Mazda dealer blew my engine
06-18-03, 01:15 PM
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Mazda dealer blew my engine
I needed an alignment fast, so I dropped it off my mazda dealer.
bad idea, looks they someone was horsing around and blew the engine on the test drive. The service guys don't even have their stories in order, and they're denying any responsibility.
has anyone ever dealt with this? Any suggesstions? i actually have experienced a similar situation happen to me where another car of mine was broadsided and totalled when it was out for a test drive, but the shop (a different one) accepted full responsibility and insurance covered it. This time it looks like I'll need a lawyer.
Looking for suggestions please, thanks.
bad idea, looks they someone was horsing around and blew the engine on the test drive. The service guys don't even have their stories in order, and they're denying any responsibility.
has anyone ever dealt with this? Any suggesstions? i actually have experienced a similar situation happen to me where another car of mine was broadsided and totalled when it was out for a test drive, but the shop (a different one) accepted full responsibility and insurance covered it. This time it looks like I'll need a lawyer.
Looking for suggestions please, thanks.
06-18-03, 01:18 PM
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Ohhh....I've had experience.
11-14- 02 ? Car dies on side of road. I had it towed to Executive Auto to have it looked at.
11-19-02 ? I had to have the car towed to Thelen in Bay City for closer inspection after Executive Auto can do nothing more due to lack of equipment ? they diagnose as an engine failure
A week and a half later the engine arrives ? no work had been done as of yet
11-29-02 ? First of many promised dates (documented)
Many informal ?It will be done by __________ ? dates go by ? about three weeks worth
While my car was in the shop, they had someone come in and sand the metal grates on the floors. They neglected to cover the cars, and metal dust got all over the cars inside, including mine. They did detail the car afterwards, but missed a lot on the inside. It took me over an hour to clean.
Car officially delivered back to me January 10, 2003 ? the coolant light was on, but they said it was normal and was probably just an air bubble in the system. While driving home, I noticed that the car was pulling to the right. When I got home, I looked at the front passenger?s side tire and it was flat. I then had to take the wheel off and wait until the next morning to have it checked out. I took it to Sears auto center, and they looked it over. The only think that was wrong with it was there was not enough air in the tire when the car was released to me, and during a turn the seal broke and the rest of the air leaked out. Thelen did not check the air pressure before releasing the car, and when I went to check the pressure in the other three tires, they were all down almost 10-20 psi.
Drove car for one week ? found major coolant leak (I put in over 1.5 gallons of coolant in this period)
After one week, came home from MSU. I knew that there was a leak in the coolant system, so I tied to see if I could locate it myself to save Thelen time later (I had realized by this point that it took them a very long time to do everything). After taking some of the intake hoses off I found the leak. Coolant was shooting out of a small fitting at the top of the waterpump housing. I then rented a car-carrier and towed the car to Thelen to have them look at it, and confirm my findings. They confirmed the leak and diagnosed it as a faulty water pump housing. They ordered the part the next day.
The housing took 4 days to get there, and it took them a two and a half longer to put it on.
During this time, my car was left out in the back part of the lot where there are no cameras or fences and was broken into. $1000 worth of stereo equipment was stolen.
When the water pump housing was on again, on February 4th, they tried to start the engine and it wouldn?t fire. Asked my dad if I had let it overheat (tried to place blame on me). Turned out Mazda had sent them a faulty replacement engine. Dad told them that it was in no way our fault, and they ordered a new engine. The previous engine only had 300 miles on it.
On the 25th of February I called the Mazda USA Customer Service center and filed a formal complaint.
They took forever again to get the new engine installed. From the email above, you can see that the car was supposed to be done by March 1st at the very latest, but was not put together until March 9th.
Ken test drove it on the 9th and found that there was a turbo boost leak that created a loss of power during acceleration.
On March 10th 2003 they tore the turbo off to find the leak. They located a failed gasket and tried to repair it by making their own replacement. This failed, and on the 12th of March they ordered new gaskets. They also found that a sensor was throwing a code (had a malfunction in it somewhere) and they ordered that, too. They said the parts would be there by the 14th of March.
March 14th ? new gaskets were supposed to arrive, but they did not.
