my car started misfiring and stalling as I was driving. Thought I had bad gas again. Pull into the nearest station, fill it up, thrown in some octane booster and cleaner additives, and let her idle for a bit. The misfires don't stop and my CEL comes on. Crap.

So I head to the nearest autozone and get them to pull the code. The engine is throwing a 301 code.. which is the misfire code. Great! Tell me something new! Also, I notice my engine was overheating a bit and I'm thinking maybe the oil isn't cooling things, or the filter is clogged or something is up with it, even though everything should have been good since it had only been less than 2000 miles since the last change. So, I stop into a Pep Boys and change it. Guy there has one and tells me there are a few new recalls including a flash and I should head over to the dealership to get it checked out since the oil change didn't fix anything except the engine wasn't overheating anymore.


** side story** can be skipped

The only dealership nearby is Joe Myers in Houston TX. Personally, worst f'ing mazda dealership I've dealt with. Why? Here's a side story but it explains why I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. At 100 miles over 50K, IE my warranty just expired, my CEL came on as I am driving into work. Pull into the dealership, since it is on the way and have them check it out. Female service manager tells me it's $120 to even look at it. I think that is a bit high, but what could I do? I pay it. 5 hours later, basically missing work for the day waiting around, they tell me it's because the gas cap is bad. This was BEFORE the recall on all the original gas caps. So I had to pay another $35 to replace it. $155 is the most expensive gas cap I have ever paid. Anyhow, as she tells me this she also says this to me.

"Well since your gas cap went bad that is going to cause big problems with your car you need to get fixed now. In order to get you back on the road you will need your throttle body replaced, your fuel lines and injectors replaced, and it is recommended that you get all the filters replaced as well." She also mentions a few other things which I don't remember them all, but it doesn't matter.

I was like WTF? but ask her how much that would all run to do. She said something like $1600 or so. I looked at her like she grew a second head. I then asked, why would a bad gas cap cause problems that required those fixes. Her response was, "Because the gas cap was cracked it leaked air into the gas tank."

Seriously????? You mean everytime I go to the eff'ing pump and put gas in my car, the air that usually ends up in there when I take my gas cap off is going to break my car? Did she think I was completely retarded or something? I almost wanted to hit her, but calmly asked, why would air in my gas tank causes all these "problems." She said that is what the tech told her. So I walk over to him and ask. He looks at me like I've grown a second head. He said some of those are just recommended things to do at my cars mileage. Not that they were required or my car would turn into a fiery ball on the highway. We both laughed at the stupid bia and I left still feeling a bit sore over the $155 gas cap.


*** end side story***


If you read the side story you know why I don't like this dealership, but my choices to take my car to here on my side of Houston are limited. Especially with my car acting up the way it was. So I drive my car, misfiring all the way, over to the dealership. I get told it would be $100 (wow cheaper) to look at it and they would tell me in the next couple days what was wrong.

I get called up the next day and told the ignition coils are going out. Also, they did the recall work of reflashing the computer and swapping out the spark plugs (although I had new ones in there.) I get told the price for replacing the ignition coils would be $664. Again, I think they are completely screwing with me. So I get on this trustly old site, RX8club FTW! find out that is pretty much highway robbery for a price as I suspected. I call around and zero part stores have any ignition coils for my car. So I order them online and have them rushed delivered for $150. Hell of a lot cheaper. I go to pick up my car from the dealership and it doesn't start. I ask them if it's alright if I left it there and fix it myself when the parts arrive. The other "male" service manager says he doesn't have a problem with it, so I left my car there until today.

I get the 4 ignition coils in and head over to change them out. Following the explicit instructions on a thread in these forums, I manage to change them out in about 20 minute. Pretty fricking easy work to do. I try to start it up and it doesn't. I get one of the techs over and he says it sounds flooded and the battery sounds dead to him. The battery was a higher performance 650 cranking amps battery I bought back in November after the one I had for 3 years died finally. Didn't think that was it personally, but since I just bought it and it had a warranty, I took the battery out and had my friend drive me over to swap it for a new one. I had them test it too and make sure it was at 650 cranking amp before I left the store with it.

