mx5cartalk.com

To the service Dept at Eurocars.
Thanks guys, you've convinced me that I'd be wasting my money getting you to service my car.

Doubts started when I had new tyres fitted a couple of months back.
I watched as the guys at Jax attempted to get the wheels off, then after about 30mins, came in to tell me that the locking nuts had obviously been tightened with a rattle gun and had been distorted to the stage that they could not be removed without destroying them.
Eurocars rotated the tyres at the last service.
I shelled out for a new set of locknuts and watched as Jax tightened them with a torque wrench.

Today, after a drive thru Nashos, I decided that I'd do an oil/filter change..Was a little perturbed at just how tight the sump plug was....but then, I thought, I've never owned a Mazda before, maybe they just sieze a little between changes.
Flipped open the little hatch underneath, grabbed the oil filter, and couldn't budge it. Wormed my other hand in through the wheel arch, and with two hands, still not budged.
Grabbed a torch and had a quick look.
Bugger me if there weren't claw scratches on the sides of the filter where it had been FITTED!!!! with a filter wrench.

Fortunately I had a wrench small enough to get in there and with quite a bit of force on the end of a 10" ratched, and a couple of turns before it came loose, the filter was able to be removed and a new one fitted.

Cost me $87.00 for 5litres of 0/40 Castrol Edge and a Ryco filter....

Thanks again Eurocars.....I won't be back!

Isn't 0 too thin?

philz wrote:Isn't 0 too thin?

Not sure but I was using the edge 0w/30 and 0w/40 for 2 years on the bikes and the MX with nil hassles.
And then when I did some "improvements" to my motor and it became smokey, the 0w oil was the only stuff
I could run as anything else would smoke massively.
I give the edge a huge thumbs up.
Though if I had to pay for it it may be a different story!

OP ta for the Eurocars heads up.

Ah the joys of Mazda Dealerships using apprentices to service your car.

I had exactly the same result from another Mazda dealer, who shall remain nameless.

Put the car in for a service a few days before a track day. They did the oil and wheel rotation bit and a day or so later I went to remove the wheels to fit the track wheels and I needed a six lb hammer on my ‘x’ brace to budge the nuts. One had been cross threaded which made it even worse.

So a week later when the Dealership rang to say that a part they didn’t have in stock at the time of service had arrived from Melbourne and when could I bring the car in for fitting I told them about the nuts and that I wanted the cross threaded stud and nut replaced.

On arrival at the dealership the new Service Manager came to see me and said they tighten the wheel nuts using a special torque wrench.
“Fantastic” I said but the book reads 50 ft/lbs not 500!!
“Can’t be us” he said, “someone else had over tighten them”.
“**!!###!!!” was my reply.

Later that day when I returned to pick up the car the receptionist said the Service Manager wanted to talk with me.
“We had to replace the rear hub because you can’t knock out the studs and replace them on the NC, that part costs $300+++, he says.”
“So your boys stuffed it you replace it!!”
“We cover the cost for you this time but we didn’t over tighten the studs someone else has, this is what we use” he said showing me some sort of flexible drive.
“Kick your apprentice up the **** because he didn’t use it,” was my response.

The reason for not naming the Dealership is because I had a great relationship with the previous service manager and the mechanic that worked on my car. Sadly they both left and went to Wollongong. The current one won’t last too long before the complaints against his work see him ousted.

As for the dealership, my last dealing with them was to be the first service after the Mazda 3 year warranty ran out. I have/had a 6 year extended warranty from that dealer. I rang and booked the car in for a standard service (keeps the extended warranty running) and I asked that they clear the drain tubes from the soft top under warranty. An hour later they ring to say the drain tubes aren’t covered under the extended warranty, only major parts like engine and transmission, etc.
Well they lost me at that point. Cancelled the service and did the oil change myself like I have done every 5,000 between the normal service.

Now if anyone asks about dealer service I say, sure get them to do it but insist that the apprentices don’t work on the car and if possible get introduced to the mechanic that will do the work.

Oil: I use 10w40 full synthetic.

As has been shown by a Survey which was aired on Sydney TV a few nights ago, the MAJORITY of Vehicle Mechanics will Rip you off or Overcharge you ..... word of mouth is the best way to locate a Mechanic / Dealership who are Honest.

Now if you a Female then the chance of being ripped off increases greatly, it is sad that in this day and age most men (specifically mechanics) consider females to be plain Dumb when it comes to anything technical. I used to own an Engineering Company and I won't even begin to dribble on about my dealings with tradesmen and engineers over the years, but when it comes to servicing my beloved MX-5, I do almost everything myself.

I had a Pajero a few years back, took it to get a new set of wheels and tyres fitted, while I watched in horror some young guy with a cigarette hanging from his mouth tightened the wheel nuts on the last wheel being fitted and to my shock he snapped off 3 of the five wheel studs he then had the gall to tell me that they must have been weakened by something I had done to them!
On another occasion I took it to get an oil and filter change, I always use 100% Synthetic so I supplied them with the Oil, when I picked it up I checked the oil and it did not smell right but there in the workshop on the shelf was five litres of Mobil 1, I asked if they had put that in my car and of course they swore they did - suspicious me walked over and picked up the Mobil One which was full and unopened but they told me that was not the oil I gave them, I immediately turned the oil upside down and showed them my licence number written in permanent ink on the bottom ......

I took my container of Mobil One with me and drove away without paying them a cent ... the last thing I saw was the red face of the guilty looking mechanic

Theres not much reason to goto a dealership unless it's required for extended warranties (which in most cases isn't worth it) or warranty repairs. Logbook servicing can be done by any registered mechanic.

Only reason why I'd goto a dealership now is for ECU diagnostics checking. If the car has OBDII then you can even do that yourself by buying a scanner.