Trey-Trey

I haven't been on here in a while but a certain situation over the Thanksgiving weekend prompted me to jump back on. Last Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) I drove from Atlanta, GA to Camden, SC (right outside of Columbia). Thanksgiving comes and goes and Black friday comes up. I get into my car that morning to hit up the sales and wham, my car is dead in the driveway. It's flooded and not going anywhere. I didn't shut it off cold or anything like that. I had just taken it on a 4 hour drive 2 days before and only stopped once in Augusta. This is the 3rd time it's happened. The first was when I bought the car and we couldn't even drive it off of the lot. The second was last summer when I turned off the car cold before I realized what I had done.

I could instantly tell it was flooded by that familiar sound I had heard the year before. I called roadside assistance and that Monday had it taken to the nearest dealership in Sumter, SC. The towing company wouldn't take it on Saturday or Sunday since there wouldn't be anyone there to take possession of the car. Now I called the dealership to make an appointment and let them know it was on the way. He asked my mileage and I told him it was right at 49,000 (if I remember correctly it was 49,052). I wasn't worried about the warranty because I purchased the extended one. He tells me that they had just been notified the week before that Mazda had reduced the warranty to 30,000 miles for my issue. I thought he was trying to pull a fast one, until I went up there.

They told me that the week before Mazda has stopped paying their claims on all flooded 8's that were past the 30,000 mile mark. A few days later, they recieved a notice indicating the same thing. It was worded in such a way that Mazda was taking it from the stance that spark plugs were only covered to a certain extent and any issue related to them after 30,000 miles would not be covered. It was a shallow attempt at getting around paying claims for flooded engines. I was told that Mazda's opinion was that you should be well aware and know how to operate the vehicle by 30,000 miles. They had several unpaid claims that they had to eat the cost on since the work had already been done on vehicles that were out the door.

It felt like a slap in my face. I know how to operate the car. I didn't shut it off cold. I'm sorry that they can't fix the problem even though the previous 2 times they said they did and that it would never happen again. Did they just get tired of eating the cost of all the flooded engines? Why wasn't something sent out to registered owner's about changes in the warranty. Well actually they say it wasn't a change in the warranty, it was just further clarification of existing terms. I couldn't tell you how mad I was and still am without severly understating my feelings.

Has anyone heard of this at all? I completely thought they were trying to pull a fast one until I saw it with my own eyes on their computer. What is going on?!

Soravia

Floods are Fuel / Air Injection related. Changing spark-plugs won't do much good. Go fix your car computer ECU or ECM. My Nissan engine had a torrent of gas until I fixed intake vaccume leaks.

4me2

^hotter plugs, stronger starter and battery.

Soravia

Battery to body ground wire is also very important in providing power to the spark-plugs or the ignition will be weak. My Nissan had that issue and the car would bog down past 30% throttle.

crafted_soul

About a year ago, Mazda recalled all RX8 04s and up, so that they could address that problem. All the owners were supposed to take their cars to local mazda dealer to get their comp chip flashed ( reprogrammed ). That was supposed to fix that flooding problem once in for all. It was all for free. they flashed the chip, checked catalytic converter and spark plugs. They even filled up your gas tank.

So my question is........ didn't you take your car to a dealer to get that done? Thats when they extended the warranty to like 50,000 miles....or something. They sent out recall notice to all the owners.

crafted_soul

so..if your car is older than 2006 and you don't know whether the chip was flashed or not, you should take it to the dealer and ask them about that recall and have them check it.

but if it's already been done and you're still having that problem....you're just very unlucky!! :P j/k

Trey-Trey

I received that notice last year. It was right about the time it flooded for the 2nd time. They did all that and even gave me a new starter. It was about $300 worth of work. Even though it was supposed to fix the problem, apparently it didn't. I get notices from Mazda and my dealership all the time about things, good and bad. But yet I have NEVER heard of this warranty amendment. I might be able to understand this applying to cars newly produced going forward, but the fact that it was slapped on even though I purchased the extended warranty is completely bogus.

Soravia

1-800-222-5500 Call Mazada at this number. Choose option 4 and ask the support person if your car had ECu flushed and the CAT replaced.
You'll need the VIN to check on dealer service record.
Warranty for 2004 to 2006 has been extended to 60 months and 60K miles by the factory.

I was in Carmax lot today. They had a 2004 Auto for $17K and 'CARMAX WARRANTY' of 60 months and 60K miles. <_<

crafted_soul

Can you just take it to another mazda dealer and ask again? Maybe..that particular mazda dealer is just trying to rip you off.... cuz everybody knows that the warrranty on these cars got extended to 5 years or 60,000 mil whichever comes first. 40,000 on transmission.

Trey-Trey

I'm looking at the paperwork from the recall visit (2nd flooding incident) from last June. It looks like it was only inspected and not replaced.

Trey-Trey

I'm going to call my regular dealership tomorrow and ask. I was stranded in another state and had to use a dealership I've never been too. But I know enough about my car and the warranty to talk it over with them for a half hour. Now the whole thing smelled crappy to begin with but from what they told me and from what I saw it gave their story some credibility. Either way I'm calling and/or writing corporate to express my extreme displeasure and am demanding re-imbursement. This is ridiculous.

crafted_soul

Well, they don't replace CAT COVTR unless it needs to be replaced. They didn't replace mine cuz it was still good. They only flashed the chip. But then again I never had that problem with my car even before the chip was flashed.

Soravia

I'm thinking of flushing the USDM ECM with JDM to get more power and gas milage.

Damn, it's hard to type ECM after calling it ECU all the time in Nissan cars.

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

MNAO is the right answer. i had mine done about a year ago and was at 39K miles.

Techsan

Anybody know when this happened? What type of warranty are we talking about here...bumper to bumper?

I've been out of country for a few months.

zoom44

drive train

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

^ and right around the time of the recall for compression test.

Like Whoa

my engine flooded about half a year ago when i had approx 35-40,000 miles on the car. they said the same thing to me, its not covered under warranty blah blah blah. so i called MNAO and told them the situation, very politely "i thought the recall was suppose to fix the engine floods, its the 4th time it happened blah blah blah" and the guy was kinda cool, said he'll just call the dealership up and waive the fee. so i walked out a happy man.

DOMINION

My car flooded about 3 months after I got my car and agen about another 3 months after that. Thats when they where reflashing the hell out of my car too. After that it stoped.

Rotary Inspired

iTrader: (1)

Its quite common to change plugs and wires on a rotary every 15-20K I try to change mine every 10K. Yes plugs and wires make a difference. They ignite the air and fuel. Hotter spark better fire.

This will sound harsh. Learn to change your plugs and wires. Not that hard. Its called vehicle maintenence.

DOMINION

^Yeah your like the 3 person who said that.

Soravia

When date was your last ECU flash? Mine was Dec 2006.