Category: Mazda RX-8

So, I’ve been kind of scattered in my postings about my RX-8 troubles. I took a lot of the issues with patience and grace: console display failure, A/C that spontaneously turns on (still not fixed), alarm issues up the wazoo. The most troublesome problem has been the repeated failure of the passenger airbag system while I am driving with a passenger. This has happened at least six times. The short history is such:

Happened twice in one weekend. Took it into the shop. 2335 miles on the car. They re-calibrated the seat sensor.

Happens again, at 3660 miles. This time they replace the seat sensor.

Again at 5273 miles. A Mazda ‘engineer’ comes out, spends a couple of weeks poking at my car. They replace the seat track.

Again at 6837 miles. They replace the control module, run some tests, and Mazda has the shop replace the ENTIRE wiring harness. This is no easy task, and it introduced four new problems to my car:

1. Steering wheel is off-center
2. Air vents seem blocked, and no longer work correctly. Can’t get split-level air.
3. Windshield washer fluid pump no longer works
4. iPod connector cable no longer anchored down behind dash. The foam cable mounting piece is sitting in my glove box. One light tug and it will probably rip out of the stereo.

Oh! And best of all… Eight days after I got my car back from having the wiring harness replaced the passenger side air bag system failed again. So, after four visits to the shop, two of them lasting over two weeks long, and countless labor hours… my fracking lemon of a car is still not fixed.

My car has spent FIFTY-EIGHT days in the shop for one problem alone: the passenger airbag system failures. In those FIFTY-EIGHT days, Mazda has not only failed to fix the problem, they have introduced four new ones.

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Today is Saturday, December 22nd. Seven days ago, last Friday, I picked up my car after its most recent warranty repair session. Trying to win my love, the dealership had detailed and waxed my baby; after having ripped her completely to shreds to replace the wiring harness. No matter how much polish and wax you apply, my car will never really be the same.

The first thing I noticed was that, while driving in a straight line down the road, the steering wheel was a few degrees off to the left. So I had to take it into the shop, losing another day of my car on top of the ninety five it had previously spent in the shop for warranty work.

Last night it was particularly cold, and for the first time since picking it up I cranked up the heat. That’s when I realized that the air ducting is fracked up. No longer do I get split-level heat at the floor and vents. I was not looking forward to having to take it in so the dash can be disassembled and rebuilt again.

The icing on the cake was slopped down on me less than thirty minutes ago. Mel and I were driving back from groceries and the airbag light in the driver’s console started flickering. I look over to the passenger side, and sure enough the passenger airbag had disabled itself again. This is the problem for which it has spent fifty-eight days in the shop, so far… They have replaced the seat sensor, the control module, the seat track, and the entire wiring harness; and the problem is back already! Thank the gods I didn’t take their offer of ‘compensation‘ seriously. Less than three days after that discussion the problem would have returned and I would have been stuck back at square one.

Will someone at Mazda grow some fucking reproductive organs and a backbone and commit to replacing this damned 2007 Mazda RX-8 GT Lemon?