March 15th-16th ? weekend, no work was done
March 17th ? parts arrive at Thelen, they begin to put everything back together again, but failed to finish.
March 18th ? My dad got a page that they had put everything back together and that they had been driving it a little. Everything seemed to be put back together and working, but they wanted to keep it another day so they could drive it around some more and make sure everything was still OK. This is 126 days after the car originally died.
March 19th ? They kept my car for the entire day; test drove it a lot, and found that it was not producing as much power as it should.
March 20th ? Ken had another one of the people there test drive it, and he confirmed that there was not as much power as there should be. They were going to check the catalytic converter and fuel injectors.
March 21st (Friday) ? Thelen spent this day looking for possible solutions to the power problem. The car did not have these power problems during the week I had it back in January. (Day 129)
March 21st ? Only had time to check fuel injectors, which turned out to be OK
March 22nd ? March 23rd ? weekend, no work was done
March 24th - They were unable to find the problem, called Mazda tech support and asked them to fax them information.
March 25th ? Thelen did not receive the information, and did not do any work on my car. They still cannot figure out what is the problem.
March 26th ? Diagnosed problem as ignition related ? could not figure out what specific problem was.
March 27th ? Found problems: 1 ignition wire was bad, 2 electrical wires were connected wrong, and 1 vacuum tube had collapsed. Fixed problems, car ran great. Said we could pick it up the next day (Friday, March 28th)
March 28th ? I picked up the car on this date. When I opened the door, I immediately noticed wires hanging about everywhere, interior panels not connected and one that was broken off. I spent 30 minutes reattaching one of the panels by myself with the service manager watching. As I drove the car home, I noticed that something was not right. It felt as though the primary turbo was not working (or something else messed up with the turbo system). I turned around and headed back to Thelen. After waiting 15-20 minutes for Ken to finish up with other customers, I took him for a ride and explained what I was concerned about. He said that since he had never driven a 3rd generation RX7 he had no idea what they were supposed to feel or sound like, and he told me I should drive it to Lansing to get a second opinion. Although I was frustrated that he did not listen to me, I drove home. When I got home, I popped the hood on the car to see if I could notice anything obvious that was wrong (and that might be causing the problem). I could not find anything related to that, but what I found disgusted and angered me:
1. Airbox was not properly installed, and was not bolted down
2. Headlight cover was cracked
3. Throttle body intake was dented
4. Battery shield was not properly installed, and was just set in place
March 29th ? I was getting ready to go back to school. I got into my car and tried to start it, but it did not start. There was also no interior electrical power. This angered me even more. I was then forced to take the Jeep back to Lansing. After work (around 12:00 midnight) I was driving home and the Jeep died on the side of the road. I had to wait an hour and forty-five minutes for a tow truck to arrive, and pay $65 to have it towed to a shop. While this event was not Thelen?s fault, it would not have happened if I were able to drive my car back to school that day. This last event has stressed me out beyond anything that has ever happened to me, and I feel very depressed and helpless right now.
March 31st ? My dad drove my car back to Thelens to have them find and fix the problem. They found a connection that was kind of corroded and which might be creating a short. They cleaned off the connection, which seemed to fix the problem. They also ordered the parts that they had broken.
April 2nd ? My dad is going to take my car to The Other Guys to have the stereo equipment reinstalled. I should then be able to pick my car up on the 3rd of April, 135 days after I took the car to Thelens (more than 1/3 of a year)
11-14- 02 ? Car dies on side of road. I had it towed to Executive Auto to have it looked at.
11-19-02 ? I had to have the car towed to Thelen in Bay City for closer inspection after Executive Auto can do nothing more due to lack of equipment ? they diagnose as an engine failure
A week and a half later the engine arrives ? no work had been done as of yet
11-29-02 ? First of many promised dates (documented)
Many informal ?It will be done by __________ ? dates go by ? about three weeks worth
While my car was in the shop, they had someone come in and sand the metal grates on the floors. They neglected to cover the cars, and metal dust got all over the cars inside, including mine. They did detail the car afterwards, but missed a lot on the inside. It took me over an hour to clean.
