GSF

Hi All. My 8 is in the shop (dealer) once again, this time for battery light and CEL. I've had many problems (see list below) and my warranty expires in November of this year. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this thing, I'd love to keep it, but I don't want an even bigger headache once the warranty expires. It's already a pain (literally - bad back) to go 20 miles to the dealer every couple weeks and have them give me a POS Tribute that goes 0-60 in 20 seconds.

Do I have any recourse with Mazda or the dealership (Mazda South)? Are there more things I should have someone else look at to see if they're about to break? I'd like to hold on to it, it's a yellow one, which they only made 03-04. I'd also like to put a turbo kit on it once the warranty is up, but it seems that with my luck, or the build quality of this car, that's just asking for trouble.

I've taken care of the car, done all the service recommended by the dealer, at the dealer (car's here, just do that too.) I drive aggressively but not abusively. I've only changed the wheels and had some work done on the front end when a lady hit me in a parking lot. Her insurance (State Farm) paid for everything, they were a pleasure to work with and even paid for 4 new rims on my car because my old ones were no longer available and unrepairable.

So here's the list of things I've had done that I can think of from the top of my head (and some records) in approximate chronological order:

New Starter and battery and plugs ~10000
New Clutch ~12000
New climate control fan dial and pass side sun visor ~15000
Driver Seat Control ~20000
New Taillight ~23000
New Front Rotors ~23000
New Taillight ~27000
Coils 4+ times trying to diagnose loss-of-power
New Intake ~33000
Rebuilt Engine ~35000
Thermostat cracked ~36000
Coils ~36500 and ~37000
Alternator ~37000

Things still bad (minor):
Pulls to right
Driver seat creaks
Brakes squeal
Door seals separating or sticking
Hard to shift fast 1-2 at 9krpm, probably normal

Your help/feedback/input is greatly appreciated!

G

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

OMG, that's a long list. Your car wouldn't happen to be Silver, would it???

Many of those items have been covered by TSB's and aren't "major" BUT I can imagine making all those trips to the dealership is starting to wear on you.

Why was your engine rebuilt? Was it actually rebuilt or did Mazda put a rebuilt one in your car?

GSF

They put a remanufactured engine in. The old one FINALLY yielded low compression readings.

While driving at highway speeds, usually noticable going up a hill, the car just didn't have much power. If I held the pedal down, after 5-10 seconds it would quickly 'kick-in' and accelerate. Even if I downshifted to 4th the same thing would happen. If anyone has ideas on exactly what caused this, I'd be interested. I found people on this board with a similar issue, but it didn't seem to be described exactly the same way. It was really annoying.

The car drives great now. When I brought it in this AM, it had stored a code P0302, misfire on rotor 2 I believe. Their solution was to replace the other coils that they didn't replace last time I was in. I'm expecting to be back there before the end of May. The CEL would flash when at high revs, almost irregardless of throttle.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

bad coils can help the build up of carbon deposit.

I had some misfire b4, I replaced my coils about 18K miles ago, so this is my 2nd time changing the coils. After the coil replacement, as of today, no misfire.

I dunno but I have a feeling its just carbon locking things up. couple of cleanings might do it. but hey if they're replacing it for free, why not ?

Razz1

they replaced your engine for that?

Sounds like a bad cat.
clutch and rotors are normal wear and tear. You are too hard on the car.

Pulling to right is normal wear. Get alignment.
Brakes... Bed them in or get carbon kevlar pads from Porterfield.
Door seals.. Put some lube on them. WD40
Hard to shift comes from you being hard on the car. Now its time to pay the piper.

GSF

It's always been hard to shift 1-2 at 9k. I got the car with 500 miles on it, either it was a mfg defect or broke when someone else was 'too hard on the car'. Like I said, I'm not abusive.

I don't think WD40 would help the door seal that is half fallen off.

I will try the bedding in on the brakes, thanks for the suggestion.

If the cat was problematic, would replacing the engine have fixed the symptoms? I didn't mention that the CEL went on several times with codes that indicated to the service dept and mazda that a new engine was required.