Overheating and more?

Ok you still need to find out WHY it seized. Where did the oil go? Hate to tell you, but a loose oil cap will not cause complete oil starvation of the engine like you have experienced.
 
It's incredibly difficult in most cases, especially if any tear-down has been performed on the engine already, to PROVE that the shop you had it at previously was to blame. Did they give you a reason as to why the engine failed?
 
I had the car towed to the mazda dealership that my buddy works at. He's been talking with the service guys and they've been offering a few Theories.

Top Theory: MSP had conventional oil all its life. We purchased it in December and changed the oil to AmSoil (Full Synthetic) in February (We thought we did a good job flushing the old oil out). Thought is that the AmSoil, while cleaning the engine, destroyed the buildup that had accumulated at the seals. Without this barrier, leaks started to form and it all just started happening around the time of the first service. If this is the case, we may be able to take advantage of Amsoil's warranty.

Second Theory: First shop, while putting in the Thermostat bumped something having to do with the oil. Oil leaking started at that point. We have more work cut out for us to prove and get them to pay for damages.
 
Yeah, OP, good luck with that. To lose almost 4 quarts of oil, you should have noticed that... On the ground or the smell of oil burning off of the block/head/ex. manifold...

Theory number 2? That's not really a theory unless they found something loose...
 
But, while the motor is out you might as well put a new clutch and flywheel in it :). See my FS thread got a good replacement
 
Yeah, 4 quarts of oil does NOT leak out of the seals like that. Something drastic happened, very suddenly. Stupid question, but where is the oil shown to be leaking from? You don't lose 4 quarts and have no trace of it.
 
I really wish I knew the answer to that question. Unfortunately the Dealership has not gotten back to me. My wife had taken it on a trip, so I wasn't even there when this all happened.
 
honestly, this thread just seems like a whole lot of finger pointing. in my opinion i doubt that it is anyone elses fault but your own. something obviously happened, so stop concentrating on pointing fingers, and just figure out what happened first. stop coming up with bs theories, because theories get you nowhere fast.
 
They may get me nowhere fast but they help me to at least come up with possibilities until I KNOW what happened. Without theories (BS or not) you can't plan for eventualities. How can you take action IF someone is at fault. We've had the car for less than 6 months and the engine already blew. SOMETHING was wrong, I doubt we had it long enough to be the culprits, but there always is a possibility.

I can't do anything to find out the real answer, that is why the car is at a dealership. They are figuring out just what happened, and what sort of options I have. Until then, all I have are theories and possibilities. And armed with those, I will prepare multiple different options so that when I have concrete information, I can act immediately instead of starting my investigations then. If you have a better solution, please share, I'm all ears.
 
Yeah, 4 quarts of oil does NOT leak out of the seals like that. Something drastic happened, very suddenly. Stupid question, but where is the oil shown to be leaking from? You don't lose 4 quarts and have no trace of it.

this.. trace where the oil left the engine.. thats obviously what caused it to blow. if you blow your engine and find that theres no oil in it, it must have been lack of oil that made it go.

dumb question, have you checked your turbo? take off your intake and hot pipe and check for oil in there. doubt 4 qts went in there, but it could have contributed.
 
Currently the car is two states away. I agree that the oil is the leading suspect for engine quitting and I'm frustrated that I was not there when it did go, because then I would have checked a number of these things if I could have. I will pass along these suggestions to those who actually are working on the car.
 
So far, total time is 1 week and we don't have a specific diagnosis. Just one dealership charging the $90 to do their general check. I don't know how good that would be for diagnosing WHY the engine failed. Yes, I am definitely frustrated with the dragging of feet that has been the norm for checking this car out. Almost feel like if I'm paying them per hour for them to look at it, they should pay me for each hour they ignore it........seems fair to me....
 
Get on the horn and tell them if you don't know by tomorrow, (lie) and say you're coming to pick the car up and take your business elsewhere. Bet u a dollar they'll rush it into the shop and diagnose it so you don't take it somewhere else.
 

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