Car officially delivered back to me January 10, 2003 ? the coolant light was on, but they said it was normal and was probably just an air bubble in the system. While driving home, I noticed that the car was pulling to the right. When I got home, I looked at the front passenger?s side tire and it was flat. I then had to take the wheel off and wait until the next morning to have it checked out. I took it to Sears auto center, and they looked it over. The only think that was wrong with it was there was not enough air in the tire when the car was released to me, and during a turn the seal broke and the rest of the air leaked out. Thelen did not check the air pressure before releasing the car, and when I went to check the pressure in the other three tires, they were all down almost 10-20 psi.
Drove car for one week ? found major coolant leak (I put in over 1.5 gallons of coolant in this period)
After one week, came home from MSU. I knew that there was a leak in the coolant system, so I tied to see if I could locate it myself to save Thelen time later (I had realized by this point that it took them a very long time to do everything). After taking some of the intake hoses off I found the leak. Coolant was shooting out of a small fitting at the top of the waterpump housing. I then rented a car-carrier and towed the car to Thelen to have them look at it, and confirm my findings. They confirmed the leak and diagnosed it as a faulty water pump housing. They ordered the part the next day.
The housing took 4 days to get there, and it took them a two and a half longer to put it on.
During this time, my car was left out in the back part of the lot where there are no cameras or fences and was broken into. $1000 worth of stereo equipment was stolen.
When the water pump housing was on again, on February 4th, they tried to start the engine and it wouldn?t fire. Asked my dad if I had let it overheat (tried to place blame on me). Turned out Mazda had sent them a faulty replacement engine. Dad told them that it was in no way our fault, and they ordered a new engine. The previous engine only had 300 miles on it.
On the 25th of February I called the Mazda USA Customer Service center and filed a formal complaint.
They took forever again to get the new engine installed. From the email above, you can see that the car was supposed to be done by March 1st at the very latest, but was not put together until March 9th.
Ken test drove it on the 9th and found that there was a turbo boost leak that created a loss of power during acceleration.
On March 10th 2003 they tore the turbo off to find the leak. They located a failed gasket and tried to repair it by making their own replacement. This failed, and on the 12th of March they ordered new gaskets. They also found that a sensor was throwing a code (had a malfunction in it somewhere) and they ordered that, too. They said the parts would be there by the 14th of March.
March 14th ? new gaskets were supposed to arrive, but they did not.
March 15th-16th ? weekend, no work was done
March 17th ? parts arrive at Thelen, they begin to put everything back together again, but failed to finish.
March 18th ? My dad got a page that they had put everything back together and that they had been driving it a little. Everything seemed to be put back together and working, but they wanted to keep it another day so they could drive it around some more and make sure everything was still OK. This is 126 days after the car originally died.
March 19th ? They kept my car for the entire day; test drove it a lot, and found that it was not producing as much power as it should.
March 20th ? Ken had another one of the people there test drive it, and he confirmed that there was not as much power as there should be. They were going to check the catalytic converter and fuel injectors.
March 21st (Friday) ? Thelen spent this day looking for possible solutions to the power problem. The car did not have these power problems during the week I had it back in January. (Day 129)
March 21st ? Only had time to check fuel injectors, which turned out to be OK
March 22nd ? March 23rd ? weekend, no work was done
March 24th - They were unable to find the problem, called Mazda tech support and asked them to fax them information.
March 25th ? Thelen did not receive the information, and did not do any work on my car. They still cannot figure out what is the problem.
March 26th ? Diagnosed problem as ignition related ? could not figure out what specific problem was.
