Goodbye Mazda

I've been letting my brother borrow my Mazda5 to get around, well that ended today. The power steering pump malfunctioning and he temporarily lost control of the car, when it kicked back on the the steering wheel swerved resulting in him colliding into the median guardrail on the highway. Luckily he wasn't injured. The vehicle is a total loss, and after the master cylinder developed an internal leak which led to me rear-ending an SUV in front of me last year I no longer have faith in Mazda. There was a recall issued for the power steering affecting 2007-2010 Mazda5's, apparently 2006 was "fine". It's been a fun forum but now I must say goodbye.

Regards,
Jason





 
dang, hate to see it go out like that. Glad no one was hurt. I'm sure you won't miss the Mz5 since it looks like you are rolling in an Abarth!!
 
Glad no one was hurt. It looks like the "cable stay" style gaurdrail did its job and kept your brother out of oncoming traffic, which is always a good thing.
 
It is scary that the car pulled off the road, I would think the steering would just have felt heavier. I hope my 2006 does not try that, my commute is on rural 2 lane highways lined with trees.
 
Glad everyone is ok. This is something Mazda should know about since it could have been even worse.
 
Thanks all, I've already contacted Mazda USA to make them aware that the recall should extend to 2006 models as well. Be careful out there and make sure everything is working!
 
I have a 2007, but my VIN was apparently "out of the recall" as well. I was pretty pissed when my power steering failed. But when you're out of the recall, there just isn't much you can do! Mazda wanted a huge amount of $$$ to replace the system, but I found a used one from a much newer car at a wrecker for about a 1/4 of what Mazda wanted for a new one. bulls*** if you ask me...
 
Got an '07 too. I've checked NHTSA's website for recalls and none came up. This worries me to hear other '07 models experience this failure. Isn't there some kind of class action law suit on this or a pending one? If not, I think there should be one..
 
Add me to the list. Accidentally rear-ended someone last week and the insurance company decided to total out my '07 Mazda5 Touring. My baby was just short of 107k miles.
 
Got an '07 too. I've checked NHTSA's website for recalls and none came up. This worries me to hear other '07 models experience this failure. Isn't there some kind of class action law suit on this or a pending one? If not, I think there should be one..

They told me, it was a different kind of failure than the recall. Supposedly the big recall was some kind of faulty coating in one of the pump pipes which over time would flake off and jam up the pump causing the failure. Mine was supposedly caused by some kind of pump controller failure, but was still a part of the whole system and so could not be replaced without replacing the whole thing. To me... obviously the whole part/system was poorly manufactured by whatever parts supplier they bought them from and any failure should be covered under the recall.
 
Nope. I purchased it new back in early November 2006. My guess is sometime between March-Sept 2006?

As like mine, the production date isn't covered by the recall but yet yours failed as described by others. I really think Mazda should consider recalling any/all 2nd gen MZ5 and look into fixing this issue before someone else gets hurt..
 
This power steering issue on the 5, and Mazda's lack of properly handling the issue, has really got me concerned.
 
I'm sure anyone with driving experience will be fine, not in this circumstance, but I'd get it checked out anyway.

Please don't take this as insensitive, but how did your brother know that the power steering stopped working on a straight highway? And how does he explain how it yanked the steering wheel out of his hands? With the design of the rack & pinion, there is always a mechanical connection to the wheels, and the hydraulic power steering system only assists to lessen the effort involved when making a turn.

We, like others, have had the power steering pump failure problem, but I'm at a loss to understand how a pump moving fluid through the system could possible override driver control?
 
The power steering pump malfunctioning and he temporarily lost control of the car, when it kicked back on the steering wheel swerved resulting in him colliding into the median guardrail on the highway.

I think the description might be wrong but it sounds like the brother temporarily “lost power steering” (not “lost control of the car”). He was obviously still driving with it as he commented that “when it kicked back on”. I’m going to guess the brother might have try to change lanes and the PS unexpectedly kicked-in and he over steered? I do wonder how aggressive his brother was with the steering wheel to result in this. At HWY speeds, very little effort is needed to change direction even with PS not functioning. It’s possible that he was attempting to pass, where the left-right steering would cause him to over steer in an attempt to get back into the lane and the pump kicked in. If he was just going straight, I can’t imagine how it change the steering direction as flcruising state this car is still a rack and pinion setup. It is call power “assisted” steering after-all. This car is not quite Drive-by-wire yet.

I wouldn’t automatically associate this incident to the PS recall. This car has age and mileage on it so it could equally be due to poor service or condition of the PS pump (it is a mechanical device that needs service).
 
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