VENT WARNING

Original engine replaced just within warranty - hooray.

Coolant leak in replacement engine just five months later (after a careful run in period). Now Mazda in California are "not sure" that the engine can be replaced under warranty!

Point one what the hell sort of quality are they building these remanufactured engines to?

But secondly - what the hell is there to think about?

I am probably selling the car, am leaving to go back to England in about three weeks and they are sitting on their hands. If this wasn't a polite place I might say something that sounded a lot like "our souls".

They have royally screwed me and are now twiddling.

I should be getting compensation for all the time the car is off the road thanks to their crappy build quality not having to fight to get the warranty honored (BTW anyone know what the official warranty on a remaned engine is?).

Sorry to vent but just sooooooooooooooooooooooo pissed of with Mazda and this car in particular.

I often describe the Rx8 as an Arabian thoroughbred mixed with an Appalachian mule.

Piece of crap car with some very good bits is my current appreciation of it :-(

I HATE MAZDA... there I said it.

Aloha and thanks for listening. Sorry to vent but OMG what are they like?????

... ... ...

Steve

PS Oh BTW should also mention that after a new engine, BHR coils and a replacement (second hand) throttle body the car STILL drops to low revs at traffic lights. It almost never stalls now, so I should be grateful for small mercies I guess. But the new engine was supposed to be a fix for this ... sorry but Mazda advice to local dealer always seems to just cost money (except for the new engine) and not fix things.

 

Yeah, coolant seal failures are the typical failure method of reman engines when they fail really early. Quality is generally better, but still hit or miss. Not that it's any comfort for people that get a miss.

If you are still within the 8yr 100k, there shouldn't be a problem.

If you are within the 1yr 12,000 mile sevice warranty you MIGHT be able to get coverage.

I called MNAO about this about a year ago, and there is no official policy on if an engine replaced within the extended core warranty could be replaced under the 1yr 12k warranty if the car is no longer within the 8yr 100k. It is "entirely up to the discretion of the district manager over that dealer".

This does mean that if one dealer denies you, in theory another dealer in another district (if near enough) could accept it.

 

Seriously? They can install a piece of **** that lasts for five months and then just walk away. I MAY still be in the warranty but I think it ran out in August.

LOL in the middle of the Pacific. Guess I could try shipping to another island!

Thanks for the very worrying info!

Steve

PS Looks like protest outside the dealer might be called for! Advantage of small island - local paper picks up evrything!

 

Ah, didn't realize where you are. Yeah, you are probably going to have some trouble there. Good luck with that paper route, it is a viable option and may actually get you some traction.

 

Dang warranty ran out 31st Aug :-(

I was going to dress up as a turkey but too close to Thanksgiving. Think I will put up a stand with lemons giving away lemons and make lemonade.

EDIT: Ooops I meant 31st JULY not August

 

This is why I refuse to own any other Mazda vehicle for transportation purposes

Race car yes, street vehicle no f'ing way

 

From your post, you really hate the rx8 and the company Mazda itself, and will not buy another Mazda ever. Anyway, sorry on what happened, and i wish you luck.

 

Pointless post is pointless...

 

I agree 100% with the above statement. Mazda Canada is a joke to deal with and I've been to many different dealers between my 8 and my old Miata and rarely was service good.

If I ever get another Mazda I will probably go back to an NA or NB miata. Well outside of any warranties so I don't have to deal with Mazda and they are super reliable and have a very good aftermarket support.

 

I have just talked directly to Mazda and, indeed, they can stick in an engine that lasts for about 3,000 miles and claim "it's not our fault"!

More interestingly I have just only realized that, almost certainly, I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars and tens of hours on this car when the engine was already faulty.

I put in new (lovely) BHR coils (after putting ordinary coils). It flooded a couple of times and I spent a week once trying to get it going and the only way I could get it to fire (after having the plugs out for two DAYS) was to squeeze syringe of oil into the ports so the flappy old seals got enough seal to allow compression.

I put in a new throttle body etc.

Anyone else have similar incompetence or tales of woe.

I may be about to start a media campaign and the more info the merrier.

Or alternatively anyone spoken to anyone in Mazda with any customer service flair who might see I have been royally screwed over and get me some compensation.

TIA
Mr Grumpy

 

Yeah, sorry man

Not just Mazda though, any manufacturer and do that to you, not even just car manufacturers.

 

I hate to say this, but your car is now officially out of warranty.
They don't need to do anything else to make you feel any better about the car.
If you drove it more, you would have had it fail again while it was still under warranty, and they would have replaced it, but you didn't drive it enough.

There comes a point where a company has to cut ties with its responsibility to ensure your car is mechanically perfect. Consider yourself lucky that your car got a replacement engine so many years after its original 3 year warranty expired.

Seriously, it's time to let things go.
In this case, it's Mazda being on the hook for replacing your engine on their dime.

Now, pull your engine, and send it to someone who knows how to rebuild it properly, and get some use out of the car.

Oh, wait, you're leaving the country.
Just sell the car, and go have a spot of tea.

BC.

 

Thanks bro!

 

That's a load of horse ****. Mazda should be embarrassed that **** like this happens, and after only 5 months they should be doing everything they can to assist since there must have been something wrong with the engine they installed.
Mazda can eat my ***.

 

Blade Cutter are you REALLY saying that a reputable company would fix a car with an engine that lasted only five months and under 3,000 miles? That is worse than Land Rover!