March 27th ? Found problems: 1 ignition wire was bad, 2 electrical wires were connected wrong, and 1 vacuum tube had collapsed. Fixed problems, car ran great. Said we could pick it up the next day (Friday, March 28th)
March 28th ? I picked up the car on this date. When I opened the door, I immediately noticed wires hanging about everywhere, interior panels not connected and one that was broken off. I spent 30 minutes reattaching one of the panels by myself with the service manager watching. As I drove the car home, I noticed that something was not right. It felt as though the primary turbo was not working (or something else messed up with the turbo system). I turned around and headed back to Thelen. After waiting 15-20 minutes for Ken to finish up with other customers, I took him for a ride and explained what I was concerned about. He said that since he had never driven a 3rd generation RX7 he had no idea what they were supposed to feel or sound like, and he told me I should drive it to Lansing to get a second opinion. Although I was frustrated that he did not listen to me, I drove home. When I got home, I popped the hood on the car to see if I could notice anything obvious that was wrong (and that might be causing the problem). I could not find anything related to that, but what I found disgusted and angered me:
1. Airbox was not properly installed, and was not bolted down
2. Headlight cover was cracked
3. Throttle body intake was dented
4. Battery shield was not properly installed, and was just set in place
March 29th ? I was getting ready to go back to school. I got into my car and tried to start it, but it did not start. There was also no interior electrical power. This angered me even more. I was then forced to take the Jeep back to Lansing. After work (around 12:00 midnight) I was driving home and the Jeep died on the side of the road. I had to wait an hour and forty-five minutes for a tow truck to arrive, and pay $65 to have it towed to a shop. While this event was not Thelen?s fault, it would not have happened if I were able to drive my car back to school that day. This last event has stressed me out beyond anything that has ever happened to me, and I feel very depressed and helpless right now.
March 31st ? My dad drove my car back to Thelens to have them find and fix the problem. They found a connection that was kind of corroded and which might be creating a short. They cleaned off the connection, which seemed to fix the problem. They also ordered the parts that they had broken.
April 2nd ? My dad is going to take my car to The Other Guys to have the stereo equipment reinstalled. I should then be able to pick my car up on the 3rd of April, 135 days after I took the car to Thelens (more than 1/3 of a year)
06-18-03, 01:19 PM
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Then I took it to Chris Sanders:
Banzai Report
1.) 10-15 vacuum lines were connected incorrectly
2.) 2 vacuum lines were not connected to anything, and were just stuffed into a tight space to hold in place
3.) 2 vacuum hoses were blatantly forgotten about, and were disconnected
4.) 1 vacuum line was missing a one way check valve - to replace it, the dealership decided to stick a bolt in one end to clog the line and left the other line open
5.) The intake cover was not bolted down
6.) They used the wrong bolts to bolt things down (random sizes)
7.) The O2 sensor wire was severed, and replaced with a terrible wiring job with regular wire (not insulated), and one side was not even connected to the O2 sensor wire (just pulled out). Also, bare wire was exposed, leaking to the outside and laying right next to bare metal
8.) Charge Relief valve hooked to EGR valve spot
9.) Y-pipe coupler was not tightened down
10.) Did not replace or catch a vacuum line with 2 cracks
11.) Broke off solenoid mount
12.) BOV and ABV hooked up to wrong spot - all boost was coming out through the BOV
13.) Wastegate precontroller connections switched
14.) Charge relief valve hose was not clamped at all
15.) Wastegate precontrollers were not bolted down.
16.) Before fixes the boost pattern was running 5-2-0 (psi), and after 10-7-9 (psi). Stock twin turbos are supposed to run the pattern 10-8-10 (psi).
Banzai Report
1.) 10-15 vacuum lines were connected incorrectly
2.) 2 vacuum lines were not connected to anything, and were just stuffed into a tight space to hold in place
3.) 2 vacuum hoses were blatantly forgotten about, and were disconnected
4.) 1 vacuum line was missing a one way check valve - to replace it, the dealership decided to stick a bolt in one end to clog the line and left the other line open
5.) The intake cover was not bolted down
6.) They used the wrong bolts to bolt things down (random sizes)
7.) The O2 sensor wire was severed, and replaced with a terrible wiring job with regular wire (not insulated), and one side was not even connected to the O2 sensor wire (just pulled out). Also, bare wire was exposed, leaking to the outside and laying right next to bare metal
8.) Charge Relief valve hooked to EGR valve spot
9.) Y-pipe coupler was not tightened down
10.) Did not replace or catch a vacuum line with 2 cracks
11.) Broke off solenoid mount
12.) BOV and ABV hooked up to wrong spot - all boost was coming out through the BOV
13.) Wastegate precontroller connections switched
14.) Charge relief valve hose was not clamped at all
15.) Wastegate precontrollers were not bolted down.
16.) Before fixes the boost pattern was running 5-2-0 (psi), and after 10-7-9 (psi). Stock twin turbos are supposed to run the pattern 10-8-10 (psi).