I come back and the car is still as dead as a doornail. Won't turn over. I tried deflooding it several times and even had some friends try to push the car while it was in gear to get the engine to turn over as well to see if that would clear it.

So what can be the problem? All new oil with filter, new gas with additives, new battery, new plugs, fairly new starter from the recall replacement a year ago, and new coils. By this time, the service dept at the dealership had closed so I couldn't ask them. Besides, they were hinting at having to charge me another $100 if they had to "look" at it again. They should better well tell me what the heck is effing wrong for the first $100 I paid them to do so. However, I don't think they are going to work with me well on this.

Cliffs:
1) Car misfiring, but was driving.
2) have car checked by dealership that is shady
3) change out everything for new parts on my own.
4) dealership does "recall" work and car no longer starts.

shaunv74

Sounds like your car is flooded. They probably moved it and shut it off cold.

You should be calling Mazda North America and complaining about what the dealership has done. They should be able to force the dealer to check for flooding THAT THEY CAUSED and fix it for free.

Razz1

COME ON Shaun!

Its not the dealers fault. Recheck the coil install.

You mean the car turns over but doesn't start, correct?

Did you start and run it before the coil install? That was your mistake. Now you are stuck in the middle with no recourse. Customer comes in and picks up car in the middle of service work.

$665 is a good price. Dealers charge around 100 bucks per coil plus two hour labor by the books. Stop bashing on the dealers. This is a fact of life. They have a right to make a profit.

It seems to me your problem is with the service tech and not the mechanics. Nothing you have said indicates incompetence by the mechanics.

The car could have been flooded, but with new plugs and battery highly unlikely.

You see, you could have switched the coils wires. I bet that is it.

After you become too frustrated, your only recourse is to pay them to fix it and learn a lesson.

Good luck and hope you missed connecting a ground wire or switched the wires.

tcblank

Okay, the ignition coils were GOING bad, they weren't bad completely yet. On the edge. I was able to still drive the car, it was just misfiring. I DROVE it to the dealership. I left it there for them to diagnose and do the recall work for it.

I was told the price for the replacement of ignition coils and told that was the problem. I thought the price was too high and said I would do it myself. I came to pick up the car, thinking I could still drive it off the lot. The car wouldn't start. At this point it was already flooded although at that point in time I didn't know it. The dealership had flooded the engine. I did not. However, the dealership at the time was telling me it wouldn't start because the ignition coils had finally died completely.

After reading this site, I knew I could replace the ignition coils myself. No big deal, I ordered new OEM ones and I paid with rush shipping $150 for all 4 coils. I got them in last night. I replaced them correctly. Hell, replacing ignition coils was almost as easy as replacing wiper blades and I was able to do it in about 20 minutes. I also, per the warnings, did one coil at a time so I wouldn't cross or mess up any wires. After replacing the coils, the car still wouldn't start. I called over one of the tech guys as he was leaving and he said it sounds like the cattery is dying and the engine is flooded at this point for the reason. Since the battery is only 3 months old, I didn't think it was the case, but said he would test it for me. We test it and it is low. I take it over to Walmart (got the MAXX line 35S battery from there) and they test it. It's low, so they do a swap.

I drag the absolutely brand new, and fully test for 650 cranking shelf amps battery back to the dealership. At this point last night, the service department had closed. I hook up the battery and it's no go. I try the deflooding bit and it still doesn't go. I come back here, and write up my original post and look around. I find the wind shield wiper fluid pump mod to deflood it and head out again last night to try. No go. I come in early this morning to the dealership and see one more time before the shop opens. Still no go.

So I talk to the service director and he and the techs agree it's flooded and that it would be $250 to deflood the engine. I am mortified and tell him, they are the ones that flooded my engine. He says he can come down to $105 to deflood. At this point I finally lost my patience and gave in. I paid them $105 to deflood the engine. They come back after deflooding and said it still won't start because the spark plugs are now ruined. The BRAND SPANKING NEW PLUGS they did for the recall. He shows them to me and they are all carbonized and bad. He says for new ones I need to pay another $260 to have them replaced. I was like WOAH! I argue with them and they won't budge except to come down to $230 to replace the 4 plugs. I said screw it, I want my old plugs put back in. They said they can't do that because it's against the law since they were pulled for the recall. I demand them back in my hand, and get them to give them to me.

