Probably talking about the OTS maps. A professionally tuned AP is sweet. (popcorn)
Tired of blown engines/turbos? How about a CAL?
- Thread starter Silver Ecstasy
- Start date
Probably talking about the OTS maps. A professionally tuned AP is sweet. (popcorn)
yea it is(glare)
A lot of the people that are blowing their motors blame or have the cobb AP. Thats the point. Not many are blowing up their cars with stock or near stock setups which a lot of people here seem to think.
not to be arguementative but its kinda the law of statistics. many people that have modded to a level that requires an ecu tuning suite. ap came out before cpe, was cheaper than cpe and has atr. so all things being equal there are more ap's than standbacks out there so the law of averages says cars with ap's blow more often. I could tune the car myself with atr and have absolutely no clue how to do so and pop. not really the ap's fault, but i wont dare say that on the forums (flame2). many people believe that just because they read the tuning 101 guide they are a tuning guru. THATS the problem.
i read a book on open heart surgery.......gimme a knife, lets do this!
And I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I'm a tuning guru for sure.
The AP is relatively new. CPE standback has been around for a while. People run the OTS maps and pop because they don't keep an eye on things. Im not even taking that chance im getting a custom dyno tune.
oaklandopen
Member
im still kinda wondering about this smoking due to long idles. i've idled my car for extensive periods plenty of times and i havne't had smoking after 27k miles.
for example when my son would fall asleep on the way home in the car so i'd leave him in with the car running and the AC on for like 20 minutes sometimes. or starting it up in the winter (and now because it's getting colder again) and letting it run for at least 10 minutes before i get in and start driving.
but that's just 1 person, in 1 forum, amongst a shitload of others that don't even go on the internet but still have a mazdaspeed3, mazdaspeed6, or cx7. hell, most of the week i end up driving alongside a TR ms6 on my way to work and it's just some 40-year-old woman who probably decided to get that car instead of a legacy. some day i will carjack her and tie her down while i switch our wheels
for example when my son would fall asleep on the way home in the car so i'd leave him in with the car running and the AC on for like 20 minutes sometimes. or starting it up in the winter (and now because it's getting colder again) and letting it run for at least 10 minutes before i get in and start driving.
but that's just 1 person, in 1 forum, amongst a shitload of others that don't even go on the internet but still have a mazdaspeed3, mazdaspeed6, or cx7. hell, most of the week i end up driving alongside a TR ms6 on my way to work and it's just some 40-year-old woman who probably decided to get that car instead of a legacy. some day i will carjack her and tie her down while i switch our wheels
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- 09 mazdaspeed 3
the AP isnt the problem, its the people using them. I didnt like how my car was running using the maps cobb has and im not gonna try screwin with ATR and thats why im getting tuned hopefully in the next month.
as for smoking issues, im running full tbe no cats and i had some small smoking problems but it wasn't common. bought the smoking turbo fix from PTP and havent seen any smoke since and its been a few months now.
as for the car not being reliable, its only going to run as good as you treat it. i dont race car around but i dont drove slow either. i think a lot of times the people who are heavily modded just run the piss out of their car hell, the few stock ones i see running around by me are ALWAYS running up the gears and HAULING ASS! and i cant help but shake my head and laugh.
as for my motor popping, its at 22k on the ODO now and it was stock for maybe 3k. bought it new right at a year ago with 27miles on it, everything put on has been done BY me. sure its in the back of my mind but am i OVERLY concerned about it? ...not really. if it happens it happens. when you mod cars its just the s*** that can, an is going to happen. its a part of the modding game. sure a lot of MS3'S have blown, but sti's and s*** have the same problem. NO CARS INDESTRUCABLE. you just have to be smart when it comes to bolting stuff on your car.
as for smoking issues, im running full tbe no cats and i had some small smoking problems but it wasn't common. bought the smoking turbo fix from PTP and havent seen any smoke since and its been a few months now.
as for the car not being reliable, its only going to run as good as you treat it. i dont race car around but i dont drove slow either. i think a lot of times the people who are heavily modded just run the piss out of their car hell, the few stock ones i see running around by me are ALWAYS running up the gears and HAULING ASS! and i cant help but shake my head and laugh.
as for my motor popping, its at 22k on the ODO now and it was stock for maybe 3k. bought it new right at a year ago with 27miles on it, everything put on has been done BY me. sure its in the back of my mind but am i OVERLY concerned about it? ...not really. if it happens it happens. when you mod cars its just the s*** that can, an is going to happen. its a part of the modding game. sure a lot of MS3'S have blown, but sti's and s*** have the same problem. NO CARS INDESTRUCABLE. you just have to be smart when it comes to bolting stuff on your car.