06-18-03, 01:20 PM
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im sure on the work order they wrote down car ran fine.. they wouldnt have accepted to work on it if it didnt run.. then the mechanic decided to have to much fun... personally get in touch with the regional manager for the shops area.. and call a attorney.. sounds like you got a free engine minus attorney fees of course 
06-18-03, 01:32 PM
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disturbd -
This is what i'm afraid of, a long drawn out expensive resolution, but i see you've taken fairly good records of what happened. I've already started doing that, along with every conversation I have with anyone over there.
I do have someone at Mazda North America Customer Support on it now, he's supposed to call me back sometime after he talks to all the characters involved. Hopefully this will be the end of it but i doubt it.
Question is, if they do say they'll replace it, do i want them to?
This is what i'm afraid of, a long drawn out expensive resolution, but i see you've taken fairly good records of what happened. I've already started doing that, along with every conversation I have with anyone over there.
I do have someone at Mazda North America Customer Support on it now, he's supposed to call me back sometime after he talks to all the characters involved. Hopefully this will be the end of it but i doubt it.
Question is, if they do say they'll replace it, do i want them to?
06-18-03, 01:45 PM
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Originally posted by Buzzfish
Question is, if they do say they'll replace it, do i want them to?
Question is, if they do say they'll replace it, do i want them to?
06-18-03, 01:53 PM
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There is no way in hell you should let them touch your car again. It is truly inexcusable that they would drive your car like that.
Mazda Customer Support has been very good to me in the past with problems.
Part of your settlement agreement should be that they reimburse you for wherever you get the car worked on. I wouldn't settle for any less.
EDIT: That's kind of a poor attitude rx7racer11, Mazda itself had nothing to do with it. Dealers are independent franchises.
Mazda Customer Support has been very good to me in the past with problems.
Part of your settlement agreement should be that they reimburse you for wherever you get the car worked on. I wouldn't settle for any less.
EDIT: That's kind of a poor attitude rx7racer11, Mazda itself had nothing to do with it. Dealers are independent franchises.
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06-18-03, 02:00 PM
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ideally, yeah it would be better to get it dropped in at a good rotary shop, but if Mazda handles it from day 1 then they are still going to be reponsible for it if they screw something up when they install it, or if the engine they drop in is just crap. if i go somewhere else and it isn't perfect right off the bat, I'm paying for it with my own cash or entering into another battle with the new place.
And yeah this car was my daily driver so there's no way I'm not getting reimbursed for a rental.
And the guy I talked to at Mazda was great, very understanding and gave me some confidence that he'll get it straightened out. While i was not impressed by hte dealer at all, I've always been impressed by mazda corporate.
And yeah this car was my daily driver so there's no way I'm not getting reimbursed for a rental.
And the guy I talked to at Mazda was great, very understanding and gave me some confidence that he'll get it straightened out. While i was not impressed by hte dealer at all, I've always been impressed by mazda corporate.
06-18-03, 02:01 PM
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Those rat bastards. That's why I used to only let RP or KDR work on my 7 if I wasn't doing it myself, and why I started up Gotham Racing along with my esteemed colleagues....
06-18-03, 02:18 PM
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hey buzzfish, where in md are you .....??? pm me with the dealer name.... check to see how much milage they put on it....if they were joyriding it will have a lot of miles on it??? right.... mazda dealer scratched my **** up in the car wash...put deep scratches in my paint...i didn't want to go thru the hassel so i let it go... but when i bitched they agreed to repaint the quarters that had damage to it..... when you go talk to the supervisors , or servcie manager take a recorder with you...( iam sure that's illegal ???) or better a witness so that they can vouch for you in court. those ******** always go for a joy ride....one time i came behind a wrx turbo and there were like two mechanics in there and they were laying the smackdown in that car. get a lawyer...make them fix that **** or pay for it... i wouldn't take it back there... take it to a good rotary shop and have them pay for it. good luck to you??? pm turbotime he had a similar incident and got compensated..... did i say they are ******* *** holes....lol...i have been working on my car myself since then so i am the only one taking a joy ride. kevin
06-18-03, 02:18 PM
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My one run in with Mazda was a good one. I couldn't get the screws off of my FPR so put it back together and then drove it to Kingwood Mazda Kia and left it there for two days while they ordered some new O-Rings and Insulators from Malloy for me (why not?). Came out, ran great, everything bolted in.
