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This is my first car, and I am kind of freaking out.
Thanks!
My grandfather used to say you shouldn't use your cruise control for the first 500 miles, and I never really understood why (maybe what he meant was to avoid long highway trips until broken in, and therefore no need for cruise control), but I always follow that rule anyway because it's fun to remember him.
Best regards,
Shipo
What's that?
Can I get it on a podcast?
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
That comes from the advice to vary speed during break in. I don't know why or what the consequences of not doing it would be, but it is considered to be bad for the engine to be run that way when it is new and being broken in.
For my Mazda6 with the 2.3 engine, they give the following advice in the owners manual:
No special break-in is necessary, but a few precautions in the first 1,000 km (600
miles) may add to the performance, economy, and life of your Mazda.
l Don't race the engine.
l Don't maintain one constant speed, either slow or fast, for a long period of time.
l Don't drive constantly at full-throttle or high engine rpm for extended periods of time.
l Avoid unnecessary hard stops.
l Avoid full-throttle starts.
Curious. Replacing a thermostat is relatively inexpensive so there must be more to the "fix". How exactly are they going to fix the problem?
And i don't think a bad thermostat would cause a CEL light to come on. The only thing it would cause is your car to Hot or stay cold. Nothing to do with emissions.
Agreed. That's outrageous.
And i don't think a bad thermostat would cause a CEL light to come on.
Yes it can; if the car doesn't reach its normal operating temperature the engine management system may never go into closed-loop. It also may run a very rich A/F ratio. Either can trip a CEL.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
Hmmm, I'm thinking that I have a problem with the above statement.
1) While a transmission pan drop, filter change and a top off with fluid may well be a good idea every 30,000, it does NOT seem to be recommended by the Mazda engineers that designed and built our cars.
2) As a general statement, the flushing of automatic transmissions is a VERY BAD idea and has been known to kill many-many transmissions shortly after such a "service" has been performed. As far as I know, there isn't a single manufacturer from anywhere in the world that recommends flushing the automatic transmissions that they put in their cars.
While I've been wrong before and could certainly be in this case, I rather doubt it. Want to prove me wrong? Cool, I'm always willing to learn; please provide links and citations that support your recommendations.
Best regards,
Shipo
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
I think suggesting that the trans fluid still needs to be changed every 30K mi, is similar to suggesting that if synthetic motor oil is used, you still need to change it every 3000 or 5000 miles or whatever you would do with conventional. I don't know if the new transmission fluids are truly "lifetime" but changing every 30K is likley overkill.
My plan is to maybe look into this issue and see if some sort of new consensus on synthetic trasmission fluid changes has developed when we get to about maybe 75,000 miles. Since we do not put a lot of miels on, by that time our cars will likely be at least 10 years old.
I know lots has been written about synthetic v. conventional, but I am curious to see what most new (2009) owners are doing in terms of type of oil. Parallel to the regular 36K / 3 yr bumper-to-bumper, I have an extended (came with the purchase) warranty of 100K miles or 8 years, that requires all servicing be done at the dealer or the warranty is voided.
I want to hold on to the car for a long time. Love the looks and the way it rides. What oil type is everyone using?
Thank you for your feedback/input.
A brief note on extended warranties... The last one that I bought was on a car I purchased in October of 1988, and when all was said and done, even after 100,000 miles I hadn't made back even half of the initial cost of the warranty. Said another way, that was the first and last extended warranty I've ever bought. Since 1993 my wife and I have bought eight new cars and driven them an average of about 100,000 miles per (the high was 170,000 and the low was 30,000 due to the fact that I bought a sports car one day before we found out we were expecting our first child, and car seats and that car didn't mix).
Had I purchased the extended warranties that were offered for those eight cars I would have spent something over $16,000 plus the various deductibles (typically $100 per visit). Against that I've had to pay about $5,500 in unscheduled maintenance (including one transmission), so on the surface, I'm over $10,000 ahead in sixteen years. But wait, there's more! The transmission that I mentioned failed at 109,000 on that vehicle, some 9,000 miles after the extended warranty would have expired, and as such, it would not have been covered. Said another way, by my math, I'm some $14,000 ahead of where I would have been had I bought the extended warranties.
Granted, on any one car an extended warranty might well pay off, however, over the driving/car ownership lifetime of you, me, and virtually everybody else, the bet is that "self-insuring" will be way-way less expensive than buying extended warranties.
