takahashi

I agree, thx Tigger for the info.

This is very unfashion of Japanese that have no tracking of their parts. It exceptional in their top end line ups. Very scary. Lucky it is not likely to affect us in Australia since the first production one is June 2003 made.

RotaryGoober

Not another *wheel is gonna fall off* comment.. Lets see what the lower control arm does. It *controls* the placement of the hub spindle assembly so it will track up and down in conjunction with the shock or strut assembly. The *wheel* is attached to the hub/spindle assembly and rotates on a hub/bearing. If you take the friggan lower control arm off the car the wheel wouldn't *fall* off. If the lower control arm ball joint area cracked and failed you would lose control (steering), do damage to the inner fender liner and possibly the fender, but the wheel would not come off the car. Would it be a dangerous situation, sure, would you lose control of the vehicle, probably, would the wheel come off the car, probably not.

L8APEX

You are my new best friend, and you don't even know it. Thanks for this info, my first track day will no longer be spoiled by a recall. Again, thanks.

Vertigo-1

iTrader: (3)

"Running on apex curbing"??? Is that like Initial D where Takumi takes his AE86 into ditches to go through curves at insane speeds? :D

PUR NRG

Nope, that's just normal track driving where the proper line tends to take you onto the curbing at apex and again on corner exit. Watch some cart or speed challenge racing and you'll see.
________
Hawaii Dispensary

Gomez

For those of you concerned about your lower control arms, I have taken a few pics to show you (what I believe to be are) the batch numbers. The recalled batch is K4.
I went all over these castings, and these stamped markings are the only likely candidates IMO.

They can be seen with a mirror and torch with the car on the ground. I have included a wide angle shot for reference. My car has L4 on the left, and MQ on the right. I'm in the clear.

Gomez.

Gomez

Oh, and those photos show the lower face of the lower control arm. To see the numbers, place a mirror on the ground behind the wheel and angle it until the casting number is visible. I had the car on ramps to take those pics above.

RX-Hachi

I'm not clear on what you are stating. You say K4 is the bad batch, yet the photos show L4 & MQ, not K4. You say your car has L4 & MQ, so you're in the clear. This would imply that L4 & MQ are ok and not the recalled batch. Please clarify, thanks.

EDIT: OK, I think I get it now. I thought you were trying to show photos of a sample from the bad batch. But you're just showing what you think are the lot numbers.

expo1

So is the consensus about this recall the following.

Of the 27,800 cars affected there really are only a handful of bad control arms most likely used on very early cars that never left Japan? Mazda however cannot trace the bad arms to specific cars so they are going to replace them all? I am asking this to figure what the odds are I might have bad control arms and thus would not go do a track weekend 8/19 if it takes longer to do the fix.

zoom44

yes that i sit exactly expo

YZF1000R

Hi there everyone,

Firstly let me introduce my self to the forum.

I am a full member of http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com and have been since Feb 04 when I got my Winning Blue, 228, RX8. My user name is different however - just thought I'd do something different!

I don't know how much you guys know of the UK recall on this matter - as yet I am waiting for an official recall letter from Mazda UK, I have been told by my Mazda dealer that my 8 WILL be recalled. He was able to tell me this after I had given my VIN to him. It also turns out that there is a two part recall, the second aspect is to add extra heat insulation to the fuel tank, some thing that I was not aware of until I asked about this control arm issue.

It seems from reading the posts in your forum, that owners are being told that this problem may arrise under 'race track conditions'. In the UK it seems that Mazda is suggesting that no reports of this catastrophic failure have been filed.

This is all very good news - if only that were the case. This HAS happened to an RX8 in the UK, being driven on the public highway, luckily slowy and I believe no injuries occured.

If you are interested to read more on this, may I suggest that you look on our club forum, under..... RX-8 News and Information (Hot Topic). As you may imagine, there is some interest !

Best regards to all,

Ian.

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Tried to have a look...must be a member...and it ain't cheap :D

YZF1000R

Perhaps non members need to sign in as guests? I don't know but I'll try to view the thread from a different pc to try it. Suffice to say that again that this HAS happened to a UK 228 RX8 on the public highway. Does the term 'gagging order' sound familiar?

expo1

Sorry but you will need to provide some mainstream source for this to be believed. Anyone can make up a post to a board. Did the car have prior damage? Was it Modded? The fact that Mazda put out the recall shows they are not hiding anything.

