My baby is Dead, needs new engine. Please Help!

[Slamerton]

So... i apologize in advance if i did anything wrong in posting this here, as this is the first post in any forum i have ever done.

about 2 weeks ago i was about a half hour from my house after a 3 hour drive (all highway) i was doing about 140 km/hr and as i went to accelerate back to 150 (not agresivly) i noticed that i had lost power... i looked at my tach and the engine had stopped and then i saw the check engine light come on followed by the check oil light. when i pulled over to the side of the highway the car would not start again unless i gave it a ridiculous amount of gas and then it would just sound like pots and pans so i shut it off immediately.

The car only has 117 000 kms on it. i had it towed to a family friends shop here in Edmonton (cooper brothers). after they had a look at it they called me back and informed me that they could no longer turn the engine over... i was told they couldn't get anymore then 3 revolutions out of it by hand. the timing chain has apparently completely disintegrated.

i was quoted 3200 for parts and labour for a new engine and they subjested that i do my clutch while the engine is out for another $700

i was curious if anyone could explain to me WTF happened to cause me to need a new engine... yes i know you are supposed to change your timing chain at 100 000 k and no i didn't but... i still find it hard to believe that such a thing could happen at such low kms.

any sujjestions on where to find a cheap engine or a wrecked Mazda 3 would be helpful

the most frustrating part of this whole thing was the week previous to this incident i was looking at buying an Audi S4... then decided not to as i found a mechanic to help me build my car up to par with a speed 3...

 

[BRIAN_MP5T]

It sounds to me as if your oil ran low and that caused the chain to fail

You can look at a wrecking yard for cheaper parts but honestly, that quote is very reasonable if that includes installation.

Sorry to hear about your frustration.

Doing 140 for 3 solid hours is still hard on an engine. I believe that it was probably not a steady 140 and probably has some harder acceleration.

if the oil level wasn't fully topped up or if it had been a bit of time since your last change, the oil could have also simply overheated from the constant pace of your driving and broken down (stopped lubricating)

You need to change the chain at 100k km because the engine designers calculated that it would on average fail at 120k km

Some will last longer, some shorter.

Driving like that probably just put the kiss of death on it.

If I told you that your running shoes would need to replaced because there was 1mm of tred left and you ran a marathon, would you be surprised to see bleeding feet?

 

[flash75]

Welcome to the forum. Did you check the oil level when the engine died? If oil was too low, that
is what killed your engine. I don't think that would cause the timing chain to break. It will cause
rod and main bearings to quickly fail. The noise you heard when attempting to start was probably
rod bearings. The shop estimate sounds reasonable, assuming they do quality work.

Why are both of you saying the timing chain should be replaced at specified intervals? The 2008
Mazda 3 shop manual doesn't show any requirement to change the timing chain in their prescribed
maintenance charts. Timing chains typically last as long as other engine components. That is one
reason most manufacturers have switched from timing belts to chains.

Good luck.

Clifton

 

[jmcglynn]

This thread has been cold for a while, but I thought I'd chime in to ask what ended up happening here. So sorry to hear what happened. I've got a 2006 Mazda 5 that has a similar engine, and I'm looking into a possible timing chain issue right now myself. As flash75 noted, timing chains are designed to last the life of the engine, but I've also been reading a lot about issues with Mazda/Ford timing chains in general (this engine family is shared with Ford). Mazda's SOP seems to be to replace the engine whenever they run into an issue they can't figure out... but if you're like me, out of warranty and/or don't have complete service records, you're pretty much screwed. So... any follow-up?