this is my first thread post so if it doesnt belong here please move. so everyone has been asking what is the weak link in the mazdaspeed6 driveline. yea its the rear diff. i have read in another thread that some guy had a prob and he went to the dealer and they said he differential had shifted and he broke a bunch of stuff. well my 4WD light came on at the same time as the CEL. just found out yesterday that it was b/c my rear diff. lets see the clutches were burned up, i melted an electrial wire connector, and a seal was broken in half. the mechanic said it had to of been from racing. but thank god im cool with my service writer. the mechanic said if it was anyone else he would not warranty it and tell the service manager not to warranty it, but since its me im getting it warrantied. so FYI, WATCH OUT FOR THE REAR DIFF IF YOU ARE GOING TO THE TRACK A LOT!! ill get pics up ASAP
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Rear Differential Is Weak
- Thread starter AWD6
- Start date
- :
- 96 Miata M-Edition, 2015 Mazda 3 Hatch
I wonder how many people this has happened to. This could be a big problem.
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- 2003 Subaru WRX Wagon, 2000 Miata
so what did you do to break it? track/autocross/drag race?
FlipandFunk
Banned
no s***. what did you expect?? you expect the car to be invincible?? Its still a machine. You abuse it, expect it to break. Mazda did not design the car to be launched, nor did any awd car. When you have that much grip, something is gonna give. No car is safe from blown diffs, like the blown diffs in the Lambo Diablo in Car and driver.
Also if you are gonna abuse the car don't get it warrentied, hope next time they stick you with a huge ass bill. You have to pay to play.
Also if you are gonna abuse the car don't get it warrentied, hope next time they stick you with a huge ass bill. You have to pay to play.
The warning light will illuminate when the rear differential overheats, and force the car into FWD only mode. When that light illuminates, you should immediately stop whatever "fun" you're doing.
It's quite possible you snapped the rear differential mount, which caused it to jerk around under power transfer.
I'd guess that once this gets fixed, your clutch will fall to pieces in around 5k or less miles, as that tends to be the main weakpoint in the front of the drivetrain. There have already been multiple cases of clutch destruction caused by people trying to drag race a car that was never designed for such activity.
It's quite possible you snapped the rear differential mount, which caused it to jerk around under power transfer.
I'd guess that once this gets fixed, your clutch will fall to pieces in around 5k or less miles, as that tends to be the main weakpoint in the front of the drivetrain. There have already been multiple cases of clutch destruction caused by people trying to drag race a car that was never designed for such activity.
AWD6 said:this is my first thread post so if it doesnt belong here please move. so everyone has been asking what is the weak link in the mazdaspeed6 driveline. yea its the rear diff. i have read in another thread that some guy had a prob and he went to the dealer and they said he differential had shifted and he broke a bunch of stuff. well my 4WD light came on at the same time as the CEL. just found out yesterday that it was b/c my rear diff. lets see the clutches were burned up, i melted an electrial wire connector, and a seal was broken in half. the mechanic said it had to of been from racing. but thank god im cool with my service writer. the mechanic said if it was anyone else he would not warranty it and tell the service manager not to warranty it, but since its me im getting it warrantied. so FYI, WATCH OUT FOR THE REAR DIFF IF YOU ARE GOING TO THE TRACK A LOT!! ill get pics up ASAP
they cant prove it that it was for racing , so they will have to change it
FlipandFunk said:no s***. what did you expect?? you expect the car to be invincible?? Its still a machine. You abuse it, expect it to break. Mazda did not design the car to be launched, nor did any awd car. When you have that much grip, something is gonna give. No car is safe from blown diffs, like the blown diffs in the Lambo Diablo in Car and driver.
Also if you are gonna abuse the car don't get it warrentied, hope next time they stick you with a huge ass bill. You have to pay to play.
no man , i dont agree with that. an AWD car is made to be strong , im not saying unbreakable but very strong. so if it break the dealer should change it under warranty . why would you pay to change something that broke under warranty. if he added an extra 200hp and the diff broke then thats a different story. but a stock car and it brakes. warranty big time my friend!
