ND battery under-spec'd?

[rascal]

Mazda Japan have CONFIRMED the problem is indeed with the cruise control and requires the replacements of the RF’s instrument cluster! Hopefully a TSB will follow.

I certainly wouldn't be letting the stealership rip my dash out when turning the cruise off before turning the car off fixes the issue.
I imagine you'll have way more issues with rattles following that procedure.. All of which the dealer will say is normal, or they can't hear them...

[Mr Morlock]

Its not a minor issue- it can easily lead to "consequential damages" something that car companies don't entertain. The issue it would appear is not the battery (?) but a system fault causing the current draw. Mazda dealers did a poor job . In an engineering organisation especially car companies they conduct Problem solving techniques and these are taken seriously- team jobs and pressure to fix. My bet is that a the fault would have been picked up pretty easily e.g. confined to a specific model though the fix takes longer- very likely that the engineers were aware. The fault could have been faulty manufacture or the need for a design change - we will never know the fine detail. I fully agree with RBH- its not good enough.

Anyway what's with switching off cruise controls- I thought al modern cars automatically switch off and need to be reset after keys are removed.

[bruce]

Anyway what's with switching off cruise controls- I thought al modern cars automatically switch off and need to be reset after keys are removed.

And that is the fault! As if they designed for the CC to be constantly on.....

[JBT]

I thought al modern cars automatically switch off and need to be reset after keys are removed.

2008 NC MX-5 - does not reset on switch off. Will be armed on next start.
2009 Mazda6 - goes off on switch off. Will be off/disarmed on next start.
2008 BMW E82 - Always armed when ignition is on. No separate switch.

[RBH58]

The ND (ST and RF and 124) remember whether the cruise was “On” or “Off” when you turn the car off and when you restart the car the cruise will be the same status as when you left it. It doesn’t remember its last speed setting though.

On the RF only, leaving the cruise “On” when shutting the car down, somehow causes 4 times the level of idle parasitic drain compared to turning it “Off” first. I have no clue what the car is doing, but it makes a difference.

[Luke]

Its not a minor issue- it can easily lead to "consequential damages" something that car companies don't entertain. The issue it would appear is not the battery (?) but a system fault causing the current draw. Mazda dealers did a poor job . In an engineering organisation especially car companies they conduct Problem solving techniques and these are taken seriously- team jobs and pressure to fix. My bet is that a the fault would have been picked up pretty easily e.g. confined to a specific model though the fix takes longer- very likely that the engineers were aware. The fault could have been faulty manufacture or the need for a design change - we will never know the fine detail. I fully agree with RBH- its not good enough.

Anyway what's with switching off cruise controls- I thought al modern cars automatically switch off and need to be reset after keys are removed.

You know you are starting to sound ridiculous saying this is not minor. It's bloody minor!!!
Consequential damages are only relevant for rich people with too much money to throw at a lawyer to sue a company or someone.
Stupid people and the easily deceived can be a substitute for rich people as they generally end up with nothing and the lawyer gets a great pay day.

Like RBH has said himself turn the thing off and it is solved for now. Easiest work around ever.
This problem will be well down the pecking order of problems for them to rectify but will eventually get fixed.
Manufacturers have not even done recalls for real serious problems like ball joints failing on cars with low km's on them. They just changed them if they were still in the warranty period, otherwise bad luck.

Luke. I’ve had 4 flat batteries since I bought the car. It’s been inconvenient and my battery is probably stuffed. I’ve complained to the dealer 3 times and Mazda Australia twice. I was fobbed off on every occasion and told that a 12-14 day battery life was acceptable “for a modern car” and that there was no problem. This was balonney. I hate being bullshitted to.

Yes, it’s not a serious problem and I now turn my cruise control off when I park the car (when I remember). I’d be happy if Mazda’s fix was switch the cruise off when the car is turned off. But I expect them to fix the problem AND replace my stuffed battery. And I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I didn’t hand over $50k for a new car to be treated like a dick.

Early adopters issue.
No manufacturer of anything, not just cars can foresee or test every possible use that a product may encounter.
You become the final tester as an early adopter. Sad, but a fact of life.

They will eventually fix the problem, but good luck getting a battery out of them. Read the warranty book and you will likely find the battery is not covered and they will use that as the excuse for not changing it if it is still working during the warranty period. If it completely fails you may have a chance as they should have a record of your complaints.
I don't think your battery will be stuffed by going flat 4 times. Mine has been flat way more than that and it is 8 years old.

You may feel that Mazda were treating you like a dick, but if they don't know what was the wrong because the product is so new and the exact same parameters could not be presented for testing, it is very hard for them to have an answer other than go away.

I always try to avoid being an early adopter as usually the product has bugs or faults, is at its highest price and quickly devalues once the hype wears off.
I've only done it once on a more expensive item when I bought an original backwards compatible PS3 a good 9 months after the launch. I wasn't gonna pay $1000 for one, but got lucky with a group deal so only payed $750. Guess what, it is now the worst PS3 model as it is the least reliable and has the weakest slowest componentry. Yellow light of death issue, caused by insufficient cooling to the GPU which has a root cause created by the EU requiring "safe" crappy lead free solder which eventually cracks after so many heat cycles. Repairable but expensive to do. Mine was repaired twice before real lead/tin solder was put in at the 3rd attempt. No YLOD's since.

I like to be at the other end of early adopters problems.
Either by buying their used product for cheap that already has fixes available. That's how and why I got a 2016 ND GT. Cheap.
Or by waiting for a series 2 or similar update that fixes the early bugs.

[RBH58]

Didn’t think I was an early adopter Luke. I thought it was merely a hardtop stuck on the soft top.

[Mr Morlock]

Luke sounds like an apologist for car companies and disparages consumers as wingers for issues such as batteries that die early due to no fault of the buyer. When your battery is prematurely dead from no fault of the owner and you miss your flight or an important appointment etc it can be costly and annoying- more than minor. A car ceases to work without battery power. Incidentally how would a driver know that a cruise control was linked to flat batteries ?

[KevGoat]

While I can see what Luke is saying, I think one of the reasons most companies don't put more effort in is their knowledge that most people won't make a fuss.

I've known too many people just say " they won't do anything about it anyway" or "it's not a big deal, not worth the fuss" ... and all companies know this and work to this.

RBH58 has done the right thing. This is a well discussed issue not just here. Mazda has stuffed up and they need to fess up and fix it. But like any profit making entity, the $ speaks loudest, and they won't bother unless enough continual complaints make it a bigger problem for them to keep ignoring their customers than it is to fix the error.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[93_Clubman]

apologist for car companies

Pot Kettle Black

[Mr Morlock]

so 93 whats your point?

[93_Clubman]

Point made.

[Mr Morlock]

obscure and you don't read things in context.

[bruce]

If proven, Mazda will fix the CC as part of your next scheduled service (as a Service Bulletin). Most people wouldn't even notice. They're not going to recall it/print it on the front page of the The Age as it is not a major death-inducing problem.
So the title of this thread is now completely wrong.

[RBH58]

I agree the thread title is wrong. Things have been learned since the thread started.