well it started with car idling like crap and not charging, would die if you idle with enough electronics on -> alternator (most likely the brushes are gone), replaced alternator.
I get car, still idles like crap... take it back.. EGR valve (knee jerk diagnosis to poor idling)
I get car, still idles like crap, bring it back, exhaust MANI cracked... replaced, ok, now wastegate actuator is busted. Now this I believe as I used to hit the fuel cut in cold temperature, I thought it was normal as the car ALWAYS did this, no laughing please, it was my first turbo car. The jolt on the engine @ fuel cut probably broke a motor mount as they replaced one.
WA special order from USA... okay, it comes in.. they replace WA.. surprise surprise suddenly there's a major oil leak in the turbo. Funny because i checked my plugs 4 days before they were clean, oil level was fine. Doesn't start leaking from 1 day to the next.
Okay, now turbo is like $3K, they want bills for oil changes.. dig dig dig. Takes long time to find them as I have another car by now, bills are @ parents house, i don't go there often. Dealer calls to b**** that my car is taking up space in their parking. Every time it snows (it snowed A LOT this year) they have to clean the car and move it twice, once so that they can clean the parking, and another time to put it back. I laugh, "Replace the turbo and I'll come pick it up". OK, finally found them, fax them, they replace turbo.
FINALLY car runs nicely. I guess they felt bad it took 6 weeks to fix the car as the car comes back spic & span, detailed in & out. I take everything, bills, receipts, warranty work, ext warranty, and the car, give it all to the new buyer, he does his inspection, all good, sold.
Kind of annoying to have to go through all this. I had dropped price to less than 12 for whomever may have been interested to deal with the hassle themselves. But even though the car was still under ext warranty and I had not played with the turbo, I guess people assume that a car like ours at that price, that means you put in a boost controller and pushed 17 psi with NOS on jet fuel and everything is shot inside. Truth is I had no time to deal with it and i figure if it takes me months to take care of this it will lose value, plus I have to put a $ amount on my time, ....
In retrospect it's understandable that the mani cracked and the turbo bearings were shot if the boost was unregulated due to broken wastegate. Mazda thought I was totally BS'ing them when I said I hadn't played with the turbo. And I hadn't.. honest.
