Hesitation question

[Newf]

the clunk should only happen on mp3's, and speeds. It starts off like something is in your trunk flopping around. It'll eventually get louder, but for a month or so can be quite tolerable.

Then....it gets much much much worse. It'll literally sound like your sway bar is handing off and smacking against your car. It'll make a huge noise going over simple tar lines on the road, and it makes it damn near impossible to sell your car as I found out the hard way.

Same noise on your ES....interesting.

One thing i do want to point out...again. the clunk is NOT related to cold. It's related to WET. Your car should be even worse in rainy or snowy weather. The bar, and bushings get wet and slip, and become loose, hence the noise. I could drive around in -30 below winters, it wouldn't make a difference to the bushings, but as they get wet, and wear, then they clunk. Common sense says as well, that the bumpier the roads, the faster they wear.

Anyhow....I still want the hesitation fixed.

 

[Wingman21]

So you're saying that you can hear the clunk sound even while driving... it is that loud !???
I agree that Mazda should have resolved that problem before relasing the MSP !!! It shouldnt be that hard to resolve it anyway !!!

Also, is the sound that annoying ? I mean... would you advice other people to buy a MSP knowing the hesitation and the clunk problem ?

 

[irr5302]

If 15 mazda people work in the new ecu reflash is time to sale the car because these people take 1 year to one simple reflash

this is bull s***

in reality this not sound good

the clunk problem is only from msp and mp3 because the big rear swaybar>>>>>>


this s*** happends

mazda sale the car to all of us and is not interested in repair nothing

mazda is part of ford remember the firestone case all this people died

In the mod,s deparment anything work fine when the ecu not work properly


your brain fail you dont work fine

any have a direct letter from mazda?

 

[girth]

Yeah I know Newf -- it is even hard for me to believe myself that my 2000 ES had the clunk problem because nobody else with a 2000 model (the few there are) seems to complain about it. I don't know -- maybe it really WAS something banging around in the trunk - to be honest I never looked into it because even after 2.5 years it was still only a minor annoyance that didn't happen constantly. But I do know for sure that my MSP is now making the exact same clunking noise that my ES made. I'm dreading my MSP's clunk getting even worse, although I know it inevitably will. I also didn't realize that it's the wet and snow that makes it worse; I thought it was the cold. But anyway, I'm still at a point right now where the hesitation is a much bigger problem than the clunk. For me hesitation=75% of the time, clunk=30% of the time.

For Irr5302, here's the last "official" note from Mazda (Note -- "Craig" is BoostIsGood, not me). Make of it what you will...

Hi Craig!

As promised, I want to give you a brief update on where we are at concerning the issue you raised with the MAZDASPEED Proteg.

First, you should know that there are at least 15 individuals involved in this matter now, including executive-level quality and engineering people. We have begun weekly conference calls with everyone to ensure progress is made. Second, we fully understand your concern, and are working on a recalibration of the control module (the brain) for the optimum resolution. We expect to begin testing the recalibration in August.

I will give you another update by the end of August (or sooner if there is significant news) when I should be able to give you some more specifics as to how and when we will be able to help you and the other owners.

Take care, and thanks again for your support while we work through this together.

Scott Slade
Manager, Customer Assistance
Mazda North American Operations

 

[Dr.Sound]

u guys should all chill out, seriously this thread reeks of anger

ECU flash is done........all they have to do now is monitor it for a while to see if everything is worry free.

chill and wait, soon my friends...........soon.........

 

[Larone]

What is this clunk that u guys r talking about?

 

[Kenetix]

Rear suspension bushing go out. Had to get mine replaced.

 

[enry]

I never got the clunk on either mp3 os msp. I did get the squeak though.

 

[Newf]

In my eyes the hesitation problem isn't that big of a deal for most part(except those that are stalling, now that's BAD). For the most part, it's an issue I could live with (but shouldn't have to ). But if the clunk issue is not addressed, the car will be traded in again, and no more Mazda's for Newf ...EVER

At it's worse, usually in rain, Yes, you can hear it while driving. Yes you can even hear it OVER the stereo even when it's above 20. No, you can't have a conversation over a bumpy road without yelling, and you can feel the banging in the floor, the seats, even the shifter. The clunk requires me to goto the dealer to get something replaced every 3 weeks. Sometimes the bushings, sometimes the bar, other times the links. The clunk is far more serious then %90 of you realize as it will do damage to your car over time, and it WILL seriously effect handling.

The hesitation shouldn't happen. It is a problem. But why? Because you can't drag race someone properly? I think that's why most people b**** about that. MY only serious problem is when pulling into traffic and the power isn't there. Of course, I shouldn't be cutting out in front of someone to begin with. Slow cars get around just fine with no turbo right? Now the stalling issue is an extremely huge safety issue, but very few seem to have it.

