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need 3rd engine???
I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible. I recently had a fuel injector replaced on my '94 automatic 3rd gen, having had the pulsation damper done 3 months ago as well, to fix a fuel leak that no one could find. In the course of the dealership fixing the fuel leak, they told me I needed a TPS which would control the stalling/irregular idle problems I had. I ok'd the TPS, only to be told 1 week later (this past Friday), while they still have the car, that my engine looses compression when it's hot and when the a/c is on and that the only solution is a new engine. .
Yikes! I've been through this before. 40,000 miles and less than 5 years ago I had an engine replaced for the same problem. This was in '97 and I had 48,000 miles on the car and at that time I had an extended warranty which covered it. I have been in touch with Mazda corporate and am awaiting an answer from them to see if they can do anything. Does anyone here have any suggestions for me. Again, this (my 2nd) engine only has 40,000 miles on it ... total milage on car is 88,000. I love this car, as only the people on the list can understand... bought it new in '94 and I just don't have 3-5K to dump into it at this time. Anyone know any warranty issues that may help?? Thanks in advance for any help or info ... Heartbroken in Vegas...Bev A |
Take it somewhere else than those bastards at dealers!
They don't know how to fix anything, they can barely change oil and manage not to strip something. They may have just knocked off the boost sensor loose and cause the car to barely idle. There is a line under the boost sensor that gets disconnected easily, especially when those monkeys fool around. Bottom line, take it to a rotary shop. How have you managed to kept the car going without a real rotary shop? Amazing |
Unfortunately there is no rotary shop here, and now only 1 Mazda dealership. The mechanic seems to know his stuff... but what do I know... I'm no technical whiz!! This mechanic did the install on my 2nd engine 5 years ago.
We'll see what Mazda corporate has to say this week. Thanks for your help |
I just thought of something... after I replied to your PM.
If your car stalls in hot weather and the idle fluctuates or you have 2 idle (higher RPM in Park or Neutral, and lower when in Drive), your lower intake manifold gasket is leaking intake air. Maybe your engine has the newer metal gasket if it's truely replaced with a remanufactured engine instead of a rebuilt. The original paper gasket is prone to leakage. But it's another thing to check out. As far as I know, there is no such thing as losing compression when the engine is hot. Compression is checked when the engine is off. Maybe he meant vacuum as in a vacuum leak causing bad idle. That would be related to the Lower Intake Manifold issue that I mentioned earlier. Maybe you can update us on what's wrong with the car now so we can offer some more advice. I don't mean what needs to be fixed but what are the symptons of the car. Bottom line, if you can still drive it, I would try a second opinion before dishing out more $$$ on another motor. And, most people on the forum can tell you about the fuel pulation damper before you can spell fuel leak. It's very very popular issue with these cars. If he took the longest time to figure it out, he has little or no rotary experience. |
As you seem to be........
in a uncomfortable situation... document everything... hav them give you in writing exactly what is wrong with your engine,,, sympton as well as how they came to this decision and how they were able to verify same.... then ask forum.... experience is to be called on in times of trials.... Carter
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Thanks for your input.
I brought my car in for the fuel leak repair, aware that I had a stalling problem, but I thought I would take care of the leak first, as it was dangerous. The other(stalling) problem only seemed to occur with the a/c on when slowing for a light, etc. The rpms would drop significantly and then the car would stall completely. The only solution was to shut the a/c before coming to a stop, and then turn it on when I accelerated.The idle has been irregular at other times, as well, regardless if the a/c was on or not, but it didn't stall without the a/c. So I picked up my baby today, and it is running worse than ever. The whole car seems to be shaking while driving, and of course, the stalling problem is still there. The service manager told me replacing the TPS would alleviate these problems, which it didn't. The diagnosis from the dealershoip is "Road tested veh after repairs and found veh stalling when coming to a stop with the a/s on. Checked veh out and found engine compression below specs. Check engine vacumm & found vacumm is too low to keep engine running. Found engine is weak. Customer declined further repairs at this time. Recommended engine repairs" That is Exactly what the dealership wrote on my bill. This, after replacing a fuel injector, THR sensor. and the 3 way valve (the TPS??) Well, that's the most recent info on my on-going nightmare. As I am the original owner, I'm in the process of documenting EVERY repair that has been done to the car, including the replaced engine. In going over all of these, I see that this is my 3rd TPS and I have already put in 2 EGR valves, which they said I need right now, as well. Thanks again for everyone's help Bev |
U have a vacuum leak which causes poor idle, stall, and low compression. Where is the leak? It could be a variety of places such as a broken vacuum hose, a blown LIM gasket (very likely if your remanufactured engine didn't come with the new metal gasket), bad solenoid.
I recommend first reading your ECU for error code. There is a write up on how to do this below. It's very simple. http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/engine_codes.html If you get any code, start with fixing this first to see if that helps. |
follow- up
Just as a follow-up, I had contacted Mazda North America about my problem and one of their top executives (who shall go unnamed here) told me that, with these engines, it is unfortunately often "the luck of the draw". I replied to him that even though I live in Las Vegas, I didn't realize I would be gambling when I bought this car new in '94 for $40,00!!!.
