So the dealer finally got in the last part they needed to install my engine after a month long wait(a OMP). I called them today to ask how the install was going since it had been about a week since I had talked to them last. I was told the new engine was put in.

Now onto the bad part...... I was told the engine that was just put in had no compression and they had to order a new one. WTF....

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/bad-excuse-173376/

That was a link to an old post I had made. I really really think something odd is going on. I just dont understand how a part can be on back order for a month then a fresh reman engine can be bad.

I feel really burned and out of the loop. I am a electronic technician by trade and am very good at cutting out the shitty excuses and this one just seems to out of whack. To much bad stuff happening all to fast for any one repair.


Eah on the other hand last time I got a major repair done on a engine they forgot to change the oil and my Miata engine grenaded all the barrings in 500 miles.... man that thing was stout! I may be over thinking this.... I guess for now I will enjoy the Heck out my chevy aveo! What else can I do.


I know for a fact they will not give me details on a the engine #s or I would ask and pass on the info....... I really should have picked up the that engine for 1900 that I saw the other week.

 

IN my opinion, they're 100% bullshitting you

Cuz when they replace my engine, which Was just like what, 2-3 months ago. they announced engine death on Thursday or Friday. Then the engine came on Tuesday or Wednesday. Of course install went well and engine compressions are good. I went home happy the next Monday.

I read that they dont reuse housing and seals and other important stuff except for maybe Rotor and some other minor stuff. so a Rebuild is pretty much a "new" motor in my book. and all rebuilds came from VA now and they're pretty decent. so yeah they're bullshitting you.

 

Yeah the service guy..... he seems like a really cool dude we are both Vets and he always answers my phone calls or calls me right back but man sorry dude I really don't believe you. All I really want is someone to be truthful to me. If they fucked up the install please tell me. If they broke the OMP from the start tell me! If they were making up bull crap excuses to do the warranted work tell me...... I just want the deception to stop. Its been three months. I will never go back to this dealer ever ever again.

On a side note what do you guys think of water injection from mile #15?

 

3 months ... you should really tell them to pay for your insurance and/or car payment(if u're still paying) , cuz its just ridiculous.

Obviously they fuxked something up ... and they're trying to hide it.

Worst case scenario they probably joy ride your car and bump into a wall ... and they're fixing that without telling you of course.

you better go check your car, even they say your car is not ready. Dont tell them you're going tho. Walk into the lot, find your car. and exam it.

 

Dude Ipaq is a joke. The service guys are cool but i don't believ that. PM sleepy Z (works at the reman plant) and ask him what the odds of that are. When North park did my engine it took two or three weeks tops.

 

Do you have a loaner or rental car from the dealer?

 

Hey old rotor. I had a loner but am kinda scared shitless cuz the place that is providing me with the loner is not the place that is fixing it but the place i bought it from and are going out of business. So I was told Mazda would not pay for or provide an alternate form of transportation. boo. I may be with out a car for a few days we will see.

Eah I think cuz the dealer I got the car from is actually giving me a car to use is a way for them to cover there azz from the lemon laws but when they are no longer in business......

No I dont even care about this Loner/rental thing. I just really wish the people doing the work would tell me the truth. I do really feel like I am not being told the whole story. I wish there was a way I could check up on them in a better way. I have showed up at random before but they just push me away. I wish I knew someone that could talk to them with some Ahem (clout). If anyone is willing to do such PM me!

 

Im pretty sure your car is not on the lift right now, they need any space they can all the time, so they can rip poor souls out there and charge them 100 bux for a gas cap CEL.

walk to the dealership, walk straight to their parking lot. and look at your car, check for damages. Remember, its your car afterall, you have the right to look at it anytime.

 

Right on I will...... How do I approch them with a smack down no holds bar aditude? Do I really even need to hold back?
I'm really bad..... in my adult life I put the Mo Fo En smack down on idiots like this. I just have a really hard time doing so in my personal life And the service manager kinda made me like him more then i would with the whole dude im a vet also thing.
I just really want to know what the Ef is going on..... the true story.

