I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Warranty work
I have a 1 yr old ND, I’m not the first owner, but still has 2yrs warranty to run.
I have:
A rattle in drivers door (worst when hood down, window up). Worse on some road surfaces.
Both windows create a screech/squeegy noise at points in their travel when there’s specific wet conditions (has just happened today for the first time). I’ve read there’s a service bulletin to fix this.
So both issues can be considered intermittent insofar as the dealer might not be able to reproduce one or other of them on the day. They are saying there’s a ~£190 diagnostics charge if they can’t get Mazda to agree there’s a warranty issue to sort or, potentially if there’s no fault they can find. So it’s all at my risk and I may wind up paying for the time taken to be told they can’t find a fault, or Mazda won’t honor a fix as warranty!
Can I get around this? Do all Mazda dealers do this? They are the “experts”, not me, and it seems they are passing all the risk to me.
It would be fair if they found a fault was my fault (say I’d dropped a coin in the door somehow), but it seems that’s not the only scenario they are talking about here.
Second bullet point: Mine does a squeak if I lower the windows and it’s been raining, even when I’ve had the half cover on, or if I’ve just washed it (but not the hood). imo it’s hardly bad in so much that it’s well documented, and no way I want some clown climbing all over my car, taking out this and that, all for a little squeak which isn’t there most for the time. And of course even when there, it’s only for the second or so when a window is going down, or up.
Never had the first bullet point. I get a very slight rattle around the sun visor over rougher surfaces, but again, not too often and again, nothing I’d want