Is that one spot on the element a picture flaw? or is that actually a difference right there?

 

Looks like an actual spot since it shows up in all the pictures.

 

It's kind of hard to tell from the pics but it does appear to be partially blocked.

 

just shine a torch into it and have a damn good look down the holes - too hard to tell from the pics .

 

If you look closely in the pics you can see where it looks to be like a crack, when i actually looked down the pipe i can see the crack easily , if it does have a small crack does that mean it could be the problem i have code p2096 post cat to lean or something, car has loss of power symptoms and i thought before it seemed like it had trouble breathing right and then i get this

 

Oh, yeah, I do see the crack now. Yes, your cat is done. Cracks means imminent failure, and when the front fails, it typically just packs into the rear and clogs that one. Combined with your symptoms, it's a pretty clear diagnosis to me.

If you are under 80k, talk to your dealer about a replacement.

 

alright thanks alot!

 

I think the car also must be no more than 8 years old for the warranty to be valid, correct?

 

8 years from the date of first sale. If you have a 2004, you might be past, but might not.

And then again, there are times that the year requirement is ignored when it comes to emissions, so I'd say that it's always worth a shot to talk to them about it.

 

cat is 7 years 70,000 miles.

 

No it is 8 years 80k miles like they stated.

Scroll down to design and defect http://www.epa.gov/oms/consumer/warr95fs.txt . Some companies out there are known to deny the warranty if you can't show you did every bit of maintenance to your car. Mazda is pretty good about it though since they understand the rotary can eat cats.