Hey guys,

I took my car to a stealership in Santa Monica for the sluggishness and strained exhaust sound I posted awhile back. They said the engine needed to be decarbed, and that the unlimited powertrain warranty would cover it. Just got a message from the dealer saying that the rotors and housings have been decarbed, but Mazda won't pay to decarb the injectors and it'd run me $189. Last I checked, fuel injectors are a fairly instrumental part of the powertrain. I think I'm getting yanked around. Anyone else run into this?

 

You certainly are.

First, there is NO unlimited powertrain warranty, unless you specifically purchased one for that VIN number and have documentation to support it. The warranty he is probably referring to is the 8yr 100,000 factory engine warranty or the 5yr 60,000 mile powertrain warranty.

Injector replacement would be covered under the originaly 5yr/60k powertrain warranty, but cleaning is considered a part of maintenance or "wear items", and I've never heard of it being covered. The 8yr/100k warranty doesn't cover the injectors at all. Explicitly states only the engine core, and internal seals.

If your dealer thinks there is an unlimited powertrain warranty though, might want to milk that

 

rofl, oh man gotta love all these wonderful bs, dealerships are pretty creative these days.

 

I should also point out that all the dealer's do to decarb the injectors is run a solvent through them while still installed. It's something you can do yourself in your driveway for $10.

 

Good info. Is there a DIY on it that you know of? Since you might have just saved me $189, I think I owe you a beer at SS13.

 

No specific DIY thread that I'm aware of, but it's buried in several threads. Takes some work (labor), which is most of the cost anyway.

And it's a good thing I went to SS13 last year to take you up on that. Tasted great!


I believe there are a few ways of getting at it. The dealer's method is to pull the fuel link I believe and run the cleaner into the injectors that way. You could also put a can of Seafoam into the gas tank with it at ~25% full, and it will approximately do the same thing. Our fuel injectors typically don't have lots of trouble. Most carbon problems are on the rotors, housing, aux intake ports, intake valves, and oil injectors. Oil injectors is just a matter of dropping it's vacuum line into the seafoam while the engine is running. The rest are more involved, but easily doable.

 

*SS14. Sorry. Will you be there?

Sounds good. I'll grab some seafoam and run it through before I let 'em gouge me. Thanks!

 

No, I can't make it this year.

 

The thrilling conclusion: the injectors were not particularly fouled by the flooding; they wanted to perform routine maintenance on them and mislead me to believe it was required to fix the car when it wasn't. Yeah, I don't particularly recommend Mazda of Santa Monica.