SomnoSpeed3
Member
- :
- 2007 Mazdaspeed3 G/T
Like I said, mine didn't smoke until about 31k. Some earlier, some later but icant see how anyone will be free from this problem. It's an engineering problem and all v1.0 MS3's seem to have the same flaw. Maybe I am wrong about that but time will tell.
Cold start your car, drive about two miles and then idle... That's how it began for me and many others. Now it smokes at any one minute + idle, not just after two miles.
Maybe Mazda tried to fix the problem with later models but I have read 2008.5 models dong the same thing so that tells me it's not been fixed.
Cold start your car, drive about two miles and then idle... That's how it began for me and many others. Now it smokes at any one minute + idle, not just after two miles.
Maybe Mazda tried to fix the problem with later models but I have read 2008.5 models dong the same thing so that tells me it's not been fixed.
SomnoSpeed3
Member
- :
- 2007 Mazdaspeed3 G/T
I am trying the ptp fix if Mazda doesn't give me a new turbo. I have reas some good things about that and there is one more saying it worked. Good enough for me.
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- 2011 Mustang GT
If you get a chance to look at the smoking turbo MTOL bulletin, the VINs all run up to 2/2008. I don't know exactly what was changed after that, but the MS3, CX-7 and all MS6's for that time are under a specific directive to try the 5w-40 fix.
My first turbo started smoking at 24k, didn't get replaced until it got bad enough at 28k, and my second turbo was replaced at 36k for the bearing failure. I know what's been done to my vehicle and I monitor parameters to make sure things are operating within acceptable parameters. I'm not worried about popping the motor, but if it happens, so be it. You know the risks when you bolt the car up. That still doesn't mean that you need to live in fear every day.
I really hope that the PCV fix gets out sooner rather than later, and we can see if the car starts to function better as a result. If the HW K04 is as bad as I think it is, then MNAO needs to come up with an equivalent replacement (Garrett hopefully) and swap over to them and be done. With the variety of T/Cs on the market, there's no reason why they couldn't switch to another supplier and rid themselves of this ongoing warranty issue.
SomnoSpeed3
Member
- :
- 2007 Mazdaspeed3 G/T
I wonder how much Mazda has spent on replacing new turbo after new turbo due to this design flaw. I am no mechanic by any means and not an engineer either but it seems that a fix would be cheaper than regularly putting a whole new turbor on only to put another one on 8,000 miles later. Is the problem really that hard to fix? Or is it just the whole damn turbo is bad and Mazda doesn't want to admit it and repace them all? We'll probably never know.
I just read through this thread and had to chime in about a few things...
As a former Subaru owner (I've owned an '04 STi and '06 Forester XT) I can honestly say that those of you saying you want to dump your MS3 for a WRX for reliability and warranty reasons are insane. While the common theme here is "popped motors", the common theme with WRXs is "busted trannies". And guess what? There's an even larger amount of people constantly whining and complaining about busting their tranny and dealers not covering it. You don't even WANT to know what a subaru transmission costs...it's ridiculously expensive. There are people saying the tranny broke at stock power levels. People broke at stage1 ECU flash. Etc, etc. There's a wealth of information about how the transmission is based on some 20 year old design with weak gears that make it fragile as crap. There are people that just bought their car and "cannot believe" there are all these problems and want to sell their car. They can't believe Subaru could be so bad about honoring warranties. They think SOA is scum of the earth, etc.
Even I got sucked into the fear. My Forester had the WRX tranny and it was stage2. I started worrying about it all the time. Eventually I sold it, and part of the reason was fear of the tranny busting.
But it's not just Mazdas, not just Subarus, it's pretty much all cars. Not Honda though, right? Go do some searching about synchros in '06+ SIs. Or differentials in S2000s. Take a peek at the failures in modern BMW, mercedes, Audi. Go scare yourself after reading about all the DSG transmissions that have exploded in VWs. Engine failures in Toyota V6s.
The internet is an awesome resource for vehicles. It allows all of us to fix, modify, share our problems, etc. But it's also a great way to scare people. How many people make a post about their car running fine? If you are on a forum and your engine pops, you post about it. And lots of people read it. It's like a drama on TV. If you aren't on a forum and your engine pops...s***, you might actually join a forum just to post about it. It's one of those things you just want to share. You want people to hear about it.
So you see, you can sell your Mazda and go buy a Subaru...you'll be in that same place, fearing your car, after only a few weeks of reading. You'll find the bad stuff. It doesn't matter how much good information there is...it's the bad stuff that sticks.
Don't get sucked into the fear people.
