Need Opinions! Dealership says I need a new engine?!?!

[jabobson]

Hey everyone,

I just need anyone's opinion that wants to give it on this matter. I live in the greater Cincinnati area and my local dealership is King's Mazda (in case that helps anyone who uses their service department for some reason).

I took my car in for a late oil change, it's been 9k and over 100 degree each day in this town. My car was making a ticking noise when I accelerated as I reached the dealership to drop off my car from my work which is about 15 miles away highway. This was the very first time my car has ever made any bad sounding noises and the noise started as I was driving and not at all when I started (isn't that pistons knocking due to low/thin oil?(huh)). My car has 26,600 miles on it and I drove it off the lot with 5. I have a 2010 Mazda 3 iTouring with a Corksport SRI as my only aftermarket part.

When I dropped the car off besides the free oil change the service employee had me initial 4 times and sign once for a $47.95 diagnostic fee to look further into what could be the problem with my car (fine whatever).

Here's where it gets good...I call them 1 hour after they've been looking at my car. The service department tells me the entire engine is bad, no actual reason giving (piston, rod, block, NOTHING), and tells me a rebuild/replacement would run me $5,800 (not covered by warranty siting 'lack of on time maintenance'). I also never approved the tear down or signed for that work to which they responded with, Mazda Corp. is paying for that extra service. They then went on to say they weren't even going to put it back to the condition it was in when I drove it there so I could go get a second opinion or see if they were BSing me. The service employee's exact words were "or we can put the parts in your trunk and you can tow it out of here because it would be the same thing".

If you've read this far please give me whatever insight you might have in something like this because I'm feeling very scammed.

The route I'm almost 100% sure is the right one to take is to tell them to put the engine back together (for free again just like the tear down), put oil in, and let me have my car.

Thoughts? Am I wrong for feeling scammed?(huh)
(I know little about all this so if I'm wrong so be it)

 

[JP0317]

You never authorized a tear down of your car like that so #1 you are NOT out of your right to tell them to put the vehicle back together so that you can remove it from their facility. #2 ask for the reason the engine needs to be replaced. Btw make sure you're speaking with the service manager about all this. You might even inquire as to why you were not called prior to the tear down. #3 call another dealership and inquire how much it would cost for them to take a look at your car. I would initially keep the information regarding the other dealership to yourself for the time being and just get the second opinion. And last but definitely not least call Mazda Corp and inform them of the situation. Recently Mazda Corp has really been lazy (check out another post on here about a clutch failing early and their 'reaction' to the issue and poor treatment from a dealership to a customer) but you might get lucky. Oh and depending on how it all goes, like the other guy that has recently been fighting a dealership, you might want to just seek out local legal assistance regarding this.

 

[jabobson]

The dealership says there is nothing they can do. They said there is no reason to look further into my engine's problem because solely based on the knocking noise and some pictures they sent in to Mazda Corp the ONLY solution is a brand new engine. They didn't look at any single part of my engine in a mechanical sense to actually tell me what was wrong with it and won't based on the Corp's recommendation against looking further into the "un-fixable" problem. Don't engines make weird noises for a usually specific reason? And if there is a specific reason can't that problem be fixed without replacing the whole engine? I get that I messed up by not changing the oil more regularly, but there has to be a reason the engine doesn't sound right. I'm going to take it somewhere else and pay for a complete inspection to see if they can pinpoint an actual problem and maybe an entire $5,800 replacement won't be necessary. I can hope at least right?(huh)

 

[ToNeZ90]

Honestly i would raise hell if it was my car. If the car was under warranty, they should'nt have charged you a diagnostic fee, they needed to give u the choice of a break-down BEFORE they even lift a wrench, and since they didn't have ur consent to break-down the engine they should be held responsible for putting the engine back to how you brought it in.

How do they figure that you didn't do ontime maintainance? It's recomended to change oil every 3k. My dealer uses 5k mile oil changes.

 

[JP0317]

Honestly i would raise hell if it was my car. If the car was under warranty, they should'nt have charged you a diagnostic fee, they needed to give u the choice of a break-down BEFORE they even lift a wrench, and since they didn't have ur consent to break-down the engine they should be held responsible for putting the engine back to how you brought it in.

