Just documneting what I have so far for legal purposes...
07-20-05: Take car in to find out why A/C blows warm. Tech says, "You are running 13 lbs. of boost you know." Service advisor (Michelle) says I need to replace my A/C condenser, and timing belt. Service advisor says I need to change my belt or my motor could be damaged if the belt breaks. Schedule appointment for 07-25-05. Car has no issues and runs fine. I never see 13 lbs. boost and rarely see 7. I don't get on it unless I'm getting on the highway or passing someone. And only then I do not see more than 7 lbs of boost, if that. Average 5 lbs.
07-25-05: Take car in to get it fixed. Told the car will be ready today. Service advisor called later on and told me car will not be ready until 07-26-05, also says they will change oil.
07-26-05: Service advisor calls and says car will be ready this afternoon. Go to pick up car, advisor messes up bill and have to wait for an hour. Tech says, the air tube from the MAF to turbo inlet broke, and he replaced with an intake tube from an S-10. Says the car is better and it will hold. Drive car home, take it easy so belt can work itself in.
07-27-05: P.M. driving to work. Pull out of garage into cloud of white smoke. Concerned, but don't see anything else. Attempt to get on boost, but nothing. White smoke starts intermittently, oil light comes on while sitting at stop light on level ground.
07-28-05: More white smoke driving home form work in the A.M. More white smoke inthe P.M. No boost, oil light flashes again. Notice boost controller tubing changed, and oil leaking form valve cover, as well as oil on fan shorud and other strange places. Clean up engine bay, leave message for service advisor.
07-29-05: Take car in in the A.M. Car produces white smoke really bad from 2200 rpm up to 3500 rpm regardless of gear or speed. Explain to service advisor what the problem is, she says "We never touched the valve cover so I don't know why that's leaking." Explain to her the process for changing the timing belt and state I paid for one. Service advisor states she will call in the P.M. and let me know its fixed.
I call in the P.M. twice. Told the oil seals in the turbo blew from too much oil pressure, states will not fix. I ask how that is possible since I was producing white smoke. Advisor says the manager will call. I got o dealerhsip and speak to service manager "Ron" who says they have no idea what happened. Says tech is on vacation to 08-03-05. Manager says he knows my car runs 7-8 pounds of boost. Says he needs his tech to see where he was working to know what broke and how it broke. Says he has not done a compression check but will be fore the end of business and let me know what happens. Puts me in a rental car.
I call back at 1900 hours, talk to parts guy about getting something out of my car. Parts guy says he knows my car becuase he helped with a compression check before they closed. Gets my stuff and leaves it with the receptionist out front.
08-02-03: Call to see what happened with compression check because no calls from manager. Advisor says we will call when the tech comes in on 08-03-05.
08-03-05: Call in the P.M. to see what is going on. Manager says tech not in until 08-04-05. They will let me know what is going on at that time. Nothing said about compression. Says Mazda will tough to get to pay off on this as amanufacturing defect. Beginning to build case for them not to pay for it. Says they call in the A.M. on 08-04-05 with what is wrong.
Send email to Tom Martino (consumer advocate in Denver) asking for advice and direction to go if this goes bad. Begin lawyer search for possible law suite if the dealer refuses to fix it.
08-04-05: Dealership refused to fix it. Stated because the after market turbo is on there, its not their fault the motor broke. States they won't do a compression check unless I pay for it. The manager says "it's your baby" referring to the car, says its not their responsibilty that it broke. Manager says this is equivalent of a headlight breaking and that there is nothign they could do. They say the turbo oil seals are blown and it is leaking oil. But they say they can't fix it becuase they don't know how turbos work (so then how do they know the seals are blown?). They did not do the oil change, have to get that refunded at the dealership.
Tow car to Sill-Terhar Mazda to have the car looked at.
08-05-05: Sill-Terhar says that I have low compression in the #3 and #4 cylinders and that it appears the turbo is blown. They say they can fix it, but will have to take it back to stock to do so. They say it will cost $2100 buck to pull the motor and nother $6000 to fix from there.
