MS Protege PROBLEMS!!!!!

[psifactor]

I'm just curious how many of you guys have had problems with this new production car.

I work for for a Mazda dealership and I have a very unhappy customer.

He is having some type of problem with a boost leak, or the bearings are all ready wearing out in the T25.....something that they are having alot of problems fixing.

currently this guy is trying to get out of his car because of the problems that he is having.

If you could please give me some feed back on what problems you have run into.

Thanks in advanced.
Kelly



BTW, we currently have 1 orange and 3 black ones.

[chdesign]

Kelly,
I havne't heard of any bearing failures in teh MSP from this board that I have read and I'm one of the Moderators here. If the bearings were wearing out in the turbo there woudl be oil leaking into the Compressor housing get the tech's to check for oil residue in the Charge piping. If there is none and there is a spealling noise then one of the wheels is rubbing either the turbine or the Compressor hosuings. You may also want to get your techs to doubel check all of the hose connections if there is a boost leak then it will run bad and the idle will be off. I know in the 3rd gen FD RX-7's Mazda had numerous problems with the couplings coming loose in the charge piping causing boost leak. If the bearings are gone in the turbo it will have to be replaced it costs nearly as much to have a ball bearing center replaced as it does to have it rebuilt. There is always goign to be some degree of bad units when you are talking about turbos....seems to be a mazda thing....but get your techs to check for those things and if it is none of them then something is SERIOUSLY wrong.......If none of those things are the culprit then get them to perform a compression test to make sure the motor is good it should read 171 PSI per cylinder in the FS-DE motor.

[Newf]

yeah, what he said :)

Nice to see Mazda people checking in. You'd be surprised as to what you can learn here. Even my dealer is amazed by the shear amount of information, and detail that is on this site.

Welcome.

[Dave_13_2002]

Not sure what could be happening. It might just be a defect in that car. My car seems fine I just had it in for a 2k mile checkand it was fine. No cracks, no leaks, all fluid levels are good, only thing is that my right front tire had a damaged wall on the back side of it, so I got it replaced. (On a side note not that I should be telling you this but I have been running 8-9.5psi for the last month and that was the only problem I have encountered.) Maybe the person who has his car in your shop was racing the hell out of it without even breaking in the engine, first time driver with a turbo charged manual. Not sure though.

[1sty]

Originally posted by psifactor
I'm just curious how many of you guys have had problems with this new production car.

I work for for a Mazda dealership and I have a very unhappy customer.

He is having some type of problem with a boost leak, or the bearings are all ready wearing out in the T25.....something that they are having alot of problems fixing.

currently this guy is trying to get out of his car because of the problems that he is having.

If you could please give me some feed back on what problems you have run into.

Thanks in advanced.
Kelly



BTW, we currently have 1 orange and 3 black ones.

Wait a minuite guys I don't know if you cought it but she said:
"or the bearings are all ready wearing out in the T25"
not and. I assume he's having boost problems and they don't know why yet and these are just some possibilities. I think the easiest thing that could be is a leak in the intake but with the MSP idle set so high it would be hard to tell.
What are the other problems with it? If it is an intake leak they can spay down connection points on the intake tubes with choke cleaner and listen for an increase in engine revs. If they get a jump in the idle speed then there is an intake leak.

[psifactor]

Thanks for all of the quick replies.....I have not had a chance to talk to the service manager today but I know he called a mazda engineer in yesterday just to take care of this car. This will be the 4th time it has been in for the same problem.

The dealership is afraid to touch the car! So now we are waiting for this mazda engineer to get here...

I sold this car early febuary and it all ready has 3200 miles on it...I'm pretty sure that it was beaten in thoes 3200 miles.

It may also be a ecu problem that mazda just screwed up.....I guess he got a bad apple....

[1sty]

What are the other problems signs of the vehical?
Any idle stumble or crash?

[I-Am-Chris]

Yikes mazda coming to us on how to fix a car. Geez this makes me feel better.

