2011 sputtering woes

[jcolman]

I'm hoping someone can guide me. My daughter and her husband just bought a new 2011 CX-9 Grand Touring model. Two days later my daughter called me to complain about the following issue:

"On a cold start, after about 1-3 minutes of driving, the car begins to sputter/stutter upon giving it gas. It can last for 10 seconds or 2-3 minutes and typically turns the air conditioning off (the fan still blows but there is no longer cold air). It will continue even when idling and braking, not just accelerating. We noticed the right tail pipe vibrating and making a knocking noise when it happens."

Her husband took the car back to the dealer. The next day the dealer called to tell them that; "nothing is wrong with the car. The 2011 models can experience some vibration due to the fact that the car is designed to run on less fuel for better mileage....etc."

This sounds like a load of BS to me. Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so, what was the fix?

Thanks

 

[table5511]

bump

 

[shodanusmc]

That has to be BS. My 11 GT runs really smooth, and the gas mileage is not the best! Take it to a dealer that can diagnose and repair, or call the 800 number as it should not shudder.....

 

[Wisconsin Proud]

better mileage? LMFAO!

 

[djc6]

Have them drive another 2011 and see if it exhibits the same behavior.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Maybe Throttle body/Purge vale issue

+1 Drive another and see. This defintely doesn't sound "normal".

IMO they may have the problem with the Throttlebody/purge valve that I had with my Mazda 6 (which uses the same Ford-based V6 engine). This issue caused a surge/lunge as well as an uneven idle. Mazda is well aware of this issue, which, as I understand it, had to do with moisture building up in the TB. Drove me nuts and even scared me a few times when the car refused to respond to throttle. Funny thing is the tech didn't know until he called the Mazda tech line because the engine was running "within spec" despite the uneven idle. Happened when the car was pretty new too. Once fixed the car ran perfectly.

Sorry your daughter had to deal with this with her new car. But stuff like this happens, cars are becoming so damned complicated, which is why you have a warranty. Most of customer issues usually boil down to bad dealer service. So if your daughter isn't getting satisfaction from one dealer have her find another, or better threaten to call the Mazda Hotline (1-800-222-5500). Dealers hate it when you do that becasue it affects their ranking with Mazda corporate, which affects car supply and other dealer benefits. If they don't scare they certainly don't care about custoemr satisfaction and move on to another dealer.

Good luck

 

[jcolman]

Thanks Antonio! I've passed your information on to my daughter. I totally agree that she should find another dealer if they can't or won't help her.

 

[ceric]

I am with Antonio on this one. Throttle body would be my #1 guess.

 

[jcolman]

My daughter emailed me the following:

"we went in this morning and the service manager told me that what he was able to “replicate” yesterday was about a 1 second hesitation/stutter upon accelerating from idle. I told him that was not in fact replicating anything since the problem lasted anywhere from 10 sec to 2 min for me and cut the air conditioning off. He acted like he had never heard us say that (when in fact S.(her husband) did tell him that). I told him I wanted to go for a drive with him, so we did. The car stuttered and sputtered almost the entire time and low and behold, the check engine light came on! They put 68 miles on the car in the past two days and it apparently didn’t do it at all, but it sure did today! Now that the light is on they have something to go on and the service manager agreed when he was riding with us that what the car was doing was not in fact normal."

Then she followed up and told me that Mazda now thinks the problem is a bad coil. They're going to replace it and test it out tomorrow.

Thanks guys for all the help. I hate to see my daughter getting the runaround from a service manager.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Not always dealer's fault...

Sounds like they were able to reproduce the issue and get a fault code. That's great news. A bad coil would have been my second guess (ok maybe, third). ;-)

Not to side witht he service manager but Mazda does make it difficult (as do other automakers) for dealers. Much of it has to do with all the bogus warranty repair that manufacturers have to cover because of bad dealers and people who abuse their cars. They also have to deal with dealers that simply replace parts without good troubleshooting and generating warranty claims (i.e. hourly labor charges incurred by tech time that manufacturer has to pay back). My understanding is that over the past few years Manufacturers have clamped down on warranty repairs by requiring the dealer to send back the part in question and if the manufacturer deems the failure as caused by abuse or a faulty diagnosis then they will charge back the dealer for the part and the hourly rate. Manufacturers also clamp down on diagnostic charges and in many cases restrict the number of hours per repair and require techs to consult with manufacturer TS before following through with any repair.

So it would appear like everything in life it's those few bad apples (bad dealers who are trying to cheat the manufacturer) and bad customers (who expect manufacturer warranty to cover abuse) that ruin it for the rest of us. At least this is what I understand.

My own experience with my dealer has been very good overall. The only recent headache has revolved around a rattling passenger seat in my 6. The dealer has spent a lot of time trying to fix the rattle but has had -0- luck. Complicating the issue is the fact that the rattle appears in other 2010's. The dealer is resistant to replacing the seat tracks or any other part because they fear being charged back and are skeptical that it would fix the problem since they have reproduced it in other cars. Recently i tested a 2011 and found no rattle, so I'm hoping this means Mazda was able to kill this bug for 2011 and the fix can be applied to my 2010. Despite my frustration I can't in good concious blame the dealer or the manufacturer because they have to watch their bottom line.

 

[table5511]

a bad a/c coil explains the a/c, a bad ignition coil explains the stuttering, but not one for both.

 

[ceric]

A/C imposes load on engine. If engine loses power momentarily, you probably will feel the A/C behave strangely.

 

[drchuck]

OK everyone, laughter time - I would check the seating of the fuel cap. That's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the report of the check engine light. Seems like all kinds of things happen with the gas cap these days, since it's become an integral part of the emission system. Wouldn't that be an easy fix.

 

[table5511]

but the compressor is belt driven, so even if you had a momentary cylinder misfire, I doubt that would be enough for any noticeable effect on the a/c, unless you had a cylinder misfire for a number of seconds...say the coil went inop for several seconds, then I suppose you would see a slight lag in the a/c.