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Like others have recommended, I would drain the oil and fill up with the 5w-20 that is used for your car. Also, unless the car already uses synthetic oil, I wouldn't switch to synthetic with a car 6 years old now. I don't know how many miles are on your car, but I'd recommend replacing the spark plugs and ignition coils yourself if they haven't been replaced yet. It is super easy to do on a 4 cylinder. When you do that, I would replace the PCV valve at the same time. As for general maintenance, unless you know it has been done recently, I would flush the coolant system, drain/refill the tranny fluid, and replace the brake and power steering fluid. I would say to replace the spark plugs, ignition coils, pcv valve, and all the fluid exchanges, it would run you around $450 (assuming you do most of it yourself, except for the coolant flush, tranny drain/refill, and brake flush). Not too much money to know your ignition system is firing good and your fluids are all new and fresh. Let me know if you have any questions how to do that stuff as I have done all of it on my car, which is the V6 version.
At least as of 2007 no transmission fluid changes are specified in the maintenance schedule, not that this necessarily means it is a good idea to never change it...
If you do not have one, you can get an electronic copy of the owners manual, which includes the maintenance schedule, by registering with mazdausa,com
If I do wait 10 years to change my coolant, I'll likely have only 75,000 miles on it anyway. At about that mileage, I figure I'll see what the current thinking is on changing synthetic transmission fluid also.
2007 engine blows in 2009 - some reliability. Bottom line, 2 holes in the block drain the oil, and they're blaming me for an oil lubrication problem.
Mazda's customer service really sucked. No offer of any assistance. Even though out of warranty, a car should not blow an engine witht his few miles, and they should back their product up. They even went so far as to tell me in a letter that "even if under warranty, this would not have been covered". The inference being that I had service done by someone other than the dealer.
The point is, DON'T BUY A MAZDA!
The new 3.7L is a Duratec design as well. It is built and tuned by Mazda in Japan now.
This has happened a couple time recently. When the fuel level is below 1/4 tank,
when accelerating, there is a hesitation as if low fuel pressure. Fill tank and the problem goes away. Stopped at a dealer today, and he was thinking it could be a purge value starting to fail, having to do with the evaporative emission controls.
I wouldn't think it is the fuel filter getting clogged, as the fuel level shouldn't affect the pressure. Anyone had an issue like this?
Three months later my main headlights and side marker lights went out again. Then a few days later, the engine died at a stoplight. I was able to immediately re-start the engine and the Check Engine light came on upon start. I drove it straight to the dealership. They looked at it the next day and the Check Engine light was not on and they could not find a code registered. They tested the battery and alternator and both were fine. They told me that the previous owner had hard-wired HDI headlight bulbs and that was causing the lights and fuses to blow. They had to do some re-wiring but they ended up replacing the two mains with stock bulbs. That night I drove the car to the store after dark and the lights were very dim. When I came back to start my car 15 minutes after being inside, the car won't start. The dash lights and radio are working but engine won't crank now.
Any suggestions?
I had a noise coming from the engine. It seemed to happen mostly during excelleration or anytime the transmission had to down shift. Reading this stories seemed like I was in big trouble. Basically everyone that had an engine noise either said change the PCV or get a new engine. Everyone that road in my car thought the engine was about gone.
I noticed that the noise would stop when I went over a bump at low speed or when I drove over a rise in the road.
It was the engine mounts! I changed the one on the passenger side and the torque mount. The torque mount was not too bad but the one on the passenger side was toast. It was rattling around like crazy.
I hope this help someone.
Thanks
good luck and zoom zoom.