YZF1000R

Its not being suggested that Mazda are hiding any thing mate. It just happens to be a FACT that Mazda, for reasons only they would know, are not acknowledging this. If you read my previous post properly EXPO1, the term 'gagging order' is in there.

The 8 in quetion was off the road for about 5 months while the owner and Mazda 'argued', eventually the car was repaired during that time. No mods to my knowledge - standard in other words just in case you miss that as well. Does the term 'legal action' compute? Would you just sit back and accept a third party was saying YOU were lying? Get real mate. I only hope other 8 owners aren't so 'brain washed' as you appear to be.

Do you actually think some one would make this s*it up?

I hope that you are not typical of other 8 owners on this forum. I'm beginning to wish I'd not posted these facts. Doh.

Believe it or not fellow 8 owners. Have a nice day.

Oh I repeat ...GAGGING ORDER.

jalibrandi

just click on the picture, not the Members section and you will be in.

expo1

So far the only FACT I see is a second hand story posted on an Internet forum. On matters like this you need data other than web board posts.
YZF1000R other comments are not worth replying to.

YZF1000R

I get the impression some one here works for Mr Mazda - or could that be Mr Ford. Whatever, it makes not a jot of difference to me and I'm not going to have a bust-up over it.

Perhaps some people might grasp that the guy has been GAGGED and some others find difficulty understanding the wider implications of that.

Even if no one on this forum believes this, so what. Are we to believe EVERYTHING we are told? It seems that you are saying Mazda's version is FACT. I take it that you have priviledged access to Mazda's files, photos etc. so why not share them with us all?

After all, it's not Mazda who are under a gagging order, so what have they to lose?

zoom44

you can read a bit about it here too. http://rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/vie...=109837#109837

i read a small bit about that persons situation and am convinced as Ian points out here that the suspension issue the one person had was with a different part. not the cracks in the ball joint from forging that this is. You can say gag order and insinuate all you want but why would the person accept the gag about a possible defect? they offered to repair something under warranty they clearly feel shouldnt be ifhe would not tell others they were doing so that way theydont get a bunch more people clamoring for a warrenty fix when they break their car.

lohsk

Maybe he got a new car if he kept quiet

YZF1000R

Hi zoom44,

It feels good not to be simply slated - cheers.

I'm not trying to speak for the guy, just informing other owners of his problem which happened several months ago.

As he said, he was lucky that he was travelling slowly when things happened. Lets be honest, I guess that most 8 drivers enjoy the cars handling/cornering ability, so things could have been a lot worse.

As I understand it, the guy had to take 'legal advice' and also have an independant engineers report carried out - why? Because Mazda did not and to my knowledge, have not admitted any fault on behalf of their vehicle. Perhaps something along the lines of.......'Fix as a goodwill gesture but don't say we admit fault'........ who knows? Legal people get involved, my lawyer is more expensive than yours......... Only the guy and Mazda know the FACTS, and he can't say and they obviously won't tell.

Think about this, Mazda find these fractures under the conditions they describe, quite extreme circumstances that the majority of 8 owners will never be in - fair enough. Then, out of the blue this happens to a car in the UK, not on a race track but on a public road! What are Mazda going to do - go public and cause huge panic amongst owners, lose huge sales? I think not. Perhaps a recall based on faults Mazda say they have found on some cars under severe race track conditions. How could they not?

I love my 8, my granddaughter loves the car - in fact she tells me that it is OUR CAR, not my car! Now I can't wait to receive my recall notice from Mazda and start enjoying my (our) 8 again - once it's been sorted.

Cheers,

Ian.

Dr. BOB

Was at the dealer today for routine maintainence and asked if there were any recalls (played it dumb) and was told they had to reprogram the PCM. Gee, I had this done last December. On the invoice was the code for the recall 3305g which was for the heating problem (without explination of what the recall was). I think they just inspected the car because no parts were listed as used on the invoice. No mention of the control arm recall at all. Are dealers telling anyone about the recall?

L8APEX

Not yet. They do not as of today have instrucitons for the recall yet. They should in the next couple of days. Check the two .pdf files posted by tigger in post 123. This should let you know if you are affected.

Preacher

Anything new on this??

Gomez

No, not yet.