[slug420]

only problems we have had with the MSPs would be the CLUNK from the rear suspension i think....

but yea, what are the symptoms this car is having so we could all look out for them?

and is it possible if the symptom is loss of boost that this person has a boost controller on their car, and had some kind of problem running too high of boost and so when they took the boost controller out to bring it in for service they left a hole or a leak wherever it was installed? i dunno much about turbos....or anything for that matter, just a thought tho.

Another reason this forum is a great place to check for help with this issue is because a number of our members, like 1stMP3inNH have turbos on their regular proteges, so while MSP owners bought this all in one package, all the Turbo-p5/TurboMP3 owners have a certain history of troubleshooting that went along with turboing their cars on their own.

[Street KingFD]

The MSp now has 4k miles on it. Clunk isn't that bad, enouhg to take it to a dealer or bitch about it. Front sqeek is barely there only if I go over speed bumps. Windhsield is fine and the turbo is fine.

[JPBlackMP5]

I need to take in my msp as well. On two separate occassions my car has stalled while driving. I live in an uphill area and once I near my cul-de-sac entry I tend to coast out-of-gear instead of down shifting. My idle drops WAY LOW and then while coasting it stalls. What would you all suppose that means? has anyone else experienced this prob? What should I tell the service folks at Mazda when I take it in? (other than what I mentioned). In other words, how can I best articulate what the diagnosed problem would be? Thanks.

[1sty]

Its the same issue I have with my MP3. The idle screw will do nothing as the computer overrides it. You can adjust the throatle body butterfly though. Open up its resting point and it will idle higher. I had to do this becuase the addition of a massive alternator and Turbo drag downed the car to much at idle and the idiotic computer can't acount for them.
However if you have a boost guage and you fail to reach full boost then you have an intake leak or a boost leak. Also if you can put you hand over the air intake and the car doesn't stall instantly then there is an intake leak.

[Yellospeed]

Actually.. makes me respect them more... its not like every dealership has mechs who have lots of experience with turbos...
At least they're not too arrogant to ask the experts for help...
Kinda puts a human face to a corp giant = Good thing.

Keep us updated :)






Originally posted by I-Am-Chris
Yikes mazda coming to us on how to fix a car. Geez this makes me feel better.

[boostisgood]

Sounds to me there might be issues with the BOV leaking. loss of boost, stalling at idle, after shifting out of gear. all issues associated with BOV leaks. They are cheap off the shelf models made for the Europe turbo-diesel Pro afterall.

[1sty]

A Blow off valve leak is basicly an air intake leak after the MAF so any bad connection will cuase the same issue.

Tell them to take it to Spoolinmp3. He'll figure it out as he is our resident turbo Guru.
(bow) (bow)

[JPBlackMP5]

Many thanks. Good place to start. BOV leak or air intake leak. I'll test your theory by covering the air intake and see if it stalls.

[1sty]

Even witha small leak it will stall. At that pooint you can spray carb choke cleaner on the intake pipes and see if the engine surges at all, if it does then there is a leak.

[psifactor]

Actually.. makes me respect them more... its not like every dealership has mechs who have lots of experience with turbos...
At least they're not too arrogant to ask the experts for help...
Kinda puts a human face to a corp giant = Good thing.

Keep us updated


I'm not a tech by any means.....I just sell the cars. But today I was really doubting our techs. I was back there drooling over a FD and the mechanic started compaining about how they are pos....Then we started to talk about the rx-8's, which he still thinks they are going to be turboed....dumb ass. After I told him, he asked a fellow mechanic which told him the same thing I did..so I believe that he is stright now.


About the mazdaspeed......They (not very smart service) think that the car now has the wrong computer. To me this would be a very easy to check.....Go look at another mazdaspeed and see if the part #'s match up. Oh well..I'm not a tech..so what does my opinion matter.

I'm glad that you guys are not having the same problems.

