Here endeth the saga.A nice quick drive- hood down of course, on a lovely January day and not the slighest trace of smoke. A £4.00 Purolator Valve as opposed to the best part of £1000.00 for new valve stem oil seals was the answer - I will be having a serious word with Mr Mazda.
Many thanks to everyone who contacted me offering advice especially Martin Young and Geoff Walton.
Alan Moore
That’s great news, but what is a Purolator?
The filter manufacturer … excellent result and a perfect example of why this club is so good!
Hello Pollyana
Possibly the exhilaration that resulted from fixing the problem followed by my first bit of top down motoring for several months has caused a (temporary,I hope) loss of marbles. ‘Purolator’ is the brand name of the item. The actual thing we replaced was a vacuum modulator. Now…if you want to know what that is…let me know. Thank you for your kind note.
Regards Alan Moore
Hello again
No - that’s quite different. The valve we replaced is to the side of the gearbox.
Regards Alan Moore
Hello Tim
Thank you for your kind note. I agree absolutely - the response I got was extraordinary - prompt and friendly with sound practical advice and suggestions.
Regards Alan Moore
[Y]
Glad you got it sorted Alan, must be a relief to be short £4 than £1000!
Hello !
Thank you for your note. The point is that everyone I spoke to( before joining the Owners Cub) assured me that the problem was the valve stem oil seals so that’s what I had done. When the garage told me that the problem remained they suggested changing the piston rings for similiar amounts of money - poor advice when they had already done a compression test which gave just about spot-on readings. That is why I’ll be having a serious word with Mazda Customer Relations and the garage who are, needless to say, a main dealer.
Regards Alan Moore
I am struggling to find any mention of it in Rod Graingers manual.
Hi Alan
Perhaps we should have a name and shame post in th garage section, even if we were to grade using stars 1-5, 5 being top bannana, as a customer we have the right to a good service, god they charge enough. Then every six or twelve months send to Mazda UK… it’s an Idea [I]
Zippy [:#]
It fits on the left hand side of the automatic gearbox.
Hello yet again Pollyana
I see that the good Martin Young has already replied to you. The lack of information about automatic gearboxes specifically in MX5s was the main reason it took so long to get anywhere. My annoyance with the garage stems from the fact that they didn’t really know anything about it and treated the problem as though it were unique in the entire history of motoring. At the time I didn’t know a modulator valve from a packet of biscuits but it didn’t take long to find out once I got started. You and I can be forgiven for not knowing - garages charging £100+ an hour need to do better !
Regards Alan
Hello Zippy
The main problem with naming and shaming large organisations is that ‘they’ always like to assure us that they have ‘learned lessons’ and are now ‘moving forward’ but we have no way of knowing wether they have or not until something else goes horribly wrong. Maybe Mazda UK is different.
Let me float an idea back (I think I feel a new thread coming on!) Supposing there was a special type of club membership for dealers - if you like a Commercial Membership that would allow access to the very special and unique knowledge that true enthusiasts possess - Martin Young, in my recent experience. is an extraordinarily knowledgeable man. This could be seen as getting answers to problems ‘on the cheap’ but if I were buying a new MX5 and the salesman was able to say to me that in addition to his service facilities he had access to virtually limitless technical information, I think I would feel very assured. Happy Customers = More Sales = Improved Products.
The dealers who were Commercial Members would display - perhaps - a variation of the Club logo on the showroom door. No logo - no business, we don’t go there.
There are, of course, many areas that the Executives of the MX5Owners Club would need to consider - among other things co-operation with the wider fraternity of Mazda Owners. Our other car is a Focus Estate but only because we couldn’t get a Mazda 6 Estate at the time. Selling good products is easy - looking after customers so that they come back is the trick and that’s what takes the effort. Personally, I haven’t got too much of a problem with the cost - that is my decision to accept or refuse and I do recognise that they have huge overheads. What irratates me is not doing the job properly. 10p is too much to charge if you haven’t fixed the problem you have undertaken to fix.
I’m off my soapbox - over to you!
Thanks for the note
Regards Alan