Ok, to start off, the car is currently at the dealer, waiting on word back from MNAO and what I want to do. I'll explain the situation, and then see what you think I should do and what your best diag of the problem is.

On saturday night I was driving the car on the interstate crusing at about 80 mph in 6th. The car suddenly completely lost power, as in it completely shut off. There was no hesitation or power loss. It literally felt like i turned the key off. Also no CEL or any other warning light prior to the problem nor was there a fluctuation in the oil press gauge or temp gauge. I coasted to the shoulder and tried to restart. Also disconnected battery and tried to restart, no luck. I went back the next day and changed the plugs on the side of the road but still wouldn't fire. The old plugs had about 9k on them and were badly fouled.

I had it towed to the dealer, and they performed the de-choke procedure and got the car running but it is burning huge amounts of oil, as in just a constant cloud of smoke. Car also idles around 2000rpm and loads up on oil as soon as you touch the gas. Code was pulled for a misfire in the rear housing as well, understandable as it is being dumped with oil.

Now, my questions-the service manager right away claims I need a new engine. The tech I talked to told me that it might need a new engine, but when I asked him if it was possibly an OMP issue he claimed he wasn't sure but he definitly wouldn't rule it out because he'd replaced quite a few. What do you think?

Also, the service manager claimed that the car wasn't covered under warranty because of the "many aftermarket modifications" done to the car. Mechanically, I have an intake, exhaust, Greddy oilpan, and a wire running from the trigger of the #1 ign coil for the signal for my tach. How could i possibly void a motor warranty with those things?

 

Those mods won't cause any problems but you're still gonna get harrassed for them. Get a copy of the Magnuson-Moss act and maybe a rep or a lawyer. The dealer/MNAO have an obligation to explain, specifically, how it is that your mods caused your particular problem. Expect administrative nonsense for quite a while unless you get lucky.

 

i'm sure i'm going to get quite a hassle from them, and i'm worried that i'm going to tell them to diagnose the problem and tell me exactly what the issue is but then i'm going to get screwed into paying for the diag time somehow.

 

I haven't had any issues with regard to warranty but that's because I didn't make many claims under it. However, I can tell you that these days it pays to stand your ground and unwaver, but do so in a respectful manner. Also, don't be hesitant to climb the corporate ladder because the tech, service writer, and service manager are not the last checkpoint for you. They report what they see but they are not the final arbiters.

The key element in such a strategy is to not allow yourself to be placed in a defensive position, meaning being made to explain your mods, but to maintain the offensive position, which means to take advantage of what Magnuson-Moss does and push MNAO to explain how your mods caused any problems.

 

alright, thanks for the advice. I've already spoken with MNAO once today and I'll be calling them back tomorrow to follow up and make sure they dont just blow me off.

 

Be cool and persistent and you'll do fine. New engines are not a new concept to MNAO and your problem isn't unique, unfortunately.

 

+1 to to CRH's advice.
Good luck with the car, let us know what Mazda says. Also, are they basing the excessive oil burn on all the white smoke that came out of the tail pipes when they started it? (this is common for flooded cars) Not sure how you flooded it while driving, but you get the idea...

 

The car flooded while driving because too much oil was in the combustion chambers and fouled the plugs. So something just happened all of the sudden and caused too much oil to be in the housings. that's what they're basing the new motor theory on. that's how the car sits right now, its burning way too much oil and its only a short matter of time before the new plugs are fouled as well. it burns through a quart in about 10 minutes of run time. any ideas on if it is an OMP issue or an internal issue? i know it's pretty much just a guess unless it's happened to you personally, but i still figured i would ask.

 

that's insane. I would imagine the OMP might be having issues with that much oil being used.
You mentioned having the Greddy oil pan. How long ago did you install it?

 

i've had it for roughly 10 months.
i was confused when they suggested needing a new engine because of the amount of oil being burned. I'm not sure of many internal issues that could cause that amount of oil to be burned, but still let the car run.

 

Dude, you had better hope that your tach didn't short out the ECU. Did you install a diode or a resistor or anything?

 

no, but wouldn't it be awfully strange to have an issue with that after having the tach installed for over a year? and wouldn't it throw at least one other dtc if it shorted out?

 

Depends on how much load it was drawing.

Well, if they find that the wire you tapped goes to the rear rotor. Thats a pretty strong case to void the engine and ECU warranty.

 

it goes to the leading plug on the front rotor. thats what i meant by number 1 coil, sorry, i made that pretty unclear.
i've had the car through all the rpm ranges countless times in the course of a year, so i can't see how suddenly that would make such a problem appear.

 

I know what your going through except i have low compression, and I only have intake, rp supercat and exhaust. I'm still in the process of getting it resolved. good luck bro.

 

Thats how I see it so far :

Mazda 1
You 0

Why? Just because of that wire alone tap into your first coil. You never had a problem before does NOT mean that its not doing any damage. Why do you need to tap that for the Tach anyway? To monitor or something?

Another thing is 10 minutes a quart is crazy amount of oil, is not even OMP issue. Its more like something blew up. might not be the engine. this is the first time Im seeing something like this. But you might want to check it out yourself with someone who knows what they're doing.

You in Last Exit of NJ ? More like Cape May side or the North side ?

 

Strictly taking a stab in the dark, if he had a perforated rotor, the cooling oil would be spraying through the hole and straight into the housing. Either that, or a cut-off seal is wasted.

 

Good Luck

 

North Jersey, Phillipsburg to be exact. I have an autometer tach and that's what i was using for the rpm signal. And as far as checking it out myself, I don't have the space to have the car towed back home and work on it here. Space is terribly limited around here and I wish I could manage but i just can't. I have a project i'm in the transplant stage of sitting in the garage.