06-18-03, 02:28 PM
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rynberg is right about this being a dealer issue and not Mazda. Been taking every RX-7 I've owned ('79 GS, '86 GXL, '93 Base) to my local dealer since 1986 without any issues. They have a great rotary mechanic. But every dealer is independent so you need to get referrals. Sounds like the dealer should be on the hook for your repairs as other have said...
06-18-03, 02:48 PM
#14
I didn't read the entire thread. How did they blow the motor on a test drive? They should be able to take it out and drive the heck out of it and really not harm the motor.
Something was probably wrong with the car when you brought it in there.
Something was probably wrong with the car when you brought it in there.
06-18-03, 02:55 PM
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Originally posted by rynberg
EDIT: That's kind of a poor attitude rx7racer11, Mazda itself had nothing to do with it. Dealers are independent franchises.
EDIT: That's kind of a poor attitude rx7racer11, Mazda itself had nothing to do with it. Dealers are independent franchises.
06-18-03, 03:09 PM
#16
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I would definitley pursue this legally. I have had good luck with legal action against Mazda dealerships and mechanics.
I actually had an oil change done about 6 years ago with my FD and a day later my car ran out of oil and the engine seized up on the causeway.... Now in my case I had an extended 7 year warranty with GE and the dealership said not to worry that it would be covered and replaced my engine. Of course Mazda Village was probably the really glad one I had that warranty... I had like an $8k bill but had to pay only my $50 deductible. But I was lucky.
If you do decide to sue them, find out who owns the dealership. Many of these guys aren't incorporated so you get to file against them personally like I did. When joe fat cat dealer gets served with paper's suing him in his name, you can bet you'll get his attention. I got no where with Mazda Village for awhile and then I sued the owner personally in small claims. He obviously realized I knew what I was doing legally and within about 2 weeks I had a $2k check cut to me. (A/C work but that's a long story).
David
I actually had an oil change done about 6 years ago with my FD and a day later my car ran out of oil and the engine seized up on the causeway.... Now in my case I had an extended 7 year warranty with GE and the dealership said not to worry that it would be covered and replaced my engine. Of course Mazda Village was probably the really glad one I had that warranty... I had like an $8k bill but had to pay only my $50 deductible. But I was lucky.
If you do decide to sue them, find out who owns the dealership. Many of these guys aren't incorporated so you get to file against them personally like I did. When joe fat cat dealer gets served with paper's suing him in his name, you can bet you'll get his attention. I got no where with Mazda Village for awhile and then I sued the owner personally in small claims. He obviously realized I knew what I was doing legally and within about 2 weeks I had a $2k check cut to me. (A/C work but that's a long story).
David
06-18-03, 03:10 PM
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disturbd: Man I feel soooo sorry for you on this issue..... I am in So Cal and know a really really good place called Z-Whizz they work on my rotary's. Too bad your not in my neck of the woods then this might not have happened.
06-18-03, 03:11 PM
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Originally posted by rx7racer11
well if you had your engine die at the dealer.. how great would your attitude be... and dealers are bastards in my opionon at least dealers around here try to rape customers every chance they get.. mazda charged me $800 to replace a sensor on my tranny when i later learned the fukin trans didnt need to be dropped/. but they went ahead and did it anyways... if you have a dealer who is honest then good for you .. but 99% are out to screw you..
well if you had your engine die at the dealer.. how great would your attitude be... and dealers are bastards in my opionon at least dealers around here try to rape customers every chance they get.. mazda charged me $800 to replace a sensor on my tranny when i later learned the fukin trans didnt need to be dropped/. but they went ahead and did it anyways... if you have a dealer who is honest then good for you .. but 99% are out to screw you..
I have always had very good dealings with Mazda Corporate.
06-18-03, 03:26 PM
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Originally posted by turbojeff
Something was probably wrong with the car when you brought it in there.
Something was probably wrong with the car when you brought it in there.
Mazda is investigating it, but all they can really do is request a "post warranty service", which mainly has to do with mechanical failure not negligence, etc... So i'll probably have to take the dealer to court, we'll see what happens.
Thanks for all the responses, It's good to vent at times like this.
