BigBlueShock

About 4 months ago (end of May) I brought my car to the dealer because of a hard warm start issue plus loss of power. It came down to the point if I drove it hard and shut it down, the car wouldn't turn over until about 8 or so seconds of cranking it. At this point it was a little rediculous and the starter probably would go bad. So now I just end up waiting about 20 minutes to restart the car.

Dealer ended up de-carbing it, and cleaning some other things out. Fixed the loss of power, plus said it "helped out with the hard start problem a bit". I could have decarbed it myself but they said they did it a few times, so I wasn't going to complain. Charged me a couple of hundred. At this point the car was running great, but I still had a hard start problem.

I also noticed my SSV was not opening up, and a check engine light went off afterwards. Brought it back the next day, two solenoid valves were shot and those needed to be replaced. Another couple of hundred dollars.

At this point, I've already taken enough time off from work and school to get this stuff fixed, and I wasn't able to bring it back again. All I wanted was this hard start fixed.

I bring it back to the dealer yesterday and tell them it still has a hard start. Now I'm not the type of person to start problems because I work in retail myself and I hate when people do it to me, so I act calm in the situation.

However now I feel they're trying to pull a fast one on me. About two years ago at 42,500 miles, all the spark plugs, wires, and ignition coils were replaced. Now I'm at about 49,000 miles. The dealer is claiming I need three ignition coils, and all spark plugs replaced.

The spark plugs were done BY the same dealer, the ignition coils and wires were done a month later seperately. They want to charge me around another $550 and said they guarantee replacing the coils and plugs will fix the problem. Just to prove the dealer wrong, is there a written consent form I can write if I'm not satisfied with their results with the plug/coil replacement, I can get my full money back? Because I'm 100% sure it's not going to fix the issue.
He showed me 3 of the coils had white on the bottom, but I heard that doesn't always mean the coils are failing, but either way they don't have much mileage on them.

The dealer also tried to say I need to bring it in ASAP to have the work done, or i can risk flooding, more problems, etc. The way he said it felt threatening which I wasn't happy about how he brought it up.

I have two questions now:
7,000 miles, and plugs/coils can go bad? I don't even feel like doing them myself for the $200 or so it would cost me in parts, let alone having the dealer do it for $550.


And lastly, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm on a last limb here. I'm in the New York City area.

-Mark

Edit: Forgot to mention, the starter has been ruled out because it is fine. No cold start problems even in the winter, the car just keeps cranking and fails to turn over for a while while it's warm

ShinkaEvo

iTrader: (3)

What year is your 8? Have you update the starter?
If you did, then next would be compression test...and don't forget to fix the solenoid valves.

BigBlueShock

The solenoid valves were replaced, actually had that done at dealership when the decarb was done 4 months ago.

It's a 2004 A/T (yeah unfortunately, but I add some MMO to my fuel every so often to try help the carbon cleanout).

When I brought it in to the dealer and asked if they could do a compression test while they were fixing everything, they said "Dont worry we're going to check everything out". Now I'm not sure if the compression test was actually done or not, I never bothered to ask, I assume it was done and came back good.

Any idea where I could get one done myself in the area? I'm starting not to trust this dealership I'm going to (Wantagh Mazda). They just keep asking me to shell out money, and it's not getting fixed.

I think the starter sounds fine, it cranks fast even in the coldest weather, unless that doesn't matter. I'm not sure if it has the updated one or not. Is there a way I can check though?

ShinkaEvo

iTrader: (3)

If you ever get compression test, make sure you get the numbers for both rotors. It's not about fail or pass.

Some members on the forum bought the compression tester, if you can find anyone to help you out at your area. Or find a local rotary shop. Dealership is the last place I would go, imho.

Search starter on the forum, and you should get the info you need.

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

Like ShinkaEvo suggested, it sounds a lot like compression loss.

By the sounds of things, your dealer/mechanic doesn't know **** about the rotary, or he's pulling the wool over your eyes. When the first decarb was done, they should have performed a compression test.

Make sure to keep all service records.

BigBlueShock

Thank you guys. Yeah, it was a Mazda Dealer in my area. I'm actually tempted to call Mazda north america up and express my concern about them

bse50

Compression test, then new engine.
Avoid MMO on the next one and use some real premix