Then i would delete post #4p5freek said:they cant prove it that it was for racing , so they will have to change it
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- 2003 Subaru WRX Wagon, 2000 Miata
p5freek said:no man , i dont agree with that. an AWD car is made to be strong , im not saying unbreakable but very strong. so if it break the dealer should change it under warranty . why would you pay to change something that broke under warranty. if he added an extra 200hp and the diff broke then thats a different story. but a stock car and it brakes. warranty big time my friend!
well, if they can prove your car was racing/dragged/autocrossed/tracked then obviously that is some evidence of abuse. i would say that under normal circumstances, if something fails, then replace it. but obviously in this case, drag racing an AWD car has broken the rear diff. an AWD car is made to be strong, not invincible.
Newf said:isn't the rear diff the same one from a rx-8?
Yup.
Since the AWD coupler is attached to the front of the rear end, it probably wasn't the 'diff' but rather the AWD coupling system that he grenaded.
Last edited:
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- '08 Jetta; '10 Wrangler Unlimited
FlipandFunk said:When you have that much grip, something is gonna give. No car is safe from blown diffs, like the blown diffs in the Lambo Diablo in Car and driver.
this is what i was thinking.......when you do a high RPM/hard lauch with an AWD car with lots of power, something is going to give in the drivetrain!
think i have seen many threads on the WRXfanatics board with people breaking things in the drivetrain after abusing them!
-R
regardless, I don't think one or 2 people breaking his diff makes it the "weak point". now if we start seeing it all over the place then something is up, and for that reason it is good that this has been brought to out attention. But, Back when I had the mp3, I seen posts all over the net of people losing their tranny, forks etc. Yet, since 2001, not one person in my town has ever lost a tranny, and I've been through a MP3/MSP with zero issues with a tranny.
Sometimes it's just how you drive.
Sometimes it's just how you drive.
mp3josh said:Mazda does patrol this site and you will probably be declined warranty. I hope you do because beating on your car like that is stupid. You pay so much money for what to trash it?
The very reason HE can trash it is because HE payed for it. LAst time I checked, It's a free country and if it's covered under warranty then Mazda better fix it. He his not perform any mods to add HP to my knowlege.
Why buy and enthusiast car if you're not gunna drive it like and enthusiast once in a while. Sure I would not abuse my P5 to that extent but I'm not the one paying his car payment.
It's like someone buying an MP3 or a MSP and you tell them never to autocross. PUH-LEASE. When you start paying his car note. You can tell him how to drive!
If he wanted to putter around, he could have bought a buick!
Sure you can do what ever you like. But don't come here and complain that you are having issues when you knowingly contributed to the failure of the parts.
And to the autocross idea, I wouldn't do it unless you have a baffled oil pan because our FSDE motors are known for oil starvation....
And to the autocross idea, I wouldn't do it unless you have a baffled oil pan because our FSDE motors are known for oil starvation....
I don't think he was complaining either. Just informing us of his experience. And with any issue, there has to be a 1st.
I'm also in the category of "if it's not mod'd in any way....and it breaks....that's a warranty job" and there's no reason for it not to be. If the parts didn't break on a weekend where he launched it a few times hard, it probably would have broken a year down the road after 20k miles. Of course there are a lot of assumptions one could make here, one of which is assuming he can't drive, or mis-shifted, or f'd up somehow but we weren't there, neither was the dealer, it can't be proved one way or the other so it's a warranty job.
....and Mazda does read these forums a bit. I know first hand.
I'm also in the category of "if it's not mod'd in any way....and it breaks....that's a warranty job" and there's no reason for it not to be. If the parts didn't break on a weekend where he launched it a few times hard, it probably would have broken a year down the road after 20k miles. Of course there are a lot of assumptions one could make here, one of which is assuming he can't drive, or mis-shifted, or f'd up somehow but we weren't there, neither was the dealer, it can't be proved one way or the other so it's a warranty job.
....and Mazda does read these forums a bit. I know first hand.
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