[ChewyChevy]

At 1212miles under 1 month of ownership, my family's Mazda 3 has had 3 major problems.

The bad tranny sensor came up around 600 miles at the 2nd week of ownership, which made the 3 end up at the dealership. No biggie, 3 hours in the dealership and the car's out and about again, and no charge because of warranty.

The bad purge valve happened around 1100 miles at the 3rd week of ownership. Again no biggie, mom went to dealership. This time estimated time was a bit over 4 hours, so my mom picked up a rental. Again no biggie, no charge, but getting a bit annoying.

The left rear blown tire happened around 1200 miles (3/13/04), photos taken at 1211-1212 miles. Driving on a highway, 5 miles over speed limit. Hear a small pop, then hear scraping and car starts veering hard to the right.

Removal of tire shows no puncture to tread, but the sidewall blown out and shredded. I have pictures, and I'll load them soon, once I get them on my yahoo account. Will go to dealership on (3/16/04) for possible warranty fix, and will warn Mazda USA about sudden blow-out.

Alex

 

[hydevil]

HOLY crap. Blown tire third week. That is just a bit too much. I'd expect a car built in Japan and marketed for the United States of America to be much better than that. Heck I'm from China and even cars over there are built better than that. What the heck.... Makes me wonder if I should refund my deposit.

Anyway, good luck with your problem... I'm sure Mazda will take responsibility.

 

[funkyfreshmonke]

a blown tire is more than likely not mazdas fault....road conditions, and other things affect the tires...as for the other problems...fixed under warranty within a day is good. some people have their cars out for days at a time...minor glitches imo...its still a great car aint it?

 

[ChewyChevy]

It's the first model and first year for the car, so I can understand problems. My main reason for posting it was not to bash Mazda or the car at all. It was just to give warning and quench my fear that if suddenly more occurences do occur, under worse conditions than mine (70 mph, cop behind me was slowing traffic) there could be loss of life and we may have another Ford/Firestone.

I agree funkyfreshsmoke that it was just unluckyness and that mine was just a rare occurence as many other people have their Mazda 3's at well above 1200 miles. I'll post a story in the lounge in a bit with pics.

I'm hoping I'll be able to get a new rim and new tire under warranty. If not, I can understand, the dealership can only do warranty work. I'll probably try another dealer, and then contact Mazda USA and try there. If it doesn't work out, just get a new rim and tire. The car is a daily driver for work, so it's definately needed, and having it out of commission is a pain in the butt.

If Mazda is corrects this problem, or at least looks and says I was just unlucky, then I'll be satisfied. There is no doubt that the car is fun, just has some glitches.

And warranty work done by the dealership was professional and done well, which isn't always the case with others, but shouldn't good professional service that be somewhat expected?? Espiecially at the cost of a warranty?

 

[BMM3]

There is no warranty from Mazda on the tires, just from the tire manufacturer. Mazda will tell you so and direct you to the nearest dealer of whatever tire you have to take the claim up with them. You should have several tire warranty papers in your owners manual specific to your tire brand. Look through them, it will direct you as to what is covered and course of action.

 

[beaverboy]

HOLY crap. Blown tire third week. That is just a bit too much. I'd expect a car built in Japan and marketed for the United States of America to be much better than that. Heck I'm from China and even cars over there are built better than that. What the heck.... Makes me wonder if I should refund my deposit.

Anyway, good luck with your problem... I'm sure Mazda will take responsibility.

At least someone here has a sense of humor...

 

[hydevil]

HOLY crap. Blown tire third week. That is just a bit too much. I'd expect a car built in Japan and marketed for the United States of America to be much better than that. Heck I'm from China and even cars over there are built better than that. What the heck.... Makes me wonder if I should refund my deposit.

Anyway, good luck with your problem... I'm sure Mazda will take responsibility.

At least someone here has a sense of humor...

HAHAHAHAHAHA hell yeah, we from Chiner are all like that :twisted:

 

[Sean]

It's a sign you should get rid of the Toyo's as soon as possible :lol: Serioulsy though a blown tire is just that, unlucky. I hit 1300 the other day and I drive very aggressively, drag raced it, autocrossed it, took it on a road course and everything is holding up great. So far so good.

 

[lazerasa]

always check your tire pressure when you get your new car,
the dumbasses at my dealership had my tires inflated to about 45psi when I drove the car off the lot and then a day later I figured it out becuase my TPMS light was constantly on.

The dumb bitch at the dealer told me "The TPMS light will go on for a minutes when you start the car and then it will shut off after a while", which is bullshit... the light shouldn't stay on for more than a second when you first put the key in the ignition.

 

[Silver]

"bad purge valve"?

What is this all about?

 

[zimmerDN]

the dumbasses at my dealership had my tires inflated to about 45psi when I drove the car off the lot

It wasn't the dealer that inflated your tire. They were inflated off the assembly line to avoid flat spot on the tire while its sits on the boat for the trip here. Though it was their mistake for not deflating the tires back to normal operating pressure before giving it to the customer.

 

[Matt Rowland]

Re: 1212 miles, Blown Tire, bad tranny sensor, bad purge va

At 1212miles under 1 month of ownership, my family's Mazda 3 has had 3 major problems.

We just got our Mazda3 on March 11th 2004, and we haven't had a problem yet(knock on wood). It had 80 km's on it and we ended up putting 7000 km's on a trip to florida and bourbon street. The only problem i have notice is that the rear seats hug you so well that you can't get confortable to sleep on long drives like that. Other then that I have no problems other then people staring to see what kind of car it is. :shock:

 

[zimmerDN]

what do you mean people start to see what kind of car it is. Are you implying this is a bad car underneath? :?:

 

[savvy]

Well I've had exactly the same problems. A flat tire after couple of weeks of ownership. I just had the purge valve replaced yesterday. Something is funny.

 

[Lily]

"bad purge valve"?

What is this all about?

At around 11,000 miles my check engine light went on and i took the car to the dealer- same thing! They had to replace the purge valve...i didn't pay anything, as it was under warranty, but i now see i wasn't the only one!

 

[RonH]

I'm just wondering if the last two poster's have checked the date's of poster's and the date of the last poster above. Almost a year ago.