06-18-03, 05:49 PM
#20
What is the mileage on the motor? What is the condition of the car. What was the failure?
Blown water seal? Probably not their fault.
Broken E-shaft? Probably not their fault.
Broken Apex seal? Probably not their fault.
Run out of water? Their fault.
Overreved? Their fault (rev limiter should catch this anway)
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, just trying to post up some ideas. Many guys that have blown their motors were just driving along and all of a sudden they lose power and have a lumpy idle. Maybe the mechanic just drove it the wrong day.
rx7racer11,
You got screwed, no doubt. What you have to understand is many different types of car dealerships do that, not just Mazda dealers. A female friend of mine has a '01 Chev S10 4x4, in 32K miles the dealership rotated the tires 4x and aligned the front end 3x along with all other kinds of BS maintenence. When confronted they said they recommend ALL 4x4 trucks getting an alignment every 7.5K miles. Seriously...
Blown water seal? Probably not their fault.
Broken E-shaft? Probably not their fault.
Broken Apex seal? Probably not their fault.
Run out of water? Their fault.
Overreved? Their fault (rev limiter should catch this anway)
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, just trying to post up some ideas. Many guys that have blown their motors were just driving along and all of a sudden they lose power and have a lumpy idle. Maybe the mechanic just drove it the wrong day.
rx7racer11,
You got screwed, no doubt. What you have to understand is many different types of car dealerships do that, not just Mazda dealers. A female friend of mine has a '01 Chev S10 4x4, in 32K miles the dealership rotated the tires 4x and aligned the front end 3x along with all other kinds of BS maintenence. When confronted they said they recommend ALL 4x4 trucks getting an alignment every 7.5K miles. Seriously...
06-18-03, 08:01 PM
#21
All it takes to blow up a rotary is to run the **** out of it cold or let it heat soak and then run the **** out of it in cold outside temps or run the **** out of it with little gas in the tank. Many non-rotary folks don't understand the limits of the motor or the faults of the factory electronics. The third gens don't have a bad rep for no reason, it's too easy to blow a motor if you don't take care of it.
06-18-03, 08:50 PM
#22
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But this brings up the question of how much responsibility a shop has when you place a car under their care. If you drop it off in a certain condition, and it is returned to you in WORSE condition then when you dropped it off, shouldn't they have the responsibility? If this is not true, any shop can can take your car, break it, and charge you for fixing it. Sounds like a good idea? I didn't think so.
06-18-03, 10:32 PM
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Originally posted by turbojeff
rx7racer11,
You got screwed, no doubt. What you have to understand is many different types of car dealerships do that, not just Mazda dealers. A female friend of mine has a '01 Chev S10 4x4, in 32K miles the dealership rotated the tires 4x and aligned the front end 3x along with all other kinds of BS maintenence. When confronted they said they recommend ALL 4x4 trucks getting an alignment every 7.5K miles. Seriously...
rx7racer11,
You got screwed, no doubt. What you have to understand is many different types of car dealerships do that, not just Mazda dealers. A female friend of mine has a '01 Chev S10 4x4, in 32K miles the dealership rotated the tires 4x and aligned the front end 3x along with all other kinds of BS maintenence. When confronted they said they recommend ALL 4x4 trucks getting an alignment every 7.5K miles. Seriously...
06-18-03, 10:37 PM
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Buzzfish, IMHO even if it just happend to blow an apex seal or whatever when they test drove it, it's their responsiblilty to fix it. They should return it to you in the same condition (or better). I think most shop owners would agree with this concept. A $2000 reman is very cheap compared to the potential bad pub. Keep in mind his cost of labor is not the $65 or so they charge us. They may have guys standing around. (sunk cost)
Turbojeff is right, it may have just been time to go, or as stated above they ran a cold engine too hard. (I think Turbojeff is most always right)
I took my car to a Mazda dealer today for an alignment. Car runs ok, but I think they screwed up my alignment specs. I posted in the handling section.
Good luck.
Turbojeff is right, it may have just been time to go, or as stated above they ran a cold engine too hard. (I think Turbojeff is most always right)
I took my car to a Mazda dealer today for an alignment. Car runs ok, but I think they screwed up my alignment specs. I posted in the handling section.
Good luck.