well, if they have followed procedure correctly and updated their wds recently then it would have to be the Z/M flash as that is the only one available to them.

 

so the code was P0240? if so this is becoming more common than the evap test failure(gas cap) code. not a good trend.

 

No kidding... maybe we'll all be getting those high-temp cat's from Mazda afterall : )

 

I didn't get the code. They wanted to keep it for observation for another day so I haven’t seen any paperwork. I guess I get to keep putting the miles on the loaner and burning their gas.

The cat had 65 miles on it when I got it and under 300 miles on it when the light went on the second time and I am trying to break it in gently so it hasn’t had any high heat either.

 

has it flooded before to your knowledge?

 

Good point, not to my knowledge and I first got it at the 65 mile mark so it didn’t have much chance to, although the dealership is probably a prime place for it to happen. Supposedly the first flash update had been done at the dealer a few weeks prior to me picking it up so that could have been prompted by somebody flooding it.

 

A lot can happen in 65 miles... that's a little on the high side so it wouldn't be suprising if it were moved around when cold, or stalled on a test drive, and flooded. I bought mine with 9 miles on the clock, and found out later it was flooded at the port when being unloaded from the boat... morons.

 

So I should actually consider myself lucky that this happened now and that I didn’t drive 5000 miles with crappy gas mileage until the cat finally failed and Mazda gave me an argument about covering it under warranty. COOL. A bright side to every story.

I’ll let you know when the problem comes back. The pessimist in me thinks that this isn’t the end of it. Manic-pessimistic personality?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

My 2004 RX-8 was up to date on all re-calls as of last month. Well I took her in for an oil change yesterday and they told me there was a new re-call on the ECU. He said it was an ECU flash and would take about 45 mintues. I told him fine. I asked which flash it was such as m,n, etc... and he said it was just the newest one and was not sure of a letter value. I looked at the invoice when they were done and it said ECU reprogram for "loss of power and cold start".

 

the latest is M and he should have known that. better check your oil level too. last time i took it in for an oil changed the invoice said 6 quarts of oil were used.

 

Okay - Okay - Okay

I'm normally not so easily confused. I had my car reflashed in April to what I was pretty sure was the famous "M" flash.

I just called my dealer to arrange to pick up my car after oil change a NAV fix and to ask them to fix the brake squeal and...

They didn't fix the brakes (another story -- I plan to put the TSB in front of them tonight)
They rebooted my NAV and lost all my history (another story)

But "good news!" they said, they performed MSP04...updated the programming in my ECU..."should provide some added power"

Now, on one hand I say cool. But after reading through this thread, I am confused and even a bit worried. If I have had "M" since April...Mazda stopped providing it for awhile but now are -- what is different in today's "M" from my April "M"???

Anybody?

Craig

 

NOTHING. SINCE THEY DID YOUR FIRST FLASH BEFORE msp04 there was no record of it having been done. so now they have gone thru the steps and closed the item with Mazda. now to them it looks like it was done just now. read my post earlier about the change in flash nomenclature.

 

much discussion of this in the technical forum. please see the thread titled "new flash halted! , re-started"

 

Basically Mazda has deciced to treat the MSP04 with the same procedure as a recall..( although it is not)

Problem is they have no way of knowing what flash level the cars are on..they can't even be for sure what level the dealers are on.
The procedure is to send the letter to every owner and let the dealer get the same time for looking at the car as they would for actually flashing the car.

Have the dealer check your car's mode 9 data prior to updating the PCM and if you have the "M" you aren't supposed to get the newer flash anyway.

 

Picked up the car. The report (reciept) documents the work as suggested by ZOOM44 but they did not change the label under the front lip of the hood. It still says updated on 12 April 04.

What really bugs me is that they think I am stupid.

I intend to have that discussion with the service manager tomorrow along with a discussion on the Squealing brakes TSB which they chose not to apply to me car - even though 1) I complained about and 2) my VIN fits the TSB...

 

dont be too harsh about the sticker. well placed sources say they are very hard to get. it seems most dealers ran out some time ago.

 

What is printed on the sticker?

If you were at 18881-M you didn't need it anyway.

I rarely put the stickers on..I think they look like crap.

Pop the hood on a Tribute and look at all the stickers..ugly.

 

I got my reflash yesterday. the only thing I notice is the blip of power at 5500 is gone. I used to feel a surge, then a flattening of the pull. Now it just feels linear all the way up. I kind of miss the surge, but I also don't miss the feeling of it going a little flat.

Just FYI. My car may not respond the way everyone else's does, but that's what it seemed to do for me.

Trevor

 

Which dealership performed the surgery??

 

my car does the same thing...........no surge in power at 6k just smooth all the way through.........i hate that it is gone.........

 

I am not aware that there is a 'new M-Flash'. Isn't this the same code we have all had for months?

 

I have my car back! The code was a P0420. They replaced the cat and the light hasn’t come back on. Why it needed a new cat at 65 miles is worrisome. They swear it hadn’t been flooded but that it could have sat at idle for long periods because it was on the lot. Their lame *** excuse was that there was no airflow over the cat at idle and it overheated and cracked. So, you can kill a $2500 cat by idling the car? That doesn’t sound good. Probably an issue for another thread. The bottom line for this thread is that I got the latest reflash and the light hasn’t come back on.

 

As software engineers are fond of saying, "Documentation Lies." A better source of information is a printout from the dealer's PCM "computer." I asked my dealer to provide the results of a PCM check which shows the level of the "reflash." With a bit of decyphering, it's understandable.

 

Hey guys. my car battery and engine flooded 2 days ago. i brought the car over to the dealer and they said one was linked to the other somehow but they put in a brand new battery for me and fixed the flood issue. i already had the m flash done but they also checked for any new claibrations for the car and said they had a new one. on the service papers they gave me, it says "checked with wds to see if there was an update to pcm, found one available, performed r flash of pcm, all ok...." Ok, anyone else heard of the r flash? i didint find anything when i looked it up.

 

Ok, was the service writer a Japanese guy?