Ok to make a long story short.

a Year ago I drove from CA to VA. I hit some debrie in the road and needed two new rims and a new alignment. It sat for 6 months (2 twice a month my dad started it) and when I came back tt never felt right after that.

Steering wheel was fine, but car reacted a bit "loose" at mid-high speeds and it liked to tramal? (follow the road contours) more than normal.

I took it in to get check. The dealer finds nothing wrong, just gives it an alignment. Charges me of course. Does not fix problem.

5 months later I am on the Highway and I hear a POP. Than a grating sound comes from the back drivers tire. I pull over get out and see nothing wrong. Than I ntoice that part of the inner wheel well (the black plastic guard) is rubbing on the tire. I also notice that the tire is pratically touching the top of the wheel well (unlike the correct amount of clearance on the right tire)

Towed to deal.

dealer calls, nothing wrong with car or suspension. They tell me something "came off the road" and ripped my fuel pump cover off. Its $260 to replace...

I was in the car, there was nothing on the road that could have done that.

I tell them about the height diffrence for the wheel / well and they say "we didn't see that" I say well please look again, anyone with a ruler can tell theres something off.

Waiting for call back.

Your thoughts? Did the suspension finally go? Did the cover really pop off?

 

To clarify

I just got off the phone with them again and they said it was the plastic cover surrounding the gas tank filler (the pipe from the gas cap)

Still seems fishy to me..

I am going to pick it up.

 

Ok a follow up.

I went to pick up my car from the dealer and found out there was a 93 dollar charge for simply looking at the car. I was very frustrated at this point and paid and left. Upon arrival at home I took these photos.

They insisted nothing was wrong with my car. Obviously there is... I paid 93 bucks for them to basically do nothing.

Here are the photos of my tire / wheel well.

Drivers


Passenger


What are your thoughts?

 

Your dealer is incompetent. This was made clear when you first brought the car to them and they found nothing wrong.

Find another Mazda dealer for this and any future service.

 

Report their foolishness to MNAO and list your troubles and what dealership here as well.

 

Hey there -

I hate to say this, but I'm not necessarily seeing what you'r seeing. The car does ride a little lower on the left rear than the right rear naturally, although this could be more than normal I guess.

As for the fuel neck cover popping off, it seems to me that it could have been damaged when you hit wha you hit and the wind finally blew it off while you were driving.

I think that what you need to do would be this. First jack the car up and pull the driver's left rear wheel off yourself. Check the bottom of the shock tower and the base of the rear spring and look for oil. If there is pooled oil or dried sticky dirty stuff there, then you probably have a blown shock and would want to get that replaced. If there is no oil or anything on the pring base, then check around the steel bars of your multilink suspension and see if anything looks bent on hanging loose. Check the ends where it connects to the hub and the chassis looking for bushings that might be coming loose or are split. If there is nothing wrong there on a visual inspection, take the car to an NTB or other large chain allignment shop and have the car alligned. They use much better computerised jigs for allignments than dealers do, and see if the car is in allignment and ask them to do a visual inspection. If they find anything, then don't get it repaired there as many of them are crooks, but take that information to a dealer and get them to fix the damage. If the car is in allignment or alligns well for the NTB, drive it and see if that fixes your problem. It could just be a bad allignment and there is no other damage. I find that dealers are terrible at alligning cars.

That's all that I can suggest. Best of luck, and I hope that you track it down and get bak to great driving.

 

Haze

Through those checks you mention. Are any of those items covered under warranty? Would a car under normal driving conditions need any of those replaced by the 26k mile mark (thats where I am at)

Thanks for all your opinions. The dealer called but I was on the other line. I am trying to ahold of guy that called.

 

Update

After alot of talk and no resolution I was offered a refund. I took it and will not be going back to MALLOY MAZDA OF WOODBRIDGE.

 

If you hit something in the road, I would guess that none of the repairs would be a warranty issue.

The alignment is also not a warranty repair.

 

since you are in socal (although far).. if all else fails, take it to the trusty guys at neputespeed in huntington beach... you cant go wrong there.