2016 cx-9 rear spring "recall"????

[Madzout]

Been hearing a clunk or bump coming from underneath and was worried. Just out of warranty and now this, Took it in and knew something was "up" as they kept asking where the sound was coming from. Keep thinking left front and they keep asking "right rear" right?. So i gave up and said it just clunks. Was in for oil change anyway so there i sit for 2 hrs and kept asking what it was. No answer. So when done the bill is for just the oil change and i see this note "spring change no charge". So i ask WTH! just a service thing they say. I go home and find only this on net

https://mazda.oemdtc.com/1078/squeak...016-mazda-cx-9

My question is why isn't it a recall and why wasn't i notified? Have the extended warranty but wondering if anyone else knew and why does it appear to be like a secret?

[sm1ke]

It's a fix-as-fail situation, meaning if there's no squeaking, there's no issue with the spring. They probably replaced it for you just because they were under there - IMO I'd be thankful, because they really didn't have to do that.

The real question is whether or not the new spring fixed the clunking sound. Did it?

[Madzout]

So far so good. So if a design defect causes a wheel to fall off it is unworthy of a recall? I had to really search to find any info on what had happened or what repair was necessary. My little post about it brings the total number of hits of the spring issue to two. Dealer was well aware of issue and had lots of repalcement springs on hand it seems., FWIW Was really amazed that we havn''t gotten ANY (0) recall notices on the 2016 CX-9. In contrast we are still getting 1-2 recall notices/ yr on the 2004 Dodge 2500 and a whole bunch on our long gone 2012 VW Passat. Heard latter is rusting in a lot down in TX with a couple hundred thousand others that were recalled. darn I miss the 55 MPG.

[sm1ke]

So far so good. So if a design defect causes a wheel to fall off it is unworthy of a recall? I had to really search to find any info on what had happened or what repair was necessary. My little post about it brings the total number of hits of the spring issue to two. Dealer was well aware of issue and had lots of repalcement springs on hand it seems., FWIW Was really amazed that we havn''t gotten ANY (0) recall notices on the 2016 CX-9. In contrast we are still getting 1-2 recall notices/ yr on the 2004 Dodge 2500 and a whole bunch on our long gone 2012 VW Passat. Heard latter is rusting in a lot down in TX with a couple hundred thousand others that were recalled. darn I miss the 55 MPG.

I don't know if this would be considered a design defect. It seems to be more of a component defect? Recalls usually address shortcomings that stem from issues on the assembly line or a large batch of bad parts. Maybe the bad batch wasn't big enough to warrant a press release, but significant enough to make available to their service network.

I work for a company that builds tractors, and we have two different kinds of recalls/campaigns. A mandatory campaign identifies the issue and the fix. A copy of the campaign is sent to all registered owners of the affected serial numbers, as well as the dealers, urging the owners to communicate with their local dealers to get the issue taken care of immediately. A fix-as-fail campaign is treated a little bit differently. The issue and the fix are identified and owners/dealers are notified in the same way, but owners do not have to service their tractors unless the issue presents itself.

Funnily enough, Mazda did have a recall on the new Mazda3 due to loose lug nuts from the factory. Nobody's wheels fell off, thankfully, but they could have!

[Madzout]

Understood but a bit distressing. We actually bought the extended warranty before the car. Something we always do and it has paid off. I assume the cost would have been about $600 given the time it took and a glimpse of the parts invoice. Had we not gone to a dealer we would not have known nor would they have fixed it at no charge. One the the important functions of forums like these is give heads up to some who do not have a dealer handy.

[youri]

You are right that these forum are meant to spread the word on known issues. Thanks for letting us know of this potential dealer repair/replacement program.

As far as your concerns over if they should be recalls or not. Recalls are a federally mandated program. They are mandated by law for any safety or life endangering issues. It is very rare for car manufacturer to not respect them, but it does happen. As sm1ke mentioned, in addition to dealer repairs, car manufacturer also have technical service bulletins (TSB), which are distributed to their dealers. These covers a multitude of subject from known repair procedure for common complaints, parts improvements and mandatory parts replacement for non-safety issues. If you are curious, they are all available on the NHTSA website. There are currently about 285 technical bulletins for the cx-9 2016, which is likely to be about a normal number at this time and for a first production year vehicle. The 2012 Passat has 850 currently.

I would say in your case what I find lacking is the lack of explanation from your dealer. They should have been more open about which technical service bulletin the work was done under. Depending on the reason for the noise, I would say it was determined that there was no chance of your wheel falling off so it was not made into a safety recall. Depending on the nature of the TSB, the repairs are sometime done for free under warranty, so your extended warranty may not have been involved in this case.

Without more details, it is hard to pinpoint your exact repair, but here is an example of a TSB for replacement program under warranty of rear coil spring on certain Mazda CX-9 2016. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...36327-9999.pdf

Here is the link for all the TSB under the «*manufacturer communication*» section of the page.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2016/M...Communications

[sm1ke]

You are right that these forum are meant to spread the word on known issues. Thanks for letting us know of this potential dealer repair/replacement program.

As far as your concerns over if they should be recalls or not. Recalls are a federally mandated program. They are mandated by law for any safety or life endangering issues. It is very rare for car manufacturer to not respect them, but it does happen. As sm1ke mentioned, in addition to dealer repairs, car manufacturer also have technical service bulletins (TSB), which are distributed to their dealers. These covers a multitude of subject from known repair procedure for common complaints, parts improvements and mandatory parts replacement for non-safety issues. If you are curious, they are all available on the NHTSA website. There are currently about 285 technical bulletins for the cx-9 2016, which is likely to be about a normal number at this time and for a first production year vehicle. The 2012 Passat has 850 currently.

I would say in your case what I find lacking is the lack of explanation from your dealer. They should have been more open about which technical service bulletin the work was done under. Depending on the reason for the noise, I would say it was determined that there was no chance of your wheel falling off so it was not made into a safety recall. Depending on the nature of the TSB, the repairs are sometime done for free under warranty, so your extended warranty may not have been involved in this case.

Without more details, it is hard to pinpoint your exact repair, but here is an example of a TSB for replacement program under warranty of rear coil spring on certain Mazda CX-9 2016. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...36327-9999.pdf

Here is the link for all the TSB under the «*manufacturer communication*» section of the page.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2016/M...Communications

If I could "like" this post, I would. Great explanation youri, thanks.

[Madzout]

This find and fix thing is very strange. Yes, The dealer never explained to me what the problem was . They just fixed it. I assume the long wait included time to get authorization as was it out of 3 year warranty. the 2 Hours included an oil changes and rotation. Many will never know about this and may add it to reason to sell the car. Others, in the know, may profit from it knowing the noise is repairable for free. Non Dealer repair shops may mke a buck or 600 in the absence of information by Mazda. One wonders what else they are not sharing.

[youri]

Not sure what to tell you, this is how the auto industry operates, with its unfortunate consequences if you get your repairs done somewhere else than at the dealer. If I had the time I am sure I could go through the history of your previous vehicles and find exactly the same situation.

I once had a Ford Edge with a known transmission TSB issue for a find and repair problem. I even had more issues than you because I had to go through 4 dealers before one of them agreed that my issue was the one covered in the TSB to do the repair under warranty. The other ones said it was a different problem than the TSB or could not replicate the issue.

In your case, you had a complaint and they replaced all the parts under warranty free of charge on your first visit, and the noise is gone. That being said, I agree the service rep should have told you more about the nature of the work and what was going on (I wouldn*t hesitate to give them a bad review) and I am glad we are informing the forum member of this warranty fix.