As to the "you should have driven it more" comment. I am pretty speechless.

I have had this car for a year and a half. It had problems stalling from day one and almost certainly had a buggered engine then. I have spent thousands of dollars and many tens of hours fixing it. I had it compression tested and they said it was fine.

At the last minute after everything else had been tried Mazda told them to do another test and all of a sudden it failed.

And before you say take it to another dealer - where the hell would you suggest? Valley Isle Jim Falk motors are the ONLY people on the island who have a compression tester.

Not quite sure what the point of your message was except that I should be grateful that an engine lasted 3,000 miles.

I have tried to drive the crap out of it but if you care to look at a map of Maui then you will see a) there are few long roads to dash around and b) our highest speed limit is 55 mph.... I MAY have driven a "little" faster than that (checks over shoulder) but "you should have driven more so the engine broke sooner" is .... well words fail me.

Now has anyone any experience of Mazda doing the right thing? And before BC says well you got 60 days over the warranty driving out of it...

PS Oh BTW I am not sure that not wanting coolant in the ignition chamber is me asking for my car to be "mechanically perfect".

Mechanically perfect would be a car where the rear lights don't fill up with water, a car with coils that don't need replacing every 10 months or so, a car where undertray etc and splash guards do not fall off all over the place, mechanically perfect might be a car where the tabs on the air filter, fuse box and battery cover are strong enough so they do not ALL fail, mechanically perfect would be ... well maybe not an Rx8. Fun to drive, great chassis but design finished by an incompetent committee. (My favorite is still the rear lights - which I have fixed BTW but really!) I could put up with the crap if I hadn't spent a fortune fixing a problem that should have been diagnosed before I bought the machine.

 

I would say speak with the service manager or general manager at your dealer. See if they are willing to contact their area Mazda rep to look at the issue. I used to do customer service for Ford U.S. years ago and in a situation like this that was usually the best bet. If Mazda customer service dept in the US is anything like Mazda Canada then they will only take a complaint as they're useless **** up here.
Good luck.

 

Yeah and if you have another shop install a reman and the reman is bad, forget about it. Don't ask how I know.

 

The important questions, in my thinking: What exactly is it doing? Is this an internal or external coolant leak? If it has failed water seals (Internal), what went wrong?

A very important area for people to think about, when installing a replacement rotary engine, it is essential to test the pair of cooling fans. Failed fans on these older cars is more and more common these days. Even with that said, they could be tested perfect and fail 3 months later; the nature of machines. A failed fan can and likely will ruin your engine if not attended to.

I'm not saying that any of this is describing your predicament necessarily but, stuff to think about.

I hope something works out for you.

Paul.

 

Except any competent service dept. should check for this and any other related issue on the car and report it as the reason they are declining warranty. There are similar reman internal coolant seal leak/failures on the forum. The service dept. must prove there was an overheating event if they believe this rather than use it as an excuse to stiff a customer. The fans only function under 5 mph regardless, which is idle or very low engine load conditions. I've run more than one factory Renesis engine on a the dyno under WOT conditions at at temps most would consider danger territory for seal failure and not lost one yet.

Would a customer come on here and have a blow out about how they hate Mazda etc. if they knew the car overheated, but are not being honest about it? I suppose anything is possible, but not likely. It doesn't matter if the main vehicle warranty expired. Any manufacturer that can't provide an engine with at least a 1 year/12,000 mile warranty is a disgrace to the automotive industry.

Call me jaded. I had too many bad MNAO service experiences.

However, the new Toyota FRS/Subaru BRZ has water in the rear taillight issues too it's not so much that there's an issue like this etc., how it's addressed and handled is the real issue.

 

I believe warranty expiration is the reason for denial, and they have every legal right to stand on that, as terrible as it is for the OP.

 

for what its worth i agree that they should cover the new engine for 12months/12k miles, but in actual fact when you get your engine replaced under the 8year/100k warranty extension, its not extended.

IMO they should make this clearer to people as even i thought there was a parts warranty on the replacement engine. i've had this explained once, and i'm going to butcher it, but in a legal sense, it has something to do with ownership.

 

Yes. From my understanding, the 12m/12k is a warranty covered by the dealership, the 8yr 100k is covered by MNAO (or their financing arm or whatever). When an engine is replaced under the 8yr 100k, the dealer has no obligation to also extend the 12m/12k service warranty.

They might, they might not, but it is entirely up to them either way.

 

Agreed that legally they have the right, but should they deny it? The simple answer is after 5 months and 3000 miles, no they shouldn't. Assuming there is no misuse/abuse, they obviously installed a defective part. A warranty is useless if the service provided is garbage.

 

I entirely agree with you. Replacement engines should be covered independently. It would certainly solve a lot of the problems with faulty remans, since if they fail really early, they tend to fail within 10k and from a coolant seal failure from shoddy assembly.

Unfortunately, "should" doesn't mean "is". Any coverage he can get from Mazda is for customer service or PR related only. There is nothing that legally compels them to cover it.

One of those areas where the facts of life aren't what we would like them to be.

 

We're going to have 15 year old rx8s and people on the forums saying "mazda told me I need a new engine, shouldn't they have to warranty this reman?!". People, the line has to be drawn somewhere. Think about what project or job you were doing 8+ years ago and ask yourself if you should still be hearing about it and expected to continue to deal with it today. Unless you have a 7 year old kid running around, the answer is probably "no".