I Hate My Mazda!!!

[DrummerJim50]

******* mazda (fu) .....my air bag warning light has been coming on for months and they have been trying to fix it....my car has now been at the dealer for over a month, and it has been there a few times in the last few months for this problem. Now they're saying that my B&M short shifter might be the cause of the problem?!? :wtf: WTF are you talking about?? I also installed the Auxmod auxilliary input and hardwired my satellite radio into the car, which they gave me hell for too....sure my installation was a little sloppy, but I'm no professional and it works just fine. Now they told me they need to work with Mazda in Japan, but btw they are on holiday until August 23! They're delaying doing anything (including buying the car back) until they figure out how the "modifications" effected the car....and taking their time in the process. Thanks for reading my chance to vent.....hopefully they give me cash for the car and I can go buy a non-Mazda car (Acura RSX-S is top on my list).

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

(jerkit) Lord knows I hate it when I shift gears & my airbag blows out.... sounds like bs...

 

[Protege52003]

that sucks.....hope they do something for you!

-R

 

[J dragon]

That's no reason to hate the Car....Why do People ****** take the bad customer service out on the car....

 

[bazooka joe]

you want your money back because the air bag light stays on? i don't think that will be covered under the lemon or back back laws?? try another dealer...

 

[shane02pro5]

Does the light only come on occassionally or constant? Either way by reading through the Shop Manual it seems that if you have been in and out from under the dash and behind the center console where the stereo and whatever else is as I have. You may have just bumped a connection loose. I would just check and make sure all electrical connections are tight for starters.

Good Luck!

 

[DrummerJim50]

Well here is the short version of the story: The dealer has checked all the connections and things like that, and I'm assuming they are somewhat competent to do that. Trying another dealer would be useless at this point because the situation has gone beyond the dealer. The dealer has talked to their technical help line after their techs couldn't find the problem, and then started talking to a few field engineers here in the midwest...who actually drove up to Michigan from Chicago and worked on my car for two days with no luck. They have sent some of my parts out to California to be tested and it appears they didn't find anything. I initiated the lemon law process by sending a letter to corporate mazda out in California, and have now been talking to someone in "customer litigation". She has told me that they are in the process of figuring out if my hard-wiring or short shifter has caused any problems, which is the reason for the delay (which is load of BS). She has told me that they need to wait for Japan to get back to work (on Aug 23) so they can "do some tests" or whatever (another load of BS)....I refuse to believe that they don't have the capabilities to do any tests they need to here in the US. So yes it is covered under the lemon law, but they are saying they need to determine if these other parts were the cause....although I know they are not because a shifter has nothing to do with sensors or anything like that. It does transmit a little more vibration, but no one else has ever had this problem. I've offered to uninstall my B&M if that will help, although I'm definitely not looking forward to doing that.

 

[Mike R]

My car has the same problem. It is one of the connectors on the passenger seat. I could have lemoned the car, but I don't care. I just consider the flashing airbag light as a sign that I have at least one working bag....

I hate it. In the beginning just moving the seat would make it go on/off...

 

[RaiderMS3]

shifter causing airbag light? BS. have them refer to the Magnissen Moss act about aftermarket parts. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/warranty.htm.

They gotta prove that the aftermarketpart caused the problem. Will be impossible for them to prove.

Of course, it could be worse. some chick at my work made the mistake on buying a Chevy Cobalt. Still with the dealer plates, it would not turn over one morning. Got idiot lights, no click at all. Got home from work after getting a ride, it started. Dealer said she was SOL and refused to look at it since it started. 2 weeks later, she had the same problem gain. She is now hoping for a 3 strikes lemon law after getting s*** from a bunch of us import guys.

Just be glad it is not a GM product. I had one, a 2000 Sonoma. Its seats slid into the dash when I stopped. 17 times at the dealer, I hated GM, and the dealer.

Good luck. Don't hate your Mazda yet, hate the schmucks at the dealer.

 

[DrummerJim50]

I think the main problem is that, after all this hassle, they still can't figure out what is wrong. So they don't have any idea what is actually causing the problem, but use the short-shifter thing as a fall-back to delay some time. And the Magnussen Moss Act doesn't specify a time frame for deciding whether or not aftermarket parts caused the damage. At this point I'm not confident they'll ever actually figure out what the problem is....they've spent over 60 hours in labor working on this, plus a visit from 2 chicago-based field engineers for 2 days, and the cost of (3) SRS modules, a bunch of dash wiring and harnesses, new air bag sensors, etc.

 

[RaiderMS3]

My car has the same problem. It is one of the connectors on the passenger seat. I could have lemoned the car, but I don't care. I just consider the flashing airbag light as a sign that I have at least one working bag....

I hate it. In the beginning just moving the seat would make it go on/off...

Maybe it is the same problem here. Who knows. Is there another dealer to take it to that is capable of diagnosing the problem? Man, I feel bad for you. Hopefully you will not get this on your shifter like I got the attached on my intake when I got an oil change. 2 weeks later, the dealer got raided by the FBI.

 

[DrummerJim50]

Well at least some progress has been made. The dealer volunteered to re-install my oem shifter (and it may have been a b**** getting that B&M out of there). They are doing that to determine if the shifter was causing the problem. I stopped by the dealer today and saw my car sitting outside, so I decided to see if they got the old shifter put in....they did so I got out my extra key and went for a test drive, and guess what....the air bag light still comes on!! (wow) Big surprise!! I'll probably talk to them tomorrow and see what's next....I'm assuming now that we've proved the aftermarket parts didn't cause the problem the lemon law rules will kick back into effect and I should be able to get some results quicker, since technically they have 5 days to fix the car from the date of my original letter. Plus I'm moving across the country to Portland, Oregon in 2 weeks so I don't have a lot of time to spare.

 

[DrummerJim50]

Is there another dealer to take it to that is capable of diagnosing the problem?

I don't think so at this point. It just sounds like my car is a freak. Two field engineers (one from Chicago and one from California) came out to work on my car for two days. I stopped by and met them....one of them was mazda master technician and the other was an actual engineer....they worked on my car for two days and never found anything. According to them, they checked everything except the SRS module and side air bag sensors, so they just replaced those parts....didn't fix it.