As a former Subaru owner (I've owned an '04 STi and '06 Forester XT) I can honestly say that those of you saying you want to dump your MS3 for a WRX for reliability and warranty reasons are insane. While the common theme here is "popped motors", the common theme with WRXs is "busted trannies". And guess what? There's an even larger amount of people constantly whining and complaining about busting their tranny and dealers not covering it. You don't even WANT to know what a subaru transmission costs...it's ridiculously expensive. There are people saying the tranny broke at stock power levels. People broke at stage1 ECU flash. Etc, etc. There's a wealth of information about how the transmission is based on some 20 year old design with weak gears that make it fragile as crap. There are people that just bought their car and "cannot believe" there are all these problems and want to sell their car. They can't believe Subaru could be so bad about honoring warranties. They think SOA is scum of the earth, etc.
Even I got sucked into the fear. My Forester had the WRX tranny and it was stage2. I started worrying about it all the time. Eventually I sold it, and part of the reason was fear of the tranny busting.
But it's not just Mazdas, not just Subarus, it's pretty much all cars. Not Honda though, right? Go do some searching about synchros in '06+ SIs. Or differentials in S2000s. Take a peek at the failures in modern BMW, mercedes, Audi. Go scare yourself after reading about all the DSG transmissions that have exploded in VWs. Engine failures in Toyota V6s.
The internet is an awesome resource for vehicles. It allows all of us to fix, modify, share our problems, etc. But it's also a great way to scare people. How many people make a post about their car running fine? If you are on a forum and your engine pops, you post about it. And lots of people read it. It's like a drama on TV. If you aren't on a forum and your engine pops...s***, you might actually join a forum just to post about it. It's one of those things you just want to share. You want people to hear about it.
So you see, you can sell your Mazda and go buy a Subaru...you'll be in that same place, fearing your car, after only a few weeks of reading. You'll find the bad stuff. It doesn't matter how much good information there is...it's the bad stuff that sticks.
Don't get sucked into the fear people.
You make some valid points; however, it isnt complete. Lets start with it isnt the car as much as how the company handles the problems.
Building and marketing a car that produces 100hp/l or more is quite an accomplishment. It is something to be proud of, but with this, unexpected problems can arise. Deal with it proactively and youll develop customer loyalty, handle it like Mazda NAO has and youll breed discontent.
Im not familiar with all the cars you right about, but the BMW 3.2l M motor comes to mind. They saw a number of motor failures and originally blamed the owner, but then they continued to look into the issue. Within a few months (not years), they identified the issue and developed a resolution. Customer loyalty was the result.
Mazda NAO isnt the least bit interested in customer satisfaction or loyalty. They have your money so tough luck. In my case theyve denied warranty coverage based on a dealer oil change. Never mind that there is insufficient evidence of oil starvation, the oil drain plug fell out and caused the rod to break in the middle. Never mind that dealer workmanship is stated to be covered in the warranty booklet.
I the future Ill want nothing to do with a car serviced by MAZDA NAO!
I agree with you on how the company handles the problem, but the way Mazda is handling this is not unique. It's funny that you mentioned the e46 M, that was going to be one of my points about a company doing it "right". But BMW does not always do things right. And the frequency of failure in the e46 M engines was drastically higher than those of Speed3s.
As a former e36 M3 owner, I can recall a handful of "design flaws" that BMW never ever owned up to. Rear Shock Mounts: Not built nearly strong enough to withstand the forces being put on them. If you were proactive about the issue, you could replace the mount before and serious damage was done. If you didn't know the mount was shot, you ended up with cracked shock towers. NOT a cheap fix. And e36s, but more specifically e36/7s (the z3/z coupe) have weak rear subframe mounts. They tear. You pay LOTS of money to fix it. Also on e36s...weak tranny mounts. Allowed some people to accidentally shift to 3rd when they were shooting for 5th under load...guess how many times dealers covered the resulting blown motor? Not many. And then there was the 5th gear sticky issue. And issue that made the shift gates incredibly vague between 3rd and 5th. Etc, etc, etc. s***, my 1998 M3 transmission blew up at 35k miles. It was not covered under warranty and I paid $3500 out of pocket to get a rebuilt one installed.
WRX trannies have been a problem since 2002. They "slightly" beefed up the box in late 2003 (but it didn't seem to help most). They have added power to the WRX over the years, torque too. Same tranny. Same issues. You don't hear Subaru owning up to the problem. You do see them weasel there way out of warranty coverage A LOT. You have an intake...warranty void. We saw you at the last autoX...warranty void. It appears you drive this car hard...warranty void. Sure, there's stories of people with GT30 turbos making 400whp and the dealer covering the issue. There's even people with 400whp that haven't had the tranny blow up.
These types of problems are hit or miss. How many actual MS3 motors have blown up vs how many have NOT blown up? Of those that did blow up, how many people have been denied warranty coverage?
Based on your story, it sounds like you are getting screwed. I would fight and fight and fight until it's covered. I also won't ever let a dealer do any service on my vehicles. I only trust myself.
