Back in the Shop Again

[genericuser]

After freeing my 6 from the cold grip of a snowy downhill parking space (backing uphill in the snow with FWD is fun) I got on the highway and everytime I went over 60mph, the car would make an awful sputtering sound (kinda like when you have a flat tire) and the entire car would shimmy.. It also was making a very strange noise at idle (almost like the fan was going at twice the speed it should have, and there was a whine in the exhaust note) I let it rest for a few hours to watch the eagles game, drove it home, the idle noise was gone but the shaking/sputtering got worse.

Hooray

 

[Mikey444]

s***, that stinks. Keep us posted with what was wrong with the car.

 

[genericuser]

yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled with that.. hopefully something major isn't wrong with it.. I'd be pissed because there's only 9800 miles on it. I had to take it in for an oil change soon anyway (dunno)

 

[Mikey444]

I feel your pain brotha, it really sucks having the car in the bosy shop, I had it in 3 times last month although it was not for mechanic work but to get panels repainted due to people that I will one day kill for keying my car. Hope it's nothing big and you will soon have it back.

 

[obender66]

Take car through car wash. If car was in deep snow it got stuck inside rims and threw them out of balance.

 

[genericuser]

(also posted on mazda6tech)

finally got it back. here's the upshot of what happened. no longer am I driving a crappy corolla. Anywho, after fighting with the dealer service dept for almost two hours, (they didn't want to road test it because of bad weather, even though it stopped snowing two days ago and the roads were clear) they took it out and I showed them the problem. They did a few things to correct it. First they rotated my tires (nothing to do with it, but it needed to be done), second my wheel balance/alignment was waaaaay off the charts and they needed to fix that, third, they said my idler arm? was broken which they said could've happened when I was attempting to free myself from the snowy parking lot on a semi-cold engine. Lastly they had to restore all the factory shock/strut settings because something got messed up with that. Essentially my entire suspension was out of whack, which would cause my 6 to become a mazda maracca.

 

[I_Vtec]

(also posted on mazda6tech)

which would cause my 6 to become a mazda maracca.

(rofl)

 

[Mikey444]

Essentially my entire suspension was out of whack, which would cause my 6 to become a mazda maracca.

(rlaugh)

 

[Da 6]

LOL! you get an oil change out of it too?

 

[genericuser]

actually yes, I had my 10,000 mile service done while it was in there too.

 

[Mikey444]

what did you hit that youre alignement and suspension got completely out of shape?

 

[Da 6]

yep I remember ty 10K service....replace oil...belt pullys pistons intake ETB Valve cover block head crank...

 

[P5w3kids]

Good to hear you got everything straightened out. My sense is that the Mazda6 is a fairly reliabile car. Frankly, you start thinking any car is a hunk of junk if you hand out at these forums long enough, because people only report problems, not a lack of problems.

Better reliability data would help. I am currently recruiting people to join a vehicle reliability panel. I'm going to be collecting data on trips to / day in the shop. I think this will put reliability in the most relevant possible terms--i.e. how many days will you be spending in some crappy rental.

If you'd like this info and would like to help make it possible, please consider joining the panel. In addition to the warm fuzzy feeling you'll get from helping provide the world with better reliability info, members will receive more detailed info than non-members.

 

[Da 6]

1st year 6 is a problem othes are cool after they got the bugs out...I wanna trade in but for some odd reason everytime I walk up to it I can't find it in myself to ever do it. the look and stance(lowered) gets me everytime don't let the sun hit the lapis blue the wrong way...

 

[madmerv]

1st year 6 is a problem othes are cool after they got the bugs out...I wanna trade in but for some odd reason everytime I walk up to it I can't find it in myself to ever do it. the look and stance(lowered) gets me everytime don't let the sun hit the lapis blue the wrong way...

You really think the first year has problems? Our 6 has only been in the shop twice for cooling fan problems, and the second visit was caused by the technician during the first visit. I know many people say "don't buy a car during it's first year.", but I've done that, let me count......, eight times in the last thirty-three years and they were no better or worse than the other thirteen "new" cars purchased. I guess, in all those years, I've been pretty lucky, as only three of the forty-something cars I've purchased really had any significant problems: '74 Fiat 124 Spyder, '87 Jaguar XJ6, and 2001 Audi TT.

 

[genericuser]

that is to be expected with the fiat and the jag.. those haven't had the reputation of reliability. Anyhow, what went wrong with your TT? I've heard nothing but good things about those.