He was unwilling to do anything further, so I wrote to Mazda Japan. After many correspondences, they gave me a new engine, and I had to pay the labor costs. Sounded like a great deal until the local dealership got their unskilled hands on the car, again. It took them a couple of months to get the engine in, with the car sitting in pieces in the shop. I have photos if anyone is interested in seeing them. You would be appalled by how this shop worked on a performance vehicle - leaving parts sitting in a heap like junk. Long story short, they finally put it back together again and sent me on my way. My advice - if you have a problem like this, pursue it all the way to the top. It's worth the effort. |
"I replied to him that even though I live in Las Vegas, I didn't realize I would be gambling when I bought this car new in '94 for $40,00!!!."
Classic!!! And I love the 7 years later Follow up too.. DID it take the dealer that long to do the JOB?? J.K. |
Congrats on the new motor. Good to hear that Mazda stood behind their product.
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Yikes. Didn't realize this was from 2002 at first, I was going to tell you to ship the car to us in NJ :D
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yet more
Well there's more... I ended up selling my baby some months after and the a**hole that bought it didn't realize he was buying a high performance car. He just got excited (I could be a lot cruder in my description), when he saw the car but was clueless.
Long story short, he burned the engine and sued me for misrepresentation. I hope he's (Harvey) reading this. He lied through his teeth when we went to mediation, and typical Vegas-style, his attorney was buddies with the the mediator, and you can imagine how that turned out! That car was cherry...I bought it new and kept it in immaculate condition. Further, I knew more about that car than many mechanics, as a result of $30,000+ repair work... much of it under warranty. I do miss that car terribly and someday hope to have another one. I've seen the RX-8 but it just doesn't do it for me. The 3rd gen had it all.. beautiful aesthetics and amazing performance. Oh well, don't mean to be preaching to the choir here! ;-) I also have a couple of original items to put up for sale but I don't have the requisite # of posts yet...stay tuned ;-) |
what do you have? I probably need it, the last owner of this car really tore it up and I am trying to restore it as best as my wallet allows me at the moment.
I am not gonna say damn kids because I might be considered one but my disability money isn't enough for me to get this thing done anytime soon. |
looking back on it, 40k out of a remanufactured engine is not surprising, considering they were assembled by questionable people until very recently when Mazda established their new facility.
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I know you sold the car but the lesson learned here was not to go to the top but to STOP using dealerships and find a reputable small specialty shop to do the work. This forum is really handy in that department.
After the 1st engine I would have thought you would have lost all confidence in the dealership. Second lesson learned? Never buy an automatic sports car. Its an oxymoron. :D |
Point(s) taken, however a lot of the work done was under the manufacturer's warranty and I was of the understanding that I had no choice but to take it to the dealership. That, in addition to the fact that back then there weren't any good rotary shops here.
I'm kind of out of the loop now, so perhaps there are some mechanics here in Vegas who know how to work on the car. Anyway, the car's sold so no need to find a mechanic at the moment. |
Sent you a PM
sorry that message was meant to go to oyy0 ...this message board has me thrown a bit as to it's workings...ah well, can't be brain surgery! |
I neglected to say thank you to everyone who posted responses to assist me with this issue...so thanks
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Just moved to Philly (from Vegas) so I haven't been on this forum for a while. I have 2 original covers - the blue one and the gray cover. They are both in the original packaging, as I purchased them new when I owned the car.
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D'uh I forgot to add that I will be happy to take pics if you are interested in either one.
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PM SENT I am interested in the blue cover just to make shure are these for a touring?
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Wow.....every FD has a long story like this behind it, it seems
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I am glad I did not have it tuned at Elite. I am sure that in the tuning process, they would have suggested that they can't tune it because "something else" needs to be fixed resulting in more work/money for them.
My car runs amazing now after having the Banzai team work on it. |
Edit: wrong thread, sorry
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I hate to add to the choir here but I ordered $6,000 worth of stuff from Sal/Sam (whatever his name is) last January. That's more than 4 months ago!!! SOME of the stuff showed up (high quality parts I admit!) but much of it did NOT show up and he's been stringing me on for month after month. Eleven days ago he told me he was shipping it out (Saturday, April 2nd) on the following Monday (April 4th). He NEVER answers his phone, he NEVER returns emails, he NEVER leaves messages and rarely calls back when his secretary says he will.
This makes me sad because I put a throttle body on pre-order (supposed release is in two days on the 15th of April, 2022) along with some other stuff and now it looks like I'm gonna have to dispute the chare with my credit card company because, as you may have guessed, I never got a tracking number and never got the remaining parts Sal/Sam promised. And, of course, he has totally ghosted me. Here is a copy of the last email I sent him a few days ago along with his response... now, when you read it you're gonna say, "Why didn't he just answer the questions in the email? Why did he justify the phone-tag crap when he could have just answered the questions right then and there?" The answer is: That is a good question! Here it is:Hey Sal4 Yahoo/Sent
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