So here's what's happening:

Made an appointment last week on Thurs for 1 PM to have the car checked out so I can finally get my CAT replaced for emissions. So swung by and dropped the car off while I waited. I asked them to run the diagnostic on the CAT and they'll find that it's hollow and I would fail emissions cause of it.

After an hour and a half, the service advisor comes up telling me they need the car longer, and would require me to leave it for the entire day today, or the day after or the Saturday. I was confused why the car needed to be in longer. Apparently they ran the CEL codes, and other codes came up, and they need to follow procedure. One popped up for the intake, fair enough I understand protocol, even though I just wanted them to check the CAT specifically. Called to drop it off on Saturday, but the service advisor (not the same one I dealt with on Thursday) said they were booked full.

So dropped the car off yesterday, Tuesday, told them they could have it all day yesterday and today. So called Scarborough Mazda, and the service advisor, one I spoke with on Saturday, advises me that they can't warranty the CAT replacement. Apparently the District Manager was in yesterday, and claimed it was tampered with, essentially hollowed out on purpose. They said a blown CAT would have traces of the filter, mine however did not. And they said the CAT bolts have been replaced. I asked the advisor if there was anyone else I speak to, and he said he would call me back. Got a call back in 5 mins, and told that I'm SOL. Throughout this I have been calm and orderly. I'm going to be going in tomorrow to pick up the 8, and pay for the diagnostic, since it was not covered due to the denial of the claim.

Some history on my 8:
Back in 2008, when the US dollar first came down, the Mazdaspeed prices came down to. So I decided to purchase my exhaust, along with Thunder. That exhaust was installed at the install meet held at my place. During the week of the order, I had received a CEL, which turned out to be the common code that comes up for 02 Sensor when the CAT filter is breaking down. By the time the exhaust came in, the filter had blown out and into the OEM exhaust. The morning of the install meet, everyone could hear the ratting in my OEM exhaust. We pulled off the CAT, and we did the "ROCK" Test, which was pretty much a rock that was dropped into the CAT and it went straight through. I had no remnants of any filter in there, since it was blown straight into the Mazdaspeed exhaust. Since the CAT bolts were so hard to take off, the car being a few years old, I decided to replace them at that time with new bolts.

PICS here https://www.rx8club.com/canada-forum-35/gi-feeler-install-meet-may-24-weekend-145627/page8/

Since the CAT was off at that time, I decided to take it to the dealership, at that time I was dealing with Mazda of Toronto to have them replace it. However they needed it back on the car before they could. At that time Scarborough Mazda was beginning to take a proactive role on the forum, so I decided to switch to them instead. I decided to wait on the replacement of the CAT till it was mandatory, and since I didn't want what happened to my OEM exhaust to happen to the new Mazdaspeed exhaust.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I am remaining calm, though part of me believes I should be livid. What should I do? The car hasn't gone into an emissions place yet, but even if it did, its guaranteed to fail. I don't understand how this District Manager could make such a call, claiming I intentionally hollowed out my exhaust, especially when it first came off, a ton of the forum members were present. Wouldn't there also be scratches of some sort, if I were to intentionally hollow out the CAT? Should I start contacting Mazda Canada, or go back to Mazda of Toronto. Should I be upset, that Scarborough Mazda has not gone to bat for me on this matter? I understand Al is no longer affiliated with Scarboro Mazda, but so far, my experiences with Scarboro Mazda have not been pleasant this year. This CAT incident has been my second visit to them.

What should I do?

O, and yes the car is under the mileage and years required for warranty replacement of the CAT.

 

Do you still have the stock exhaust with the CAT matrix in it?

If you do take it in and give it to them and tell them you want a new exhaust because you had to replace it cause it was plugged up

 

Unfortunately no, since I junked it, it was sitting in the backyard for a bit.

 

Get some advice on this forum from the aforementioned parties and then perhaps contact Mazda of Toronto. I had a problem resolved with their service manager - Rick Bordeu.

 

I think this might be the best course of action, since I spoke with Rick during 08, and he said they will replace it as long as the CAT comes in bolted onto the car. Plus he arranged to have the paperwork sent to MoT at the time from other dealerships.

 

Two options IMO
1) somewhere else
2) find a screwed up cat but still has it's internals for cheap cheap and swap and go to an new place.

 

This is the problem with waiting for 2 years to get it replace... it's inline with how Mazda Canada has been reacting to the warranty requests these days.

That being said... just having the cat removed at one point or another isn't enough to deny warranty. You could try to argue that the cat hasn't been altered and as you said, there are no tool marks within... not sure if they'd listen to you though....

As for Thump's suggestion #2... I highly doubt that would work... I think the requests are tracked against the VIN.... unless he was to go to the States........

Again folks... this isn't a problem with the dealership (aside from the fact they're not pushing back to Mazda Canada on your behalf)... it's just how Head Office is dealing with claims these days.

I'm pretty sure MC is happy that the 8 won't be around for much longer... less headaches for them and they get to save money on their bottom line. They really don't seem to get the concept of what it is that inspires most people to buy these cars.. that zoom-zoom spirit only seems to exist in Japan and the States.

 

http://www.camvap.ca/eng/consumers_guide.htm

 

Prospect, worst comes to worst go see Mark or Cliff at New Mazmark just down the street from Scarboro Mazda on Crockford. Mark built Al's racing engine on the RX-7 and Cliff is a specialist in custom exhausts. They installed a Magnaflow cat for me at a very reasonable price so I could pass emissions. Mazda Canada's MSRP for a stock cat is unbelievably high, I had one replaced under warranty and the value was supposed to be something like $2800!!!

 

its getting really hard to get cat's replaced lately. borrow one from a friend pass emissons swtich back.

i would be livid just because your young and drive a modded car dosnt mean you hollowed out a perfectly good cat they shouldn't be able to prove it.

ask greg what my CAT looks like not a single sign of any of the mesh.

you can explain to them what happened and how you herd a noise took it apart emptied it out and is why you had to replace the bolts.

this is such bullshit i'm not sure if i would be able to remain completely calm about this.