[1sty]

Not even just link up the computer to it and it will tell you what it is i would think. thats the problem. typicaly dealerships employ the dumbest damn techs in the world. One at the dealer I got my car from still insist the ECU is behind the A/C componenets in the dash.

[psifactor]

some of our techs are ok.....But I dont think they have a clue what a turbo is.

last week they did do a full diagnostic of the problem car and another car that we had on our lot....


Like you said...dealerships employ dumb asses. Sometimes I think I would be doing a better job than they are doing.

[MikeyG_U2]

I had a problem with my MSP. Every time I would accelerate, brake, or turn, I would hear what sounded like a quarter sliding on metal. It was driving me nuts, I couldn't find it. Whenever i sat in back and someone else drive to try to find it, it went away. Finally, I was vacuuming the backseat the other day, and decided to pull out the rear bench. Low and Behold! Sitting right under the bench was a giant bolt and washer, not connected to anything, just rolling around (my fat ass would pin it in place when i sat on the bench, which is why I could never find it...) I looked around and spotted similar bolts that attached the seatbelts to the frame of the car, but none were missing. I'll ask the dealer about it.

anyway, that's the most serious problem I've had, which means I love my mazda!

[psifactor]

mikey..thats really funny...Lets just hope its not for anything important:)

[Stdjyhan99]

yah am having the same problem as these guys.... just got my speed bout a week ago and it stalls for no reason or the check engine lights up then turns off..... my rpm goes from 3000 to 0 then back to 800... I'm goin to call my dealer tomorrow and asks whats up with it....

[perfworks]

hey psi what was the end result with this car??

[RX-KEVIN]

I have this reoccuring problem, Every time I stop at a red light, the car works fine but as soon as it turns green there is this weird noise, it almost sounds like wheel spin but it's only for a second, and I always notice cars in my side mirrors, it's like they have problems when I leave the red light. But oh well it's only an intermittin if it get's worse I will just call up mazda and thank everyone that I can talk to, for making a straight up kick ass car.

anyone else experienced this problem??

[perfworks]

Originally posted by RX-KEVIN
I have this reoccuring problem, Every time I stop at a red light, the car works fine but as soon as it turns green there is this weird noise, it almost sounds like wheel spin but it's only for a second, and I always notice cars in my side mirrors, it's like they have problems when I leave the red light. But oh well it's only an intermittin if it get's worse I will just call up mazda and thank everyone that I can talk to, for making a straight up kick ass car.

anyone else experienced this problem??
LOL:D
not yet my yellow baby is still apart:( :'(

[RX-KEVIN]

I hoped someone would like that

[ARunto]

dang kevin i thought i was the only one with this problem...i'm calling mazda tommorrow...LOL!!

[RX-KEVIN]

Awesome

[RX-KEVIN]

You want to know what would be cool. Get one of those APEXi g-meters and see how many g's these cars can pull

[psifactor]

Ok I found out what is really wrong with the mazdaspeed that I sold.

Yesterday I was back in the shop having them loosen some bolts for me on my o2 housing and I see the Orange turd sitting in the back again. Of course I ask whats wrong now. The problem now is that there is a rod shooting out the side of the block. "Somehow" the wastegate vacuume line has become pulled off! Meaning that the car will boost at whatever it wants. This is a very Big problem since these MSP did not come with a boost guage.

The first time this was the only problem. Thats why his car was starting to hit fuel cut. It was probably really fast, because it was boosting as high as the turbo could allow. So they simply put the vacuum line back on and sent him on his way.

Now my conclusion since this kid wanted out of the car is that he just simply unpluged the wastegate vacuum line to intentionally blow up the car to claim lemon law. If this is the case he FORGOT to put the vacuum line back on.

Mazda may not cover this warranty issue because it looks like it was intentionally pulled off.
I will update you guys as I know more.

