Engine work in CT

[Mazdamia]

I am hoping someone can point me towards a shop in the area that can help me with an oil-buring problem on my P5. I am burning A LOT of oil and I initially want to get it looked at to get an estimate but I don't want to pay $250.00 for someone to tell me that I need $1200 in engine work...In other words, if it is going to cost me more than $1000 with repair and estimate, I'll just get a used engine and put it in for the time being.

Does anyone know any reasonable/reputable shops in the area that give free estimates? I'm looking for the Waterbury, Bridgeport, or Middletown areas...

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[altspace]

Wow. How many miles? What kind of driving do you do? How much oil burns off?

 

[chuyler1]

Are you sure its burning and not leaking? Black bumper vs grimy under carriage and pools of oil under the car.

This is the first I have heard of anyone with an oil burning problem. The internals of the P5 engine are pretty decent. Most engine problems I have seen are related to sensors and emmisions, not faulty seals or whatever this problem may be.

 

[SlowPro98]

Morande Mazda in Manchester has a pretty decent service department. But I don't know anyone in middlesex county that does mazdas.
There's a guy on miata . net named Bad Bob. aka bob chop. he does really good work on miatas, and i picked his brain about proteges. it's a long shot but he might be able to help you. He lives in Ansonia.

 

[Mazdamia]

Wow. How many miles? What kind of driving do you do? How much oil burns off?

115,000 miles. Mostly highway obviously on a car this new. It has been getting progressively worse since before 50,000 miles. Since I got the car I have used synthetic oil, changes every 3500-5000 miles (which has been every month and a half many times) until recently. Now it burns so much that a week after topping it off, the oil light is turning on.

And it is not leaking one bit...no oil spots on the driveway or grime/gunk under/on/around the engine. Black bumper/hatch FTL.

I did have a few screws go through the engine before the recall started for that and I had to pay for the new manifold. No reimbursement either as my VIN was just outside of the recall range.

I brought this to Mazda's attention when I was still under warranty by the way but they said they couldn't help me because they wanted not only the logbook that I had with all of my oilchange dates/milages, but also dated receipts for each time I bought oil and filters...They wouldn't accept the ones I showed them where I would buy multiple filters and cases of oil as they didn't correspond to the dates of my oil changes...WTF.

 

[altspace]

I'm no brain surgeon, but if screws went in the cylinders or even the smallest metal fragments, then would it not scrape the cylinder walls?

 

[SlowPro98]

Sounds like it needs to be re-honed. that's in the realm of a rebuild. dunno much about that. Hambino might know a thing or 2, but you'd have to talk to him about that.

 

[tsunami]

another long shot but you could try switching back to dino oil especially those high milleage ones they have additives to open your seals back up (any dino oil will help with that more then sythetic from what i have been led to believe) but as slowpro said if they got in the head or chamer then a re hone could be in order and at that point you won't be paying much more to just go get one from a junk yard and have them do all the work while before you take your car down for some extended time.

 

[SlowPro98]

Mazdamia, I read you have your car in a shop~ where'd you end up going? and what did they list as the cause of the problem?

Peace

 

[Mazdamia]

I am putting one of Ken's used engines in it. The shop quoted me $1100-$1300 for a valve/head job.

It is $1450 for the motor shipped and installed by Paul's Service in Bridgeport. We'll see how it goes as I am supposed to get it back this coming week.

But, I'll have my old motor to play with. (nana)

 

[Mr. 4500 RPM]

how did this pan out in the end?

 

[Mazdamia]

I am still waiting for a tracking number or something from Ken on the engine. It was supposed to be at my mechanic today at the latest and i am going to call the shop today to make sure it was received.

If not, I am probably totally screwed because my mechanic goes on vacation for two weeks after Friday!

 

[SlowPro98]

Thanks for the update. I think we're heading the same way.

 

[bazooka joe]

Thanks for the update. I think we're heading the same way.

??

 

[SlowPro98]

my mazda ticks are getting louder. just rolled 100k on the wagon. I need a timing belt, and a water pump, gaskets, blaa blaa blaa. so I figure, it the car needs all these little things, why mess around? just get a low milage motor, drop it in and either flip the core or rebuild it for more power.

 

[bazooka joe]

my mazda ticks are getting louder. just rolled 100k on the wagon. I need a timing belt, and a water pump, gaskets, blaa blaa blaa. so I figure, it the car needs all these little things, why mess around? just get a low milage motor, drop it in and either flip the core or rebuild it for more power.

(yes)

 

[Mazdamia]

Well, here is the latest news:

I don't really know who to put the blame on; Ken, Shipping company, Motor supplier...Either way, the motor I ordered on the 19th that was supposed to be at my mechanic on the 26th at "the latest" didn't arrive.

When I finally got a tracking number from Ken yesterday (27th), the Shipping company said that it would be going out of their warehouse this morning (28th) for delivery today. They said 3pm at the latest.

I stopped by the mechanic at 3:15 to see if he had started the install and there was no motor. I immediately called the delivery company and they apoligized and said the motor would be there by 4:30pm as the driver was delayed.

Keep in mind, when I ordered this I made it clear that I needed the motor by the 27th AM at the latest since my mechanic is going to Greece starting Sat. for two weeks. Needless to say, at 5:30 when my mechanic was getting ready to close, I stopped by and still no motor. I called the company again and they said that "The driver went by at 4pm and there was no one there." BS...this guy has like six open garages on site and there were cars up and being worked on in all of them all day. They ask me then if I can wait a while for the driver to come back. It is now 5:45 and the truck is in Danbury and my mechanic is in Bridgeport! Yea...the mechanic wants to wait until 7:30 for the motor to get there...

So I ask them the earliest it can be delivered tomorrow (29th) and they say, "between 1pm and 4pm." Basically I am screwed. Now I have to get my car to another mechanic, negociate a price, have the motor delivered there, etc. So no car this weekend and probably not until the 3rd and, realisticly speaking, the 5th is more likely.

Basically this pisses me off. Not to blame anyone in particular, but you would think that you would get a little more help/attention when dropping $1,000 on something like this. It's not like it's brakepads or something.

Ok, sorry. End of rant.

 

[SlowPro98]

damn dude that sucks. Have you talked to Ken? What has he said?

 

[Mazdamia]

damn dude that sucks. Have you talked to Ken? What has he said?

No, I didn't call him. I shouldn't have to call/PM everyday.

Everything is finally finished. To make a long story short, one of the mechanics opened the shop specifically for my car the 3rd to get it done because he felt bad. The motor is in and it seems to be running strong. The final damage was as follows:

$995.00 - used motor from Ken.
$550 - Engine install from Paul's Service in Bridgeport.

It took the mechanic from 9am until approx. 4pm doing the job himself. Considering another shop in town quoted me $900 for the same job, I think I paid a decent price since they opened for one day of the two week vacation to help me out.

In other news, my boss quit and I am going to get her job and a raise!(drinks)

 

[bazooka joe]

No, I didn't call him. I shouldn't have to call/PM everyday.

Everything is finally finished. To make a long story short, one of the mechanics opened the shop specifically for my car the 3rd to get it done because he felt bad. The motor is in and it seems to be running strong. The final damage was as follows:

$995.00 - used motor from Ken.
$550 - Engine install from Paul's Service in Bridgeport.

It took the mechanic from 9am until approx. 4pm doing the job himself. Considering another shop in town quoted me $900 for the same job, I think I paid a decent price since they opened for one day of the two week vacation to help me out.

In other news, my boss quit and I am going to get her job and a raise!(drinks)

good news! you need to by this guy a case of something for his efforts!!