Another rant at Dealer....

[lamp3]

Waiting to hear what ended up being done about the ticking. Or if the noise is cool......

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

About the pulling to the left thing... Go to Sears or NTB or somewhere that has free alignment checks. If you go to Sears, they'll give you a printout with your alignment's settings on it.

I took my car to the dealer because it pulled to the right. They said it was 'within spec' but, I took it to Sears who said 3 wheels were clearly out of spec and handed me a printout in color of how badly out of spec it really was. Today I'm calling the dealer and letting them know they need to REALLY CHECK it this time and ACTUALLY align my car.

From my experience, no dealer wants to do warranty work. I don't know why they bother offering a warranty if they're not going to honor it.

CarlM2-- I wouldn't bring my MSP to an aftermarket dealer for the alignment.......I doubt that they have the specs. for a MSP because they are different than a regular protege.
They could be saying the alignment is off but they may be comparing it to specs of a mazdaspeed.
Just my .02.....

 

[lamp3]

whats the word on the ticking, zoomzoom??

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

I've stated this before....I have been told it's caused by the cam and lifter design and some ticking is considered normal...
What is "some ticking" considered.......not sure but if you think its abnormal bring it to the dealer and see what they think.

 

[CarlM2]

CarlM2-- I wouldn't bring my MSP to an aftermarket dealer for the alignment.......I doubt that they have the specs. for a MSP because they are different than a regular protege.
They could be saying the alignment is off but they may be comparing it to specs of a mazdaspeed.
Just my .02.....

That's good advice... and an issue I hadn't considered.
In my case, I know for a fact that the specs were for the MSP and not a regular Protege. This particular Sears uses a Hunter machine that's pretty high-tech and about a year old. I took the printout of the car's current alignment to the dealer. They fixed it, and now: no more pull!!! They found the same issue as Sears. The dealer gave me a printout as well. Good folks.

When I picked up the car I met a fellow MSP'er, 'Heathen23' who was picking up his car for some service. We ended up talking about MSP's and such for a long time.... So, I had a really good dealer experience!

About Sears... Normally I don't go to Sears. However, I know a technician there that knows what he's doing.... which is tough to find.

 

[Equinox]

Took my car to the dealer today to have a whole list of things fixed. Here's what they told me:

Pulls to left...sorry, that's normal for this car.
<-ALIGNMENT

Rear swaybar bushings shot...sorry, they look normal to us.
<-Rubber in bushings is stretched open, this is the dreaded clunk

Loud valvetrain ticking noise....that's normal for this car.
<-oil level is low
Loose body molding...that's normal for this car, but we'll fix it out of courtesy.
<-THEY MUST FIX THIS
Alarm is freaking out...adjusted sensitivity to minimum, all fixed now....we'll see.
<cool =)
I can't believe this crap. I take time off of work, drive 35 miles to the dealer, and they give me this bulls***. This is the second time I've had it in for the rear bushings, and they say there's nothing wrong with them. The engine has a tick that you can hear from 20 feet away with the hood closed!
:wtf:

This car has only 6000 miles on it and the engine sounds like it has 160,000 miles. Sorry for the rant, but I'm so ******* pissed right now. The next closest dealer is an hour drive from me, but I guess they'll be getting my business from now on.