Legal advice needed

[remotebandit]

Guys , im in a very sticky 1 this week .

I own a 2004 Mazda Tribute and up untill a month ago , all has been excellent on it .

I bought it brand new , had my first service through mazda and all others through independant mechanics ( my reason is that Mazda are not scared to charge as my service receipt says $80 parts and $480 labour and on principle im not paying stupid labour amounts just because my service managrer wears a suit and my car comes out washed after the service ) .

Service history is 10000k mazda
20,000k indipendant
30,000k ultratune
40,000k independant
50,000k missed
60,000k missed but oil changed
65,000k ultratune

I am now at 75,000ks and motor is Stuffed

My last service with ultratune i was told that something in the engine wasnt good and to be prepared for a major problem as they could hear a very faint tapping in the background that was totally not normal , over the last few weeks the problem has shown up in the form of a loud knocking noise between 2500 - 3500rpm .

The noise as of today is actually scary as it is knocking 3 times louder than a deisel between that rpm range .

Anyway , took it in to Mazda and they told me its out of warranty and to book it in to look at it and find the fault . I told them id book it in and they can check it but i will DEFINATELY take it further as this must be a warranty issue , they said no i will pay for the repair and i must also pay the $300 - $600 diagnostic fee for them to work out whats wrong .

It was at this point that 3 mechanics had to come into the service waiting room to actually calm me down as all i saw was RED and i swear to god thats all i saw .

I drove it out of there and told them to go get ****ed and took it to a reccmended Mazda mechanic who a friend of mine swears by . I started it , he revved it to the noise , closed the bonnet , switched it off and bowed his head in shame to Mazda a he said the motor is gone and id be lucky to get it home without it giving way .

The fault is some pin he said , king pin? , Campin ? i cant remember but he said its gonna let go big time soon as its given way and causing some type of slop in the pistons or cam or somethin .

Anyway , whatever it is it is but do i have a leg to stand on here with mazda with my poor service history , out of 3 year warranty by 6 months and aslo if i have a chance , how do i handle it cause im a wog and all i can think of is blood as these bastards took $40,000 off me 3 and a half years ago and now their reeeeeeming me in the asshole sideways NO VASS again .

Any advice very appreciative

Thanx

Adam

[obzELiTe]

first step would be consumer affairs, there is some obligation to things just out of warranty but I'm unsure what it is.
you mite also need to find history on that type of vehicle, if its a common problem like the tapping of the LS1 or shitty gearboxes in the xr6 then there is a history of failures and you have a lot more weight on your side that they have a common problem.
if the motors normally last half a million kays and your just unlucky and got a thursday motor going into a long weekend then they could point to the bad service.
but defiantly get consumer affairs involved.

worst case is get a new motor out of your own pocket then plaster the vehicle with signage saying what a piece of crap it is and drive past the dealer daily.
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Tue Oct 09 2007, 03:22PM ]</span>

[T4Trasher]

I reckon with the service history your screwed and also why did you keep driving after the previous service you where told something was going to let go?

[remotebandit]

Ok , its nice to finally have someone payback favours and this time it was through a mate who knows a mate at Ford service department .

Anyway , this bloke has very happily stayed back at work to check this out for me and the problem is the gudgeon pin ( connects the piston to the conrod ) .

Went through each cylinder individually and once the 4th cylinder was cut out with the fuel injector the noise stopped . He has seen this a few times and at only 75k it is a manufacturer fault as the car is computer controled for rev limiting , if it was a lack of servicing issue , there would be many things that would have seized up before this could have possibly happened and i would have heard bearings squealing much much before this pin could have given away .

Solution , engine still needs a major so being a mazda im up for up to 5gs but what he told me as the service manager at Ford is to ring customer support , kiss their ass but stay firm and explain the story to them .

From his experience i will be up for the personal mazda diagnosis charge ( about 3 hours labour so bout $400 ) but being nice but firm with mazda customer care ( dont even talk to mazda service depo as their only the little step in the way ) he said they should come to the party and pay 90% of the total repair which even at 5G ill only be out of pocket bout $500 but thats worst case and im willing to go allong with that . This has happened at Ford often and if the car is under 12 months out of warranty with these low ks ( mines round the 6 - 7 month mark out ) they overlook allot of stuff and fix it .... but then again thats Ford so well see what Mazda say .

[remotebandit]

New motor installed from Mazda = $16,900

Reco installed by Mazda man = $3700


Quote from Mazda to tell me the gudeon pin was shot = $680
Quote from mazda to put motor back together again when i said no = $600

I dont understand how ive spoken to over 20 mechanics this week and been in 3 forums regarding motor issues and everyone has said the same thing that a gudeon pin CANNOT fail within these Km due to lack of servicing . Mazda are really raping this issue and will just not state that its a manufacturers fault .

Ive done step 1 of what the fair trading people have told me and get it looked at by Mazda themselves and now legally well see if they come to the party as it will be in the hands of the fair trading people now , they are talking about something to do with " Implied Warranty " which i will now go and research .