How do they figure that you didn't do ontime maintainance? It's recomended to change oil every 3k. My dealer uses 5k mile oil changes.

+1. Unless they have some piece of paper with your signature on it authorizing a full engine tear down, you have the upper hand.
Have you actually seen the car, engine removed and all?

 

[njaremka]

so, you went 9,000 miles since the last oil change? i dont see a problem with that if you are using synthetic oil. even if ti was plain conventional oil, as long as the levels were fine and it didn't run dry, shouldn't be an issue. i would suspect that the noises were just because the oil was getting old. a fresh oil change is likely all thats needed. get the next oil change done at a sooner interval (like 2,500 miles or something), and then 5,000 miles for every next oil change will be fine. if there was signifigant engine damage, you would have a louder sound than just a little ticking.

 

[Sean2010]

Dont sit back and let them take you for a ride. Like others have said, you have the upper hand. Go fight with them, tell them if it's not put back together soon, you'll see them in court.

 

[jabobson]

Update...

I had a meeting with the GM of King's Mazda and nothing good came of it. Lawyers or not my warranty was void when I went passed the 5k mark of not bringing my car in for the oil change, I even spoke with my lawyer and there wasn't much she could do about it either because it was a ruling set by Mazda Corp. I've since gotten my engine replaced at a really good import repair shop in downtown Cincinnati based solely on I'm not getting anything from Mazda right now and I need my car to live as we all do (yes the engine was beyond repair from running it on low oil, yes I may have had some part in this I'm not denying that). It was way cheaper than the $5800 the dealership quoted me and it was the exact same swap. I filed a complaint with the BBB on King's Mazda and Mazda Corp for handling this situation as poorly as they did, and I've been contacted by email from them stating they are looking further into the matter by contacting both parties. It's a sad day when those of us who buy these expensive machines that help to write the paychecks of these assholes are treated as such and I wish this entire experience on no one.

Thanks for the feedback guys, trust me I wanted to lay out the service manager and his "mechanic" sidekick when I was in there the last time (nuts). After everything was said and done he ended our "conversation" by threatening me with calling the police and then told me I wasn't allowed back at "his store" anymore. I'm not done with him yet that's for sure.

 

[jabobson]

Update on the Update...

(hump)

I guess I AM done with the service manager I dealt with at King's Mazda. I just went on their website to see if I could get the email address of the guy I talked to and found this. It may not be justice for my car but it's justice none the less.

Kings Mazda Welcomes Cary Cunningham
Kings Mazda would like to welcome Cary Cunningham into the Kings Mazda family as the new Service Manager. Cary has most recently been the Service Director for Saturn of Beechmont Dealership and brings with him over 15 years of experience and truly understands that customer satisfaction is our number one goal! (no it's not)

 

[Sean2010]

(hump)

I guess I AM done with the service manager I dealt with at King's Mazda. I just went on their website to see if I could get the email address of the guy I talked to and found this. It may not be justice for my car but it's justice none the less.

Kings Mazda Welcomes Cary Cunningham
Kings Mazda would like to welcome Cary Cunningham into the Kings Mazda family as the new Service Manager. Cary has most recently been the Service Director for Saturn of Beechmont Dealership and brings with him over 15 years of experience and truly understands that customer satisfaction is our number one goal! (no it's not)

LOL...you should call em up and ask what exactly happened to the dick before...ahah

 

[Killer]

My guess is you will be sure to get that oil changed in a timly manner from here on out. Sorry for your bad luck/experiance.

 

[jaime09]

Hello there! I am Jaime and my dealership is <a title="My experience finding a Mazda" href="http://www.cardealexpert.com/city/IN/Valparaiso">Mazda Valparaiso IN</a>. Luckily, I've never met any trouble upon my dealership service. In terms of oil change, they did it in a good time frame manner. I guess, you really need a professional advice to address your car problem and sorry to hear your bad experience with them.

Best regards, Jaime