08-06-05: Tow car to Greeley on a U-Haul car trailer.
08-07-05: Begin search for new motor or parts to get car fixed. Start taking apart turbo intake piping and see oil in the air filter, MAF and short pipe up to turbo inlet. See that the tube from the mAF to the turbo inlet is different than the piece originally used. Also see that tubing to the NSN boost controller is changed from my installation. John Elway also left my plastic MP3 engine cover off the car, as well as one of the engine hooks. have to go back to get that, and some tech says he doesn't know why they would take that stuff off.
08-16-05:Motor is on the way, have gasket kit, etc. Call Mazda USA and file a complaint on the delaership.
Call BBB to file complaint, told I will be contacted by the dealer in 48 hours. Twenty minutes later get a call from dealer and speak to a lady who says this issue is over her head and will have to forward it to the general manager who is on Vacation until Monday, 08-22-05. Lady send email to manager and me with incorrect information. Reply with correct information.
Get call from another person apparently in service who asks why I called the BBB and tries to expalin what the tech did to fix my car. I shut her down by explaining my issues and why I called the BBB, says I will have to speak to the GM.
08-18-05: Short block arrives.
08-19-05:Take motor up to car in Greeley and begin the change over.
08-22-05: General Manager (Joe Curtin) calls today and askes what happened. I inform him about what's wrong and he says he needs to look into it. Asks how much the car is worth, I say $8,000. He asks what it will take to make things right, I tell him $4,000 to cover the cost of the new short block. He seems rather concerned that it'll cost that much and seems skeptical as to why I need a new motor. I explain to him that it would cost about the same to get the parts and have the motor rebuilt, and that I found a short block quickly instead of waiting for the parts. I also tell him it would cost about $6,500 in parts to have the dealer fix it, or at least $4,500 for the short block through them.
He says he needs to know the mileage on my car and says he will look into it (the situation) and call me back tomorrow. I call back tonight and leave a message with 66119 miles.
Looking at the paperwork from John Elway, I see that the in/out mileage is the same number, so on the visit on 07-20-05 mileage is 65593. On 07-26-05 the mileage is 65971 for the in/out. The mileage of the car at Sill-Tehrar is 66119, which is the current mileage (148).
John Elway does not keep accurate records of the in/out mileage.
08-23-05: Joe Curtin tells me based on his Honda techs who have seen turbos blow motors in 15,000 miles, that I was lucky to have my last as long as it did with the FP turbo kit on it and that their tech never touched any of the intake tubing to my turbo. He said he will not fix it because the turbo is broken, not the motor.
He suddenly tells me that they might have done a compression check while the car was returned to them after the smoking began. But the tech is on vacation (again?).
He says that they never touched the turbo and so it's not their problem. I tell him I know the tubing was changed becuase I know what I put in, and when I received my car back, it was different. teh tech even told me he had to change something. GM says the tech never said that.
Gm says that they believe the motor was going to blow regardless because I never put in forged pistons, rods or rings to deal with the turbo. I explained to him that my kit and the boost it is running was comparable to the Mazdaspeed Protege which is running the exact same motor. He said he doesn't knwo anythign about that. I tell him about the FS block being built for turbo and the Honda block not being built for turbos, that is why the Honda techs see so many issues. GM says he doesn't know anything about that, but refuses to fix the problem based on their information.
GM also says the techs saw blue/black smoke, maybe grey smoke, but definitely not white smoke, which indicates oil in the system.
He did not speak to a Mazda mechanic familiar with the FS motor, nor with turbos.
I explain the kit was professionally installed by the company who designed it who have well over 20 years experience with this stuff and they tell me the turbo looks fine, the motor is the problem. GM says he has to base his judgement off of the information sources he has, Honda techs who have turbocharged a Nissan and an Acura.
I filed a written complaint with the BBB...
