ANOTHER Broken motor mount........ Its my turn

Vixen said:
Sorry dude, this sux. Please report this to the NHTSA....If Mazda isn't going to recognize that this is a pretty serious problem, then someone needs to.

+1 The current complaints on NHTSA Website list one complaint. The other posted complaints are "I heard that the bolts were breaking and the engine falls out. Mazda needs to fix this problem" bla bla bla. Gents this is not going to fix the problem. Anyone who's even had to tighten there bolt(s) up because they were half way backed out, loose etc. needs to go on the NHTSA and submit a formal complaint. Until there is a certain amount of formal complaits there will be a delay in a TSB or Recall.

Here's a great example, my last car had an electrical fuel sending unit issue and long story short, I complained on a few occasions, but received the "cannot duplicate problem" from the dealer. It became so bad I said no, there is something wrong with my car, I'm going to drop it off and your going to look it over, even if you need to call in a factory tech rep. On my way to the dealer the next day my car caught fire and burnt the entire back half to the ground! What's interesting, there is still no Recall or TSB on the issue. I check every few weeks and still nothing. I made a formal complaint with NHTSA, but I'm the only one out of dozens who complained of the same problem that did.
 
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Just a tad bit exaggerated there Alejo, lol.

There are signs to listen for and I think that is what I will plan to do because if I go messing with that bolt I dont want for an slim chance for it to have been my fault.

I am do for the first oil change at about 3k so I have about another 1200k to go and I will talk to the tech again about there being another reported issue on the mount.

Just4banger make sure you are there when they call Mazda and report this so by time we get to the dealers and they call there is something on paper about it. That was my issue last time since they had no wind of any such problem. That was at 2 dealers as well that said the same thing.
 
Before I bought my Speed3 for about 3 months I was hell bent on buying a used M3. In retrospect I'm glad i didn't cuz that would have been a huge strain on my budget. Anyways, while researching the car I came across this website.

http://yoy.com/yoy/auto/m3_failure_index.html

Long story short, the was an issue with the car's rod bearings and oil pump the first model year (2001 and early production '02s) of the E46 M3. Engines were throwing rods and hand grenading left and right. As you will see from the website it took a lot of engine failures, a lot of letter writing, and a LOT of pissed of M3 owners for BMW to address the problem and issue a TSB. Food for thought.
 
Well filed my complaint with Mazda, awaiting a phone call back. Went ahead and filed a report with NHTSA, and did some digging. they acctually have a preliminary investigation with the mazdaspeed3 due to the motor mount/blt failures.

Got me a swoopy Mazda 3, 4 door sedan. Man i should have opted for this car instead. Its a monster with the manumatic tranny and n/a motor lol :D

As i get info you guys will know more.
 
justa4banger said:
Well filed my complaint with Mazda, awaiting a phone call back. Went ahead and filed a report with NHTSA, and did some digging. they acctually have a preliminary investigation with the mazdaspeed3 due to the motor mount/blt failures.

Got me a swoopy Mazda 3, 4 door sedan. Man i should have opted for this car instead. Its a monster with the manumatic tranny and n/a motor lol :D

As i get info you guys will know more.


I just went to the NHTSA Website and reviewed the complaints and the investigation. For safety sake, I hope something happens sooner than later. Keep us posted.
 
maestro said:
Do you watch Dog Fights on History channel?


One thing you can ALWAYS guarentee on this web board is someones ability to threadjack.

Please go some where else to thread jack.

Thank you(eekfu)
 
justa4banger said:
BTW i am joking so don't get all bent out shape gents....
 

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Hey who gave you permission to post my picture????????????
You making fun of Asian people now .......................... :D

BTW i am Asian..... LOL
 
justa4banger said:
People do remember this the MOTOR MOUNT IS NOT THE PROBLEM. Its the motor mount BOLT. Well atleast the motor mount is not broken just the bolt. I do believe its a faulty design in how the motor is controled with all three mounts. to much movement is allowed IMO and this causes the issues to start.
I'll find out more today when i get to the dealer. I plan on staying there loing enough to get some good pics.


Thanks for the heads up. It seems this would be a pretty easy fix for Mazda since it's mot the entire motor mount here
 
civic si hb said:
Thanks for the heads up. It seems this would be a pretty easy fix for Mazda since it's mot the entire motor mount here

Well for the most part it's only the bolt that breaks/comes loose to cause this craziness however, In my opinion the entire mount should be redesigned. I personally feel with the current design and the bolt being completely vertical, that causes excess stress on the bolt, hence the backing out or breaking of it. If the bolt/mount were running horizontal with the bolt running from front to rear etc. it would allow more flexion and use of the motor-mount. Just my thoughts...
 
M3_Zoom said:
Well for the most part it's only the bolt that breaks/comes loose to cause this craziness however, In my opinion the entire mount should be redesigned. I personally feel with the current design and the bolt being completely vertical, that causes excess stress on the bolt, hence the backing out or breaking of it. If the bolt/mount were running horizontal with the bolt running from front to rear etc. it would allow more flexion and use of the motor-mount. Just my thoughts...

(iagree) Yeah, def sounds like a fatigue failure. I think they are using grade 12.9 metric which has a min. ult strength of about 174ksi and a yield of about 157ksi. Based on the maximum shear stress theory of failure the yield strength is shear is roughly .5 to .6 the normal yield, so thats about 86ksi. With a safety factor of 6 for impact/repeated loads your down to 13,000 allowable psi on the bolt in shear.

If thats an M12 bolt (no idea if thats true or not) your looking at a cross section of about .175 in^2. With that cross section it would take about 2300 lbs of shear to cause a failure over time. probably possible depending on the design of the mount. Thats not even taking into account stress concentrations on the bolt, combined stresses, etc, etc.
 
TorqSpeed5252 said:
(iagree) Yeah, def sounds like a fatigue failure. I think they are using grade 12.9 metric which has a min. ult strength of about 174ksi and a yield of about 157ksi. Based on the maximum shear stress theory of failure the yield strength is shear is roughly .5 to .6 the normal yield, so thats about 86ksi. With a safety factor of 6 for impact/repeated loads your down to 13,000 allowable psi on the bolt in shear.

If thats an M12 bolt (no idea if thats true or not) your looking at a cross section of about .175 in^2. With that cross section it would take about 2300 lbs of shear to cause a failure over time. probably possible depending on the design of the mount. Thats not even taking into account stress concentrations on the bolt, combined stresses, etc, etc.

Ahh nice! Nice to see another engineers take. Maybe all of us engineers should get together and redesign it for Mazda... (thumb) I believe it's an M12 bolt but, not exactly sure. I actually have the day off tomorrow and I'm going to remove my battery and check things out from a design standpoint.
 
I think I'm the next victim. Word to the wise don't do to many mods at once. You wont remember what goes wrong.

This weekend i got my Racepipe, SU Mount, Springs and H BOV installed. On the way home I hit a bump in the road and heard something drop like a bolt or something weird. got home checked under the car everything seem'd to be in order.... After reading this thread I'm almost convinced that the bolt has broken off as I have major movement in the engine bay and all kinds of strange noises from the engine bay. I have an appointment at the dealer in the morning with the SU mount... I know that could be trouble but I have no choices when you hear that grinding sound. I only hear the sound when I'm pulling up my hill to get in the garage. I imagine its stress on the transmission since the engine is not in place and leaning back..

I'm an end user on most mechanicals things so someone knowledgeable chime in....

Also, is it just the aftermarket units that are breaking?
 
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