So I went on a trip...

[tiagotiago]

Well, I've had the Speed for almost a year and a half and even tough I had done a few 2 day trips in it, I had never really taken a long trip..until last week when I went for a 6 day vacation touring Texas and New Mexico.

I could bore you with the little details of my trip, but in this place, I think what you'd like to know is about my impressions with the car and to put it simply, I still very much love my car. It was superb in every type of road we encountered: Plodding for hours on the interstate, on a city's freeway, on a narrow two lane back road, zooming up and down a mountain; you name it the car did it, with me, a passenger and our luggage. And even while I was on the last leg of my trip, after driving avg 4-5 hours per day and logging a total of around 2,000 miles , I still wanted to drive it! It says a lot for a sporty car that you can drive it for long distances and not get beat up by it, and still have it respond very nicely to the demands of a nice mountain road. And also my friend had no problem driving it, even tough she'd only driven the car for a little while, and she also loved the car...tough she did scare herself a bit because she pulled out to pass a car and gave it a bit of gas to make it stick, and found herself traveling a bit faster than she'd expected Hell I even got great gas milage from this car (top one was about 30 mpg)

It was an almost problem free trip; sadly I did encounter one problem, but it was (apparently) short lived. While I was driving the first stint of the trip from my city in Mxico and arrived at the border after some mountains(I drove no more than 200 miles), I queued up in the line to cross the border, and a few seconds later the car started billowing out white smoke from the exhaust; I was devastated to have this happen to me, and more so on the first day of a trip we'd been planning for a while, and started to think what the hell I was going to do. Not a minute later when I drove up to the border to be quizzed by the border patrol officer the smoking was gone. The officer noticed I was a bit rattled and promptly sent me to have me and my car examined in more detail; it was obviously the only reason I was asked to do this, because after being quizzed some more by another officer, he shouted to the first officer "Why did you send him over here? Does he have an unpaid ticket or something?"

Since I'm still very much under warranty/roadside assistance period, and was in no mood to sacrifice a vacation I'd worked my ass off to make happen, I went for it, and never had any issues again. That was the only time the car did this; not even after piling on 1800 more miles, loading the engine a fair bit, and doing the a test I read in this forum (Idle for 10 minutes then rev it to 3000 and see if it smokes) did the car ever do this again; the dipstick registred no decrease in oil level and the engine felt as snappy as ever. My guess was that since I did have a nice tailwind (I averaged about 26 mpg going...a bit fast) and stopped the car and gave it little chance to get more cool air (only hot air from another car's exhaust) the turbo overheated a bit and passed a smidge of oil, when I got to the examination post with no cars in front and a nice breeze blowing, it cooled down. Any other guesses/suggestions are welcome to try and help me understand this

Now, a few pics of my car in White Sands NM, and seeing a sunset at Carlsbad Caverns

 

[RedKatanax9]

Thumbs up for another CWP MS3, sounds like an awesome trip. The white sands look amazing.

 

[hugador]

Nice trip and pics. Yeah, this car is a blast to drive. That push to the seat torque power never gets old.

 

[tiagotiago]

Thanks guys!

And yes, White Sands is nice; almost alien feeling, the silence that's there is amazing, you can easily hear what people are talking about a good 30-50 yards away, pretty cool place. Tough I tought I had gotten a pic of my white car next to a white dune, I never could find it in the camera :S

 

[CWPspeed3]

sounds like a fun trip, makes me want to go on a road trip. I've only done one in my year and a half of owning this car. Hate to say it though but if your car blew white smoke once it will do it again, bone stock you shouldnt have any problems with the dealer, good luck.

 

[LaraS]

That looks like so much fun... I have plans to take my car on a similar trip sometime in the next few years. It is great to see the car being able to handle it very well!

 

[pcpower]

sounds fun!.!.

I imagine it is pretty hot in that area, so I think your overheating assessment sounds right on target.

 

[tiagotiago]

Yep, I also think I'll be fine....at least in the short term, but cwpspeed3 makes a good point in that if it did it once, it'll do it again, when there's more wear and tear. I don't mind the car having character or being a bit mannerly, it's a nice challenge to get the most out of a car like that, but I kinda doubt that in the past incident that was all there is to it. But for what it's worth the trip computer was showing that external temps where at about 95F....and I insist that the car wasn't being babied

In any case I'll take it to the dealership in a couple of weeks when it's due for its service and they'll probably say something along the lines of "could not duplicate problem".

 

[squidmotion]

MS3 is a fine road car. did 360 mile round trip the other day. felt great.

 

[08cosmic3]

That looks like so much fun... I have plans to take my car on a similar trip sometime in the next few years. It is great to see the car being able to handle it very well!