Ok, the ECU fix is done, and their "testing it" right? Well, the clunk fix has been done as well....numerous times now. parts 156a through 156d, I've seen other attempts besides those parts that have failed as well since December.

Interesting ... MY woman drives our car as well. She doesn't even know it has a hesitation problem. The clunk however...dead obvious to anyone that rides in it.

 

[girth]

Hey Newf, have you ever set up a petition on this board or the MP3 board about the clunk problem like BoostIsGood did for the hesitation? If not, we should set one up -- I'm just thinking it would be nice that if Mazda ever gets back to us with a fix for hesitation, we could immediately reply with another petition about the clunk while we have their attention. Plus the 15 people that were working on the hesitation will be looking for something else to do.

 

[Pazzaz]

ive had my msp for 10 days and it is going into the shop for stalling for the 2nd time im not very happy they said it was the IAC valve not responding that was not the problem because im sending it back has anything been done for this problem

 

[Newf]

girth, the clunk situation was looked into by me and 100's of other people who sent me the letters, and I had Mazda Canada fly down to meet me in person, and I continue to meet with them till this day. Boostisgood has done some great things, but I had the biggest hurdle. Until I yelled lawsuit, and got every mp3 and speed owner on Mazda's back, mazda didn't listen want to hear anything bad about thier cars and refused to listen or admit there was any problems. I don't mean to take anything away from boostisgood and all he's done, but it was the hard work by the guys that helped me, and myself that woke Mazda up in the 1st place and made them listen.

This is all old news to anyone that's ever been here for any length of time. I'm glad that boostisgood, and yourself by the sounds of it, have taken it upon yourselves to do something with the hesitation problem. Why? Because I was at it for a good 18 months, contacting Mazda reps, head techs, engineers, people in Japan, and Racing beat themselves, before they started to listen, and thank god someone did after a while. I even sent parts from my car for racing beat to analyze at one point. Now I'm just tired of it. Besides, it's not supposed to be my job to fix it, it's supposed to be theirs. We b**** slapped em, now they need to do their jobs.

...meanwhile I'm still meeting with them from time to time, and still determined to get this thing resolved.

Oh and for the canadian speed owners, Mazda Canada knows about the hesitation problem as well, as I mentioed it to one of the head guys months ago.

 

[girth]

Wow, I knew you were the clunk "god" around here but I had no idea that you have done that much work already! Kudos to you for being persistant - I would have given up long ago. Your work is appreciated by everyone here, I guarantee it. Everyone owes you a big thanks for the work you've already done and hopefully will continue to do...it's incredibly frustrating I know.(drinks)

 

[goonsquad]

Like everyone else, I have the hesitation and it's annoying but the stumble I don't understand. From what I hear people say, it's when you have your foot on the gas and you let off and the car stumbles. Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't this what should happen? If I'm in 3rd gear with the pedal to the metal at 5000 rpm and I let off the gas the engine is going to brake the car and of course it's going to stumble very badly. Is there something I am missing?

 

[Newf]

can't speak for anyone else. but....

my car has only done the stumble thing a few times. It feels as if you lift off the gas, then floor it again, off again, on again and so on and it creates this bucking motion of course. Kinda feels like you have no idea how to drive a stick But, the trick is, I never moved the peddle the whole time, just kept it in the same spot.


does that help? Like I said, I can only speak for my car.

 

[ping]

nyah - that's the minor part of the hesitation issue. A pain, but if you lift that suddenly there'll be consequences in almost any car.

The hesitation that gets me is on hard acceleration (half or breater throttle) between about 2800 and 5000 rpm the power delivery is inconsistent - occasionally I'll get that "full throttle" feeling but most often (esp. when hot) the car kind of stumbles over itself while accelerating, gurgles a bit, and finally "clears its throat" at 5000-6000 rpm. It's the inconsistency that gets me - I need power I can rely on - and that inconsistent power delivery is felt by passengers as well so it can be embarassing (though admittedly I don't usually accelerate hard with passengers in the car, but going uphill or even accelerating away from a light it can be noticable).

 

[goonsquad]

can't speak for anyone else. but....

my car has only done the stumble thing a few times. It feels as if you lift off the gas, then floor it again, off again, on again and so on and it creates this bucking motion of course. Kinda feels like you have no idea how to drive a stick But, the trick is, I never moved the peddle the whole time, just kept it in the same spot.


does that help? Like I said, I can only speak for my car.

Yes that does help. It happened to me on my way to work today. I was accelerating up a hill with my foot constant on the gas in 3rd gear and all the sudden it stumbled. It felt similar to when you're driving an automatic on the highway and you stomp on the pedal and it downshifts for you to speed up. It's only like the 2nd or 3rd time it's ever happened to me...weird though.