Someone Help me Please!!!!
Thread Starter
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Easton, PA 15 mins from KDR
Someone Help me Please!!!!
hey guys i'm in of some advise,
i took my 88 se to the dealer on wendsday to have it worked on thursday. it drove like a beauty, it felt like she was proforming the best she's done in a long time. and then thursday when i get home from school i have a message from the guy at mazda saying that "my car smokes so much that he can't keep it in the garage long enough to work on without killing all 18 mechanics" when i go over there to talk to him he tell me he thinks my engine's shot...but just wendsday morning and all afternoon it was behaving like a new car. we went out to the lot to start the car and it was smoking like crazy there was even smoke comming up the shifter!!! i'm sooo pissed now i don't know what to do! i think that the people there were messing around with my car after i droped it off. but i don't know what to do!!! someone please help me out!!!
thanks guys
andy
i took my 88 se to the dealer on wendsday to have it worked on thursday. it drove like a beauty, it felt like she was proforming the best she's done in a long time. and then thursday when i get home from school i have a message from the guy at mazda saying that "my car smokes so much that he can't keep it in the garage long enough to work on without killing all 18 mechanics" when i go over there to talk to him he tell me he thinks my engine's shot...but just wendsday morning and all afternoon it was behaving like a new car. we went out to the lot to start the car and it was smoking like crazy there was even smoke comming up the shifter!!! i'm sooo pissed now i don't know what to do! i think that the people there were messing around with my car after i droped it off. but i don't know what to do!!! someone please help me out!!!
thanks guys
andy
Refined Valley Dude
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,283
Likes: 2
From: Kitchener, Ontario (Hamilton's armpit)
Please tell us exactly where the smoke was appearing. You said out of the shifter.
- did you look at the motor while it was running with the hood up? If so, where was the smoke coming from?
- was it smoking out of the tailpipes?
- what colour was the smoke? What did it smell like?
- what work was the shop supposed to do on it?
Advice for the future - with rare exception, Mazda dealerships have no idea of how to work on rotaries. Never go to the dealership for anything other than parts.
Go to the Regional Forum that covers your area and ask for references for shops that are near you.
While it seems pretty clear that the shop fucked something up (and good luck getting them to admit it
) don't jump to conclusions yet. Coincidences happen all the time on these cars.
- did you look at the motor while it was running with the hood up? If so, where was the smoke coming from?
- was it smoking out of the tailpipes?
- what colour was the smoke? What did it smell like?
- what work was the shop supposed to do on it?
Advice for the future - with rare exception, Mazda dealerships have no idea of how to work on rotaries. Never go to the dealership for anything other than parts.
Go to the Regional Forum that covers your area and ask for references for shops that are near you.
While it seems pretty clear that the shop fucked something up (and good luck getting them to admit it
) don't jump to conclusions yet. Coincidences happen all the time on these cars.
Full Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 176
Likes: 0
From: Salt Lake City, Utah
Bring it up with the Manager for sure. Find out EXACTLY what they did after you dropped it off. Make sure if your not happy you go the the BBB. That will work sometimes
-- Thats shitty.. sorry
-- Thats shitty.. sorry
Man Do as AMUR said get all those things that he asked you, then contact a lawer for a quick "what are my rights?" deal, then go talk to the manager tell him that it wasn't smoking when he braught it in, then if they tell you there is nothing you can do deal with the BBB and Your lawyer! trust me you can't go wrong! Even if it was a coincidence that your motor poped in their posetion, that is their problem! they are liable! LEGALLY, mind you the laws are different from place to place!
Thread Starter
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: Easton, PA 15 mins from KDR
no i didn't get to check under the hood yet...the smoke was comming out from the tailpipes and also the shifter...the smoke was puffy and white...the shop was going to check my electrical system involving the brakes
Refined Valley Dude
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,283
Likes: 2
From: Kitchener, Ontario (Hamilton's armpit)
Go back at your first chance and:
a) smell the smoke. White smoke strongly suggests coolant (sickly sweet smell,) which would mean a popped motor, which would mean that someone at the shop may have taken your 7 for a joyride, or else messed with something under the hood that they shouldn't have. Coolant seals don't just randomly fail.
b) Get the hood up with the motor running and do your best to locate EXACTLY where the smoke is coming from.
If the smoke was coming through the shifter, I would just take that to mean that the shifter boots are destroyed (and so the smoke is getting in.) If this made you wonder if the smoke had something to do with the tranny, don't. You'll be wasting your time.
What smoke coming through the shifter says to me is that the source may be near the shifter. One of the joints in the exhaust system, somewhere between the main cat and the header, may be leaking and that is the smoke that you are seeing at the shifter.
It sounds a lot like somebody at that shop fucked with your 7. There's no way that brake work could cause this. Get some legal advice, and find an experienced rotary mechanic (i.e. a trained, experienced professional - someone whose statements about the motor will have bearing in a lawsuit) who can look at the car and tell you what is wrong, what is most-likely to have caused it and how to fix it.
If the motor isn't popped (knock on wood) I'd say cut your losses and never have contact with the dealership again (if you try to sue them you'll probably be in for a long, ugly fight - Mazda is very stubborn about their shitty customer service policies.) If they did pop the motor, sue them. Rebuilds aren't cheap and they should pay for it.
Good luck, and get your butt back out there and tell us what is going on!
a) smell the smoke. White smoke strongly suggests coolant (sickly sweet smell,) which would mean a popped motor, which would mean that someone at the shop may have taken your 7 for a joyride, or else messed with something under the hood that they shouldn't have. Coolant seals don't just randomly fail.
b) Get the hood up with the motor running and do your best to locate EXACTLY where the smoke is coming from.
If the smoke was coming through the shifter, I would just take that to mean that the shifter boots are destroyed (and so the smoke is getting in.) If this made you wonder if the smoke had something to do with the tranny, don't. You'll be wasting your time.
What smoke coming through the shifter says to me is that the source may be near the shifter. One of the joints in the exhaust system, somewhere between the main cat and the header, may be leaking and that is the smoke that you are seeing at the shifter.
It sounds a lot like somebody at that shop fucked with your 7. There's no way that brake work could cause this. Get some legal advice, and find an experienced rotary mechanic (i.e. a trained, experienced professional - someone whose statements about the motor will have bearing in a lawsuit) who can look at the car and tell you what is wrong, what is most-likely to have caused it and how to fix it.
If the motor isn't popped (knock on wood) I'd say cut your losses and never have contact with the dealership again (if you try to sue them you'll probably be in for a long, ugly fight - Mazda is very stubborn about their shitty customer service policies.) If they did pop the motor, sue them. Rebuilds aren't cheap and they should pay for it.
Good luck, and get your butt back out there and tell us what is going on!
Last edited by Amur_; Apr 18, 2003 at 04:55 PM.