Long story short, my advice to you would be to ask for your money back on that warranty and then invest it in a CD or something. Should you be faced with an extraordinary maintenance item at some point after the standard warranty expires, simply use the money that you've saved to pay for the repair.
Best regards,
Shipo
Granted you could run a car for a long while and never change it and it will run, will it run top notch? I seriously doubt it. I also agree that a 30K change is a bit overkill, 60K should be just fine. However I tend to overkill many things I do on my cars, then again my cars last 250K miles plus. To each his own I suppose, if you never want to change your tranny fluid then good luck. All fluid breaks down after continued heat, friction, and pressure. Never changing it... I for one think that is the bad idea.
Granted that a number of dealerships use the transmission flush scam to increase their profits, however, in the grand scheme of things, dealerships that screw their customers in this manner are still no where near a majority much less "most dealerships and shops".
"Granted you could run a car for a long while and never change it and it will run, will it run top notch? I seriously doubt it."
Do you have any scientific data to back that up or are you just guessing?
"If you inspect your fluid every 60K miles (or watch the old fluid flush out versus what is goingin) it will not look the same, the old fluid is dirty, used, and broken down."
Back in the days of conventional oil based transmission fluid this was true; however, the color of modern synthetic oil based transmission fluid is a very poor indicator of the fluid's fitness to continue serving the needs of your transmission.
"I also agree that a 30K change is a bit overkill, 60K should be just fine. However I tend to overkill many things I do on my cars, then again my cars last 250K miles plus. To each his own I suppose, if you never want to change your tranny fluid then good luck. All fluid breaks down after continued heat, friction, and pressure. Never changing it... I for one think that is the bad idea."
Believe it or not, like it or not, synthetic transmission fluid has been shown time and time again to be very much up to the task of lasting the life of the vehicle (in applications where a "lifetime fill" has been installed at the factory). At this point we only have one vehicle with an automatic transmission, and yes, it came from the factory with a "lifetime fill" of tranny fluid. It had been my intention to run that vehicle until it dropped without ever changing the fluid or the filter, however, at about the 112,000 mile mark, the pan gasket started slowly weeping out fluid, forcing me to do a pan drop (and filter change while I was at it), and a top-off of fluid.
Just for kicks and giggles, I sent off a sample of the factory ATF to Blackstone labs for a UOA, and guess what; the report came back showing that the ATF was still well within the spec range for new fluid.
Best regards,
Shipo
Thanks for your thoughts.
EGC
FWIW, my last two cars came with a factory recommended 15,000 mile OCI, however, both cars also came with Oil Life Monitors (OLMs) that measured the amount of fuel consumed since the last reset, and were very accurate at determining when the oil should be changed (confirmed by UOAs), and as such, oil changes were performed in as few as 12,500 miles, and after as many as 18,000 miles. That said, the last two cars that we bought for my wife came with 7,500 and 6,000 mile OCI recommendations respectively, and on conventional oil they were just about right. That said, the UOA results showed that when both vehicles were run on Mobil 1 0W-40, an OCI of ~12,000 miles was optimal. As I was only having UOAs run every two years, I targeted 10,000 miles for the oil changes on both vehicles, just to leave a reasonable margin of error.
If you want to take advantage of such services, here is a link to the company that I use: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/
Best regards,
Shipo
Be well,
ecogan
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
EGC
I'd have to keep a car about 33 years to get that many miles on it, so in my case I am pretty sure no matter how often I were to change transmission fluid, I'd not get to 250K mi.
Good Day Sir
MazdaZoom = zero credibility
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
Although dealers can be more expensive than local chain-type auto places, it may be worth the extra bucks to make sure a Mazda-certified tech worked on the car.
Good luck.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
You can also discuss with the dealer which items on the 30K list are "mandatory" and which are in fact "optional".
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
My Mazdaheap 3 isn't a slushbox; I was simply pointing out how modern automatics often perform.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
Mazda gave me the same story. The engine light appears and I take it in, they say it's the thermostat. But the car rides fine.
They have ordered me the thermostat and it cost 75 for the part and 75 for labor.
Then I read your forum and after you've replaced it the engine light re appears!
If you have any new info to pass on of this problem.
Pls. inform, that would be great