A good long drive would be nice in say, June to EECMM. Take Skyline drive down to Blue Ridge Parkway to Gatlinburg, would be an awesome drive.

 

[Crazypato]

Aaah yea man, this car is great and really fun on road trips! I've driven from Vegas to Phoenix like 5 times already and once to Rocky Point, Mexico (just on the border from Arizona). The car has held up really good, I havent encountered any problems. I really like the little some what canyons almost getting to Phoenix. I just punch the crap out of it and take it to the Apex.(wiggle) Just be careful, cops like to hide around there.

 

[mr_mazda329]

This car is great for roadtrips. I have made a roundtrip from Vegas to Texas no problems at all. Great ride and noise comfort.

A good long drive would be nice in say, June to EECMM. Take Skyline drive down to Blue Ridge Parkway to Gatlinburg, would be an awesome drive.

Speakin of which. I am going to make it this year... all the way to Gatlinburg from Vegas!!! EECMM 2010!!!!

 

[tiagotiago]

The car blew another puff of white smoke on idle last friday again, this was in about 60-70 weather so overheating is ruled out, as I was driving at a normal pace; the only things in common with the first incident where:

a) Got up to at least 60 mph at some point of the drive.
b) At some point in the day, I'd ran with low enough fuel levels that the low fuel warning light came on. In both ocassions where the car smoked, the tank had been filled and had at least 40% remaining.
c) The smoke stopped coming out as soon as I gave the car a bit of gas, and didn't return.

I took the car in to service yesterday and they managed to return it before closing shop for the day. They said they "made a minor adjustment to the turbo" (yes, that's all they wanted to tell me) and changed my oil; all was done under warranty without me having to say a thing and they gave the car a nice wash and vaccum. I'll be testing the car this weekend to see how it behaves.

 

[CWPspeed3]

Hmm I wonder what their minor adjustment was. i bet they put it 5-w40 for oil as thats part of their temporary fix for a smoking turbo. At least it was done under warranty and they cleaned it for you.

 

[08cosmic3]

Hmm I wonder what their minor adjustment was. i bet they put it 5-w40 for oil as thats part of their temporary fix for a smoking turbo. At least it was done under warranty and they cleaned it for you.

This is exactly what they did. If it continues to smoke you are entitled to a new turbo. The dealers are told to change to the thicker oil as a temporary fix and they should have told you this so you know to continue to use the heavier oil. They will have to replace your turbo under warranty if it starts smoking again , so watch for it and complain so you can get the new turbo while it's under warranty.

 

[tiagotiago]

Yes, I also suspect that they're following procedure and switched me to 5w-40 oil, but since I got no paperwork to sign after they did the job (only the paperwork for the car's entry to the shop) I can't confirm this, neither do I have more specific info about the tweak they made. I tought it was odd they didn't have me sign anything but in a worst case scenario, they have no proof I accepted their solution or considered the matter solved, should things get ugly and come to that; but as of right now they have not given me any reason for me to be suspicious as they've acted as one would expect in trying to solve a problem and didn't give me any s*** about doing the work under warranty.

In any case I still have about 8 months left under warranty, so there's a bit of time to catch the problem again, and they made it clear that if I still had any more issues to give them a call. Actually I'm thinking about buying an extended warranty, it may just come in handy.

I may have a chance to hit the road later on this evening and see how it feels to try and make the issue act up again, but so far the car feels as good as usual. I'll keep posting here what happens.

 

[08cosmic3]

I would always ask for paper work if they work on your car. I have never let the dealerships work on my car because I don't trust them. My car is so far from stock now that I would not take it back for warranty work unless it was something major and was not caused by the mods I have done.

Get that turbo replaced before the warranty expires or make sure that the extended warranty you plan on buying will cover that before you purchase it.

 

[ElGaspo]

This is exactly what they did. If it continues to smoke you are entitled to a new turbo. The dealers are told to change to the thicker oil as a temporary fix and they should have told you this so you know to continue to use the heavier oil. They will have to replace your turbo under warranty if it starts smoking again , so watch for it and complain so you can get the new turbo while it's under warranty.

Get that turbo replaced before the warranty expires or make sure that the extended warranty you plan on buying will cover that before you purchase it.

(iagree) what he said. my bet is that the dealer switched to 40w, especially since you're in the hotter climate of Mexico, and is now going to stonewall you about the new turbo. Maybe you'll get lucky - I hope so for you, there are plenty of posts about ppl who got their turbos replaced w/o neither fuss nor muss...and yours expecially, being stock, should give the stealer no reason to avoid his responsibilities.

Best of good luck to you, buena suerte, buona fortuna, viel Gluck, and let us know both about the smoke & the dealer. Reason I'm so nosy is I'm pretty much the same boat...oh happy day...whoo hoo...(band2)