 

They probably wont tell you. They've been lying from the very beginning.

it does NOT take 3 months to order a new engine, Alright fine lets just say for some "weird" reasons there are no Reman out there in the WHOLE America for 2-3 months. they can tell Mazda that "customer is waiting too long and he is complaining." Im pretty sure Mazda will have no problem shipping a brand new engine from Japan.

You should first complain at MNAO. tell them you're been waiting for something that should take About 1-2 weeks to be done. IS this the way Mazda does their business and such and such. Talk in a civil matter, dont get ****. nice and calm. After that Im pretty sure you will get your car back within a week.

 

Well I normally stay outta the tech area but here are thoughts.....

First dealers are known to hold engines towards the end of months in order to see if they get a bonus for the month. I worked for a dealership before and they all mostly opperate like this, service/parts has a sales #, lets say $15000 for the month, if they reach it they get a bonus so they hold out on expensive jobs(ie engine) towards the end of the month, if they need the sale to get there bonus then they order it. If they dont obviously they push it into next month. I really hated doing shipping at the end/beginning of each month I was swamped with orders, but now I just build fulltime.

Second, we have been low on MT engines honestly, we had a terrible month in november on assembly, lets just say we assembled more this week then that month. A coworker died in a car wreck and it destroyed the line for a while, there is a small wait on engines. Also MT eninges have been hit and miss, we are literally breaking them down as they arrive, too many bad parts and we wont use bad parts so some are getting tossed.

Third, sometimes mechanics honestly screw up the install, we have found odd things dropped in the oil filler pipe that once the car is started destroys the engine. Also something can get caught in the intake ports during install. We run the engines 22 mins and run a compression test afterwords, not saying that means its perfect and it will run, theres always a chance of something happening.

Fourth, We have had engines come back dropped on delivery, mounting points(bell housing mainly) broke by the dealer when they installed. Its always "our fualt" somehow despite the fact that we ran the enignes and mount them to the bell housing in doing so lol.

There taped and plugged so nothing gets in them but stuff happens I suppose.

My guess is either the mechanic dropped somehting in it accidently on the install or something somehow was in it and didn't break free until they got it. Either way we investigate it here, we have seen false records and so on come in , we actually stopped dealing with one dealer which wont be mentioned but they cant buy reman motors anymore so that answers that.

As for whats a rebuild, its new rotors, rotor housing are 50/50 new/used(they are measured for reuse), front/int/rear housing are also 50/50 replaced, front covers are 50/50 based on condition/appearance. Flywheels are usually replaced with new unless they are obviously in almost new condition. Oil pans/water pumps are new. Pulleys are 50/50 replaced. Eccentric shafts are usaully reused. All seals/springs so on are new.


Sorry about the wait on the motor, doing the best we can, quality over quantity for me.

Sorry that was long.

 

Good response. yeah and the service manager is cool, he drag races but I don't go to IPAC.

 

Hey Thanks for the post Sleepy Z! I'm really not pointing my finger at anyone at this point. I only really think that the dealer is not telling the whole truth to me. I'm sorry you ended up being the scape goat.

Yeah if IPAC was being more forthright with information I would go there. I really like the people.

 

IPAC is going out of business?

 

No the dealer I bought the car from is going out of business not IPAC. The dealer I bought the car from is providing me with a loaner or rental car to cover there butt. It all has to do with consumer protection laws and I can not take legal action as long as provide me with a Ride.

 

Huge cup of coffie down! Time to go visit Mazda!

 

So the visit went well today. Things are largely as I was told and my car still exists! I met the mechanic and he explained things a bit better to me.

He said he dropped the engine in and started it up only to promptly notice that it idled like crap. He then revved the engine a bit and the dip stick promptly shot out its hole. All compression was then lost. Boo.

