Several weeks ago I noticed a knocking noise coming from under the hood, and my RPM's dropping unusually low. I did alot of research on here about the issue: Changed plugs, plug wires, cleaned MAF, ect. All done with still no change. I decided to take the car into mazda to have the Motor mounts checked. After check several things and running several compression tests, they found that It was my motor. So, it took them two weeks to get the motor into the dealership. They dropped the old motor on saturday, and moved everything over today.

On monday, I called them to see if I could come take some pics. They said sure! no problem, While your here we need to talk about something.... i got scared... When I got there, I started to the service tech. Come to find out, My clutch was just about gone, and said for 535.00 they could replace it without charging me labor charges. So I proposed an offer. Asked them if I provided the clutch and flywheel if they would still do the install for free.. Sure enough they did.... Here are the pics from today... I will keep you guys updated as it comes along.. Hope to have the car back by thursday.











BTW: I went with the ACT Street/Strip Clutch and ACT Prolite Flywheel

 

fyi.. Here are a couple more pics of the Clutch disk, pressure plate, and flywheel...

 

wow,

are cars are almost twins... did the same thing with my dealer... are mods are almost the same.. not hassles, just fixed the problem... great to have a great dealer.

btw, you clutch looks good. how many miles..

this is one that is almost gone.. look at the rivets...

beers

 

Well, The clutch may have still had a little life left, but i was going to have to upgrade it before I do the Pettit SC. So, it just save me alot of $$ on labor cost My factory clutch and engine had 40k miles on it.

Yeah, the dealer here in Knoxville is pretty cool. I have been in there so much they all know who I am

 

Good deal, man. Hard to beat "free".

 

Oh yeah! The cheapest place I found around here to do the install was 900.00 labor

 

you did right and smart... i was at pettit yesterday... had a nice ride with cam, and fun chatting with moon as he put together a sc kit to ship...

beers

 

Really? Thats cool. I didnt know you were in Orlando?! I was just down there for 4 days for the FRSA convention. How far away is pettit from there?

 

about 2.5 hrs, i took the long way home from naples... this time from pettit to my house took 3.5 hrs... 2 hrs of heavy rain...

what is frsa? next time look me up..

btw,, you are going to love the flywheel...

beers

 

Sweet! Will do...

FRSA was a huge roofing convention in Orlando. I work part time with CMSN (www.cms.net) selling Business Management Software. We had a booth setup at the convention.

I will have to look you up next time I'm down there.

 

Well, I went by the dealership today and saw the car on the ground with the computer hooked up to it. Good sign.. Told me he was going to do some compression test, then take it out for a test drive, then do more final test then the car would be done. Stopped by a couple hours later and saw the car in the parking lot, but it wasnt cleaned up.... I thought, Uh Oh.... Went inside to talk to the tech... After the test drive, they noticed that the engine was blowing oil everywhere. Come to fine out, it is leaking from one of the main seals. Ordered another engine. This is SOOOO freaking annoying... I have almost started thinking about selling this car... who knows....

 

dont think stupidities

 

Haha... i'm not selling it... I was really pissed at the time.. I have way too much money tied up in this car haha

 

but if you do

ill take your corksport off of your hands. you know, because its such a burden!

 

Hahaha! I bet you would...


I just found out that I should have the new motor by friday... I got bumped to the very top of the list for the next one to ship out ASAP

 

wow,

sorry to hear that.. you were so close to having big fun.. better they found it before they gave it to you..


beers

 

Yeah, I would have flipped If i found the car spittin oil like it was.. haha I would have had to have a gasket in my head replaced.

 

Nice pics of the engine and nice they allowed you to upgrade the clutch. Yet, 40,000 miles are low miles and so its scary to see something like this. My 04 AT has 9,200 on it and I certainly don't want to see an engine in it. Yikes. Glad you have the problem taken care of now.

 

hope you get your car back soon. It's good they caught the oil problem though, could you imagine ZOOM-ZOOM'ing on your way home in an engine with NO oil.

 

haha Yeah, that would totally suck! Whats amazing is that they discovered the problem on wednesday, and they said they should have the motor by friday... Monday at the latest... Thats some quick shipping from Japan!

 

the motors aren't coming directly from Japan. When the recall hit last summer, Mazda shipped a bunch of them here so they could distribute to dealerships quicker.

 

wow, great dealer! haven't had any major problems yet, but if i do, i am praying to have a great service dept like yours. scary about the engines though, because i was surprised that yours wasn't an 04, the more common ones. were all the recalls done, etc?

 

Actually, they are now. The motors are on back order. There is a waiting list to get the new motors. Took me 2.5 weeks to get the first one. They are having a problem getting all the old core motors in so they can rebuild them.

 

Yeah, I had already had mine checked for the recall work once, and everything passed with flying colors.

Another thing about my dealer, They do not care at all about performance parts. I have a Canzoomer Stage 2, intake, full exhaust (including the straight midpipe), and underdrive pulleys. None of those were even an issue during the recall process. I asked one of the younger service reps about it, and he said as long as you dont roll your car in with a blown motor due to FI, then you will be fine.

Very cool guys to work with. They are all eager to see the car when I get the Pettit SC.... It will only be there to show off.... no more engine warranty work for me