This vehicle had synthetic since 1000 miles out of the box, over maintained, at my request, by the dealership which is my M.O. Minor problems which I considered to be "normal", but there were consistent coil failures causing secondary ignition problems..which were corrected right away each occurance. Ended up needing a new Cat at 99k, fought tooth and nail to get Mazda NA to pay 50% of the part under goodwill. BTW, I had an extended warranty which covered thousands of dollars of failures after the Mazda warranty expired...but it ended at 100k..guess what, 101k, I check the oil, down over almost 3 quarts (occurred in say a few weeks since I had checked the level prior), I noticed an unusual noise from the engine, took it in 1,000 miles early for it's oil change within the week, needs an engine..big surprise right? You can find them, but to spend 5-6k installed (I wanted a new radiator and hoses etc to do it right if I was going to keep it)seems silly on a vehicle that is worth 9k at the most retail. BTW, PCV valve was the cause of the oil "loss". I know better than to waste my time with Mazda...at 100k, they'll do absolutely nothing to help a customer out of goodwill, don't ever even consider it over a 100k, you'll just waste your time. If it was under 100k, I would have fought tooth and nail, and if I was lucky, I might have got them to pay 50% for the engine only, which Mazda sells (long block) for $4700...just for the part, so you do the math....used ones are between $1800-2500. Still a loosing proposition, unless you want to do the work yourself, which can be a bit of a pain in the [non-permissible content removed]. All the salvage yards/companies know this engine is in demand.
So, that's it for me for Mazda forever, just wholesaled out of this car to the dealer, I don't want or need to deal with selling it privately. (it still runs, making a racket, blows smoke at cold start.. but it will fail entirely, the only reason it didn't blow up I suspect was the synthetic oil). I have had Toyotas for years, and even given the recent and not so recent challenges they've had, I still find their product to be far superior to Mazda. (it still runs, but it will fail entirely, the only reason it didn't blow up I suspect was the synthetic oil).
A big disappointment for someone who used to be an Ambassador to the company, and a very big fan. I'd encourage anyone to understand, no matter how well you take care of a vehicle, if it's starved for oil for any length of time, it's going to become a problem. Always Check your oil at least once a week, or daily if you drive 100 miles or more...its the only way to possibly prevent something like this from happening and catch the loss or consumption early. Additionally, don't hesitate to replace a PCV valve at your 30k services or every 2 years, it can't hurt. I feel like a bit of an idiot for letting it go for more than a few weeks without checking the oil, because actually I probably could have prevented the failure, but most car owners can't or just won't ever have this kind of routine. It's been a sad week for me, but Goodbye Mazda, forever.
You did not indicate if the extended warranty was from Mazda or a 3rd party. Since you were barely over 100K mi, I think there is more of an issue there. But if you had an extended warranty to 100K mi, why did you fight to get Mazda to pay for the cat at 99K, shouldn't the extended warranty have paid for that?
sean
Recently i have had ticking noises when accelerating and downshifting, i went to a Mazda dealership here on the Gold Coast and they turn around and say, " Bad news, you need a new engine, which will be about $5000-$6000" However a thread i read on page 13 suggest i may only need to replace the engine mounts!!!! Definitely getting a second and third opinion elsewhere.
http://www.finishlineperformance.com/pdf/mazda6/bulletin/01-012-07-1787a.pdf
or use this service bulletin
http://www.finishlineperformance.com/pdf/mazda6/bulletin/01-031-07-1835.pdf
Lemon Law here I come......
Rick
boogitybop@aol.com.
Sometimes it's too difficult and costly to get out of a particular vehicle, particularly when it has serious issues that would make it difficult to sell privately and worth very little as a trade-in. A vehicle with a non-working engine just might make it difficult to sell.
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73,000 and going strong. No repairs.
Mazda always claimed my engine was "too clean" so they rejected my claim. THAT is why I'm here!!!! Have you all read the message from the former Mazda Service Manager here. Do that before passing judgment and name calling please.
My car was perfectly maintained and it failed in one second flat. As did countless others. Mazda knows they have a problem with the 6 and SUV. So lets focus on helping people not name calling. Ask the Mazda Service Rep he'll tell you they are denying lots and lots of legitimate claims.
What dealer told you this? What city and state?