He told me a little morsel I had not known before. There are Two yes from the horses mouth Two remanufacturing plants in the united states. One as we know is the plant up in Northern VA. The other is a contracted company, Caterpillar. I have never never seen this written anywhere before. He told me he trusted the ones coming from the Mazda facility more but could not tell me where this one had come from.

So I guess this puts me in the Three engine club now?

 

that sucks, mine worked great got it in a few days and installed in one (was driving the car till the engine was ready)

now if only they stop trying to rebuild my transmission and just replace it, the more they work on it the more weirdness that happens with it, two rebuilds would have cover the cost of a new and reinstall

 

Yeah cat reman used to make the motors, they had too many odd failures and seemed to be more worried about painting the engines then making them run. Mazda ended there contract with cat reman last year and started the richmond(va) plant ran under mazda japan and north america bosses.

It almost sounds like he over filled the engine with oil or something, we run 20+ engines a day and have never had the dipstick shoot out. Sounds like a vacuum issue or something but I dont know, never seen it.

Both dealers make mistakes and so do we, although its never there fualt lol. We actually got one in today that was explained as "excessive end play" they ask me to take a look at it, I checked the end play to start and it was right on. I read the the customer complaint, it said they complained of a whinning noise, it also got louder when the clutch was pressed down.......I dont know a lot about transmissions/clutches but to me it sounds like the engine wasn't the issue at all, throw out bearing perhaps? I will find out monday for sure though on that engine.


Good luck on the engine, if it has a JS on the front pulley bolt its my build, small chance of it.

 

Sleepy-z,

Are there other distinguishing markings on the motor or parts that tell us it came from your plant?

 

The engine stamp to the right of the alternator mounting bolt on the front cover has a plate. Ours say Mazda on them and the engine # are MR (08 or 09)-xxxx. Cat reman is KA0000xxxx or KB00000xxxx. There both blue/silver stamps.

 

Awesome! If I ever get a reman then I will be sure to look for those markings. Just to be clear you guys are the only plant producing the remans right?

 

You know he had the intake off and I could see the front pulley I really wish I would have taken a closer look. If they dont get the new engine in soon I will go and take a Look Sleepy. I could ask the technician to look and see if he sees your JS but I'm not sure how he would take me asking him to do something like that.

Good info on the Cat plant. So am I to assume I get a reman engine put in at the dealer and it is painted it came from them?

The Tech was under the assumption that two plants still remained and that at random about 50/50 he would get engines from both sources.

I'm sure you are not the only reman plant on the whole of the world but are you guys the only ones for the most part supplying our US dealers with remans? Are there more then a few ordering Direct from Japan?

Sorry for all the Questions ha! I'm just newer to the round and round world. Thanks! I really mean it thanks Sleepy. You have given to me incite that I believe most Mazda technicians do not even possess.

 

Sleepy is the shiznit. Too bad its too dark to see the markings on my motor!!

 

We are the only Mazda remanufacturing plant in the world btw, we supply for North America. The other countries dont have the same warranty as here. There are 12 of us now, 10 of us were fully trained by mazda japans builder for the first 2-3 months. There are no engines left over from cat reman at all. We do actually paint used front covers now btw, we honestly got complaints when we started by dealers for used looking front covers so we switched to new and now we paint the used. They were used to the cat reman spray paint jobs that looked pretty but didn't run half the time.
There were 2 reasons for our existance, one was the simple fact that the quality coming from cat was not to there liking at mazda. And secondly they brought over a engineer who works here fulltime doing measurements and photos of every engine that comes through and the plant GM is pretty high up from mazda japan also. I am honestly a 50/50 shot at staying here though beyond 2 years from now. My wifes in med school here at vcu, she kinda wants to go home to cali again but we are living decent here and I am sorta interested in moving up. I say sort of only because I saw they fired a few supervisors this year during the economy downfall in mazda and I am safe working on the line. Hell we even managed 6 month raises and a bonus this year, how many car companies did that this year?