They were a bit worn and I put them back in myself. With my old plugs, and the engine finally deflooded I was able to get my car started. It's driving like *** because the plugs are about done and had to order more from pep boys because they are only ones that can get me some from another store by the time I get off of work today. Yet another $100 to get my car fixed.

Personally, I'm absolutely pissed right now. They broke my car and tried to hold it hostage to get me to pay for something they screwed up on.

Shaun, you mentioned calling Mazda NA. How would that help? And if it can, what is the number?

Razz1

This doesn't make sense...
"Also, they did the recall work of reflashing the computer and swapping out the spark plugs (although I had new ones in there.) " and

"He shows them to me and they are all carbonized and bad."

New plugs can't carbon up. The can get the cermaic core soakes and ruined.

New plug should still look new, black soot and wet from flooding.

Is that what meant?

You intervened in the middle of service regardless if your correct or not.

Its too bad you tried to save money and have this happen.

Catch 22

tcblank

I don't even know if the ones he showed me were the supposed new ones they put in for the recall. I was in the waiting room and as far as I know, he could have had some bad ones waiting to show me to "prove" that they needed to be swapped. All I can say is how it was relayed to me. Meaning he walked up, showed me some bad looking spark plugs, claimed they were for my car, and that they were the "new" ones that were put in for the recall.

Also, I didn't stop service in the middle either. I never received any to fix the car. I paid for a DIAGNOSTIC. Not service. So, but they should have been able to diagnose a car, even one misfiring, without flooding the engine. I was able to drive it, even having it stall occasionally, and not flood the engine. If you aren't stupid, it is really hard to flood the engine. Never let the RPMS go low enough to stall if it's on but misfiring, and also give the car a quick "rev" to 3500rpms before turning it off so the engine throws out any possible extra gas.

Sorry, the dealership clearly eff'd up in the case. If they hadn't flooded my engine, I wouldn't have needed to pay for a deflooding or another set of spark plugs.

shazy

Seriously Call MNAO. The dealership is at fault for flooding your car, they should fix it.

Brice-RX8

What I see happening, and this based on believing your side of the story with which I have not reason not to, is they saw they were not going to make the coil change money on you, moved the car shut it off quickly probably hoping to flood it and then make the money back that way. I would also get MNAO involve to see what can be done.

shaunv74

I tend to agree with Razz that you are in a tough spot when you tried to install the coils before they had the car running again. I've never heard of coils frying completely to the point that the car doesn't run. That was BS. They should have gotten the car running for you then you should have been able to swap the coils yourself at home.

Definitely double check your work. I believe it's flooded and the dealer caused it. I doubt it was intentional. I think they just moved it out of the shop and turned it off without thinking.

teknics

kelrx8's car had a coil go bad while driving causing his car to go on fire and not start back up at all, and that was only ONE bad coil.

As for your specific problem, hard to say. I'm thinking lots of little things have added up including how it was moved etc.

also check the wires are on the right coils, one wrong setu will make it a bitch to start, altho it will run believe it or not, dont ask why i know *twiddles thumbs*

kevin.

tcblank

LOL to you mixing things up...

I got it up and running. Changed out the coils, plugs, oil, filters, battery, and injectors on my own. Seems to be running great right now. I did call MNAO and complain and while I was told nothing could be specifically done to the dealership by them since it's independently owned, but Mazda is sending me out some gift cards as an apology.

The whole thing just really ticks me off that this would happen. Funny thing is, I write pretty much the software every dealership in the world uses. Muahaha! So tempted to do something just to annoy them, like making them receive a "F*k You!" email every 5 minutes or something like that. To bad in this tough economic times I value my job enough not to do that, but I can still dream of it though.

teknics

do you work for johnson & johnson (not the baby product people, the software people) or is it another company?

kevin.