Later
Kelly

[OrangeMSP]

i had to replace my vacuum line going to my wastegate cause it was wedged inbetween the 2 oil lines that go towards the turbo. it was wedged right below where the blow off valve is "T" ed into the wastegate line. i barely touched it and it crubled like a burnt cookie in my hand

[psifactor]

i remember reading that the vacuum line will do that for somereason. So on this car it could have either blown off or he screwed with it. who knows. but I think it will work out to his advantage.

[ToxicMSP]

I have several problems that I need to see the dealer about:
1. Still smelling coolant
2. Left side of rear bumper is possibly loose and is appearing
to be sagging by about a 1/4 inch.
3. The infamous Clunk:rolleyes:

I STILL LOVE MY MAZDASPEED !!!

[ToxicMSP]

problem #4... Protege badge on trunk lid is peeling up.:wtf:

[Notorious]

Originally posted by psifactor
Thanks for all of the quick replies.....I have not had a chance to talk to the service manager today but I know he called a mazda engineer in yesterday just to take care of this car. This will be the 4th time it has been in for the same problem.

The dealership is afraid to touch the car! So now we are waiting for this mazda engineer to get here...

I sold this car early febuary and it all ready has 3200 miles on it...I'm pretty sure that it was beaten in thoes 3200 miles.

It may also be a ecu problem that mazda just screwed up.....I guess he got a bad apple....


I also work for a Mazda dealership and I'm in sales. First off I would let the techs, mechanics, and the engineers handle the problem. Because you have Mazdaspeeds the entire service department SHOULD know the car, it is one of the requirements of being a Mazdaspeed dealership among other things. So far the only real problems we had at our dealership is the subwoofer keeps blowing. I'm going on subwoofer number 3 in my car. Also we had about 2 cars with the clunk. So far no problems with the turbo.

[bcbadboy]

Originally posted by psifactor
Thanks for all of the quick replies.....I have not had a chance to talk to the service manager today but I know he called a mazda engineer in yesterday just to take care of this car. This will be the 4th time it has been in for the same problem.

The dealership is afraid to touch the car! So now we are waiting for this mazda engineer to get here...

I sold this car early febuary and it all ready has 3200 miles on it...I'm pretty sure that it was beaten in thoes 3200 miles.

It may also be a ecu problem that mazda just screwed up.....I guess he got a bad apple....

Yeah the mechanics there must really suck ass and be retarded.
How the hell is a person going to bring in a car for the same thing 4 times and they never fixed the problem in the first place. What I mean is they finally say it was a vac hose that was pulled off. Ok What did they do the first time he came in? What did they fix on the car that the guy left driving away with no problem the 1st 2nd and 3rd? I don't get it. I never seen a dealer let a customer leave with a car that was not fixed in the first place. After the first time bringing it in, did they see that vac hose off? and the second time did they see the same thing? They bring in a Mazda Engineer to find out that a vac hose is off? Remind me NEVER to service my car at your dealership if I am around your way.

[I-Am-Chris]

Originally posted by psifactor
Ok I found out what is really wrong with the mazdaspeed that I sold.

Yesterday I was back in the shop having them loosen some bolts for me on my o2 housing and I see the Orange turd sitting in the back again. Of course I ask whats wrong now. The problem now is that there is a rod shooting out the side of the block. "Somehow" the wastegate vacuume line has become pulled off! Meaning that the car will boost at whatever it wants. This is a very Big problem since these MSP did not come with a boost guage.

The first time this was the only problem. Thats why his car was starting to hit fuel cut. It was probably really fast, because it was boosting as high as the turbo could allow. So they simply put the vacuum line back on and sent him on his way.

Now my conclusion since this kid wanted out of the car is that he just simply unpluged the wastegate vacuum line to intentionally blow up the car to claim lemon law. If this is the case he FORGOT to put the vacuum line back on.

Mazda may not cover this warranty issue because it looks like it was intentionally pulled off.
I will update you guys as I know more.

Later
Kelly

Yeah you might want to talk to him cause all the vac lines are glued to the "t"s and what not. I know i had a bitch of a time getting mine off and there is No way in hell it just "fell" off.