Blown Motor, Needing Advice

[ILSpeed]

I bought my 06 speed6 in the late fall of 08 with 9k on the odometer, at 37k I have a spun bearing, and I need a new engine. Car has had all of scheduled maintenance at the same dealership and on time including all oil changes (just in case something happened), has no engine modifications. I have always had mobil 1 synthetic used and always run 93 octane gas. The car had full oil level when the bearing spun and it happened after a few miles of very light driving, I don't think I was even really hitting boost.

My warranty ended in the middle of June and this happened a week ago. I'm kicking myself in the ass about not buying an extended warranty. I'm at a loss about what to do, I have a good relationship with the dealership that I use and they have really been trying to help me and so they reached out to Mazda for some possible courtesy assistance, sent out my service history etc. They barely even charged me anything for the diagnosis even though they dropped the oil pan. I found out what the goodwill was today after waiting all week for the Mazda service rep to get back to the dealership.

The quoted engine price I was given was about $4500, they offered to reduce it to about $4150, the labor quote was about $1800 and they offered to reduce it to about $1200 for a total assistance of about $1k. My service adviser explained to me that essentially all they did was cut out most or all of the markup, can anyone help me verify that?

I'm extremely angry/disappointed, I fully understand that my warranty is in fact expired so they are not obligated to offer me any assistance at all and 1k is not nothing but at the same time here is a car that I already spent at least $1k in scheduled maintenance and it has a catastrophic mechanical failure before 40k miles? no modifications etc I feel that in terms of manufacturer quality, I would expect much better and in a case like this and I want/almost expect a better offer of assistance.

So in light of my feelings I contacted Mazda customer service and the person I talked to said they would get a hold of all the information and call me back next week but that if the service rep made a goodwill offer then more than likely that is the offer that will stand I won't have any further action to take. What else can I do, who else can I call, write to etc? Should i bother trying to have a lawyer draft a letter for me if they do in fact tell me that they wont do anything else?

Thank you for any help.

 

[KrGsMrNKusinagi]

My car has an extended warranty like 5 years stock I bought mine this year with 19,000 miles on it the extended warranty runs otu at the end of this year.

Theres no way a motor should sping a bearing at 40k if you maintain it and dont drive it hard

 

[chromal]

Theres no way a motor should sping a bearing at 40k if you maintain it and dont drive it hard

It does make you wonder how it was treated during the first 9K miles. Dunno what to say, this is a real bummer. :/ If it were my car, I'd probably get the repair and then start looking to sell/trade-in. Good luck.

 

[keymaster]

Uh, the drivetrain warranty is 5 years/60K miles, so why isn't the engine being covered under that?

 

[04gixx6]

Uh, the drivetrain warranty is 5 years/60K miles, so why isn't the engine being covered under that?

Is that for 2006 model year?

 

[GeeZee]

Uh, the drivetrain warranty is 5 years/60K miles, so why isn't the engine being covered under that?

Wouldn't that would depend on the in service date? If ithe warranty just ended a month ago, that would have put the car in service August of 2005. I'm not sure that is possible... so you have a good question there.

 

[ILSpeed]

2006 was bumper to bumper 4 years or 50k and 2007 was 3 years/36k bumper to bumper and 60k powertrain right?

 

[tunersteve]

Your powertrain warranty is 5/60k regardless of year. I think you need to have a chat with them and explain why this isn't being covered. From everything you've posted, there is no reason whatsoever that they should deny you a warranty claim.

My suggestion is to dig out the owners manual and find the part about coverage and go into your dealer and bring that up. If they don't want to cooperate, then take it to the next level. From not having any mods and for them to find a full oil level, there is no "smoking gun" as to why you spun that bearing.

Hope this helps, keep us posted on your progress.

 

[ILSpeed]

My owners manual is inside the car which is currently sitting at the dealership, is there anyone with a 2006 that could verify that there is a powertrain warranty for 5years/60k on the 2006? I thought the warranty was different between the 2006 and 2007 http://www.mazdausamedia.com/content/2006-mazdaspeed6

 

[GeeZee]

I have an '06 and I just checked the warranty information. The limited warranty is 48 months and/or 50k miles. Aside from emissions equipment, the only thing covered longer is safety restraints and perforation.

 

[ILSpeed]

Well i heard back from mazda corporate this morning and they informed me that they've given me the best possible offer for my situation which is the aforementioned price reduction. Anger does not begin to describe what I feel right now.

I'm 25, and i have a lot more car-buying years ahead of me and I have many years of people around me in my life buying cars and I wonder what it is Mazda thinks I'm going to say to them now that this has happened. I won't even speak for myself because it should be obvious I will never purchase another vehicle from them. Legally I have no grounds to move forward on since the warranty had just barely ended but I didn't want or expect them to replace the engine for free. I thought the very best they would have done might have been half which would have made me genuinely happy. If they would have offered to dip into their own pockets at all, even a little I would have been somewhat satisfied, because right now all they did was give me the at cost price, at least if they were going to pay something I could have said they offered to do anything for me other than not make a profit on replacing a poorly manufactured engine. Instead all I can say is that when I purchased their "at the time" flagship sedan and maintained it properly it had a catastrophic engine failure at 37k miles and they could care less about that because I was 30 days past the warranty time frame but 13k miles under the mileage limit.

 

[tunersteve]

Warranting an engine replacement is tough at most dealers, no matter what. That's a huge expense for them to get hit with. However, they are steering you the wrong way and blatantly lying to you about the warranty. As I said before, you need them to provide written evidence of why they are NOT warranting the motor, and also go and get your owners manual from the car and read the warranty portion over and take some notes. You are under the powertrain warranty, and if there was no evidence of abuse, neglect, or contributing mods that would cause the motor to fail, then you are deserving of a replacement motor.

 

[tunersteve]

Here's what I was able to come across:

http://www.mymazda.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=ownersWarranty

Mazda warrants that new Mazda cars and trucks will be free of defects with normal use and prescribed maintenance for 36 months or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. Ordinary maintenance items, adjustments, parts subject to normal wear and certain other items are excluded. This transferable "limited warranty" is included on all new Mazda vehicles sold and serviced in the United States.

3-year/36,000-mile* "Bumper-to-Bumper" Limited Warranty 5-year/60,000-mile* Limited Powertrain Warranty
3-year/36,000-mile* 24/7 Roadside Assistance Program
* Whichever comes first.

 

[ILSpeed]

On that same website if you scroll down it specifically says 4years/50k for 2006 Mazda vehicles.

 

[tunersteve]

On that same website if you scroll down it specifically says 4years/50k for 2006 Mazda vehicles.

You're at 37k, what's the point?

 

[Olestra]

His point is that he is at 4 years + 1 month.
So 1 month past the warranty expiry date.

Not that this will help you or that it's any of your fault but I've come to realize that saving the mileage on a car that is under warranty can be counter-productive. Driving only 9k miles in 4 years did not give the vehicle enough time to work out any defects in the power train.

My advice would be to shop around and see if you can get a better final price.
- You could look into getting a used engine.
- Find a mechanic at a non-dealership
- Contact Ken at ProtegeGarage (forum sponsor) and he can help you find a used engine or he might have one in stock.

 

[keymaster]

Yeah, it looks like the power train warranty for 2006 is 4 years/50K miles, same as the bumper to bumper. That sucks, but it is apparently out of warranty and they don't need to help you at all with it. Sorry for the bad news.

Hmmm, I'm going to think real hard about an extended warranty now, seems like the only way to avoid being screwed like this.

EDIT: Steve, it's always the lesser number, so he's out of warranty on the 4 years.

 

[tunersteve]

Wow, I was under the impression that it was also a 5/60k powertrain for the '06 models. My mistake. I also didn't see that he was over on time, not mileage.

 

[FORZDA 1]

I bought my 06 speed6 in the late fall of 08 with 9k on the odometer, at 37k I have a spun bearing, and I need a new engine. ..........

Before you commit to any repairs, what are the symptoms?

A spun bearing is a pretty big deal and not something that just "happens". Did the dealer pull a rod cap to see the bearing or was the motor making a knocking sound and they just "assumed" it was a bearing?

 

[ILSpeed]

Before you commit to any repairs, what are the symptoms?

A spun bearing is a pretty big deal and not something that just "happens". Did the dealer pull a rod cap to see the bearing or was the motor making a knocking sound and they just "assumed" it was a bearing?

It was making a clacking sound that sounded like a spun bearing but they did actually tear it down and inspect it.

To the earlier post about it just being bad luck a month after, I agree with that and I fully know that Mazda is not required to do a damn thing for me, but what god awful customer service. The customer service reps that I talked to were borderline rude with me and a far cry from anything even resembling sympathetic to my situation, even though I made sure not to be rude towards them, not cut them off while talking etc.

This makes me want to get it fixed and then dump it followed by spending the rest of my life cursing all things Mazda