So it looks like we are seeing the same two issues more and more. I believe its time to force and investigation in order to get these parts replaced with something a bit more stable. The first is going to be the door lock spring. They seem to be failing more and more on vehicles recently. The second is the visor. There is no reason for visors to be failing at 150 dollars a piece. I think its time we start filing complaints with mazda north america just like with the clutch pedal until something gets done. The visor is a more serious issue since it is causing fuse blow outs. This at night could be risky since you loose the lights to all your gauges.

 

It's puberty, you'll get used to it.

ON TOOPIIICC - Aren't the visors covered under a TSB? Also, when they break, it kills the fuse?!? What causes that? Isn't it just a piece of plastic that snaps to make the visor loose?

Maybe I'm more out of it then I thought....

 

One a TSB is not a warranty replacement just a known issue and how to fix it.

Mine actually did blow the interior fuse. Which is why I have smart fuses that glow when they are blown in the car now. The wires ended up shorting out when my driver side visor broke on me.

 

Hey at least they finally did a recall on the clutch pedal!

 

Wasnt aware it would short fuses but i guess there is electrical going there for the vanity mirror light or w/e. I have not broken my visors yet and hope it will stay that way, and what about the door springs? do the doors just limply hang there when this happens or are you referring to the slamming in your face (happens to me regularly lol)?

 

I totally agree on the visor issue. I baby my RX-8, just barely 10k put on it in the first year, garaged 90% of it's life and last Saturday my passenger side visor snapped from a simple pull down. From the look of it you would have thought the incredible hulk tried to dragon punch the bracket where it connects to the arm mount. Lame.

 

mine did the same. We need to get together and petition a fix on this. All I did was one afternoon driving into the sun reach up and try to flip it down, then came a loud pop and all the lights and interior functions went dead. It was so much fun while I was driving 75mph on the highway to have a cars interior go dead.

 

The visor is a known issue along with blowing out a room fuse.
Just keep the visor in place. Any attempt at using can cause a blown fuse.

 

or even better they can replace mine that is broken with one thats not going to break in the future!

I have already gone through two fuses and don't wish to go through another. The first time it snapped it blew the fuse, and then another time during some hard driving the visor moved on its own being that now it has almost no force holding it up and blew the fuse again.

 

That's why I have not had a driver's visor for a year now. Why fix it if its just going to go bad again. So, hanging down from the ceiling is just the red and black wires, taped up contacts so they don't short each other out.

 

Engine mounts should be something they should consider also. I understand engines mounts go bad, but reading topics were they go bad at 24k-50k, is not something that is right. At least in my opinion, especially when it's always the right one that goes bad first.

 

I dont think it was a recall. Moreso a warranted replacement should it fail.

 

My door lock spring broke but at 117,000 miles so i really can't complain even though it was a colossal pain in the ***. But overall I don't think it is really a "weak part", opening and closing the door abagillion times will eventually cause **** to wear out.

I agree on the visors though, I have had four replaced over the years and my current (updated part) drivers side visor is breaking again. Putting a screw through will be my next move, someone showed me in Vegas how they did an I plan to copy. I have also been looking at other Mazda's to see if I could steal a visor from one of them.

 

I disagree. I was actually thinking about how we could get Mazda's attention to the weak spring in the lock actuator issue. I can see electrical things breaking down over time but not a single-unit mechanical item, especially not a simple spring. Of all the cars my family and I have owned over many years, we have never had a lock actuator spring break in half. And I have never heard of this happening to any of my friends and acquaintances. It's something that should never happen to any car no matter even if the car is 20 years old BECAUSE the consequence- not being able to get into the car- is too serious.

What it sounds like is that Mazda is buying their lock actuators from a company that is skimping. I wouldn't be surprised if Mazda already knows about the issue (as some RX8's are reaching 7 years old) but if Mazda doesn't know about it, then we need to get their attention to it.

We should be able to get reimbursed for the costs even after the warranty expires. I'm glad Doc_Beech has brought this up because I too believe there is a disturbing trend revealing itself.

 

Good luck with that.

 

Honestly, for this to even cross the eyes of Mazda it probably has to:

A. Happen to 10% of all rx8 owners
B. Happen within the 100,000 mile warranty
C. Happen to both doors at the same time to effectively prevent you from getting in the car

Other than that, you can probably chalk this up under 'wear and tear'. From a companies perspective, placing a recall on this would be just like putting out a recall on a window switch that failed after 50k miles

 

The lock is really not an issue.

Hardly any owners hav ethat problem.

 

Hardly any up to this point. Of course they're never going to do anything about it; the numbers don't back that up.

There's two viewpoints here. First, from Mazda's viewpoint, they probably already know the springs are defective and have notified the manufacturer of the actuator or have started buying from other manufacturers. So this may not even happen to cars manufactured in later years. But we're never going to know about it.

Second, from our viewpoint (specifically those it's happened to), the actuator is clearly not manufactured up to par. All we can do is be pissed, complain to Mazda (useless, I agree), and help each other out.

I'm curious what year are the cars that this has happened to. My car is a 2004 bought in late 2003. When it happened, my car was just past 6 years old.

 

My car was built in July of 2003. Locks don't last forever, the grease was all dried up. It's reasonable that the metal parts will then fail from wear.

 

while the lock spring braking might not be of huge concern, the room fuse shorting out from the visor is. Granted my passenger side visor seems fine, and has never clicked or popped, blowing the room fuses twice, and once at night is a concern to me.

 

Prior to this thread I have never heard of a visor causing a fuse to blow. I have had both visors replaced twice and never had a fuse issue.

 

Same thing here, except none of my visors have died, yet.

 

the only time i have read about a fuse blowing when the visor broke was when the person taking off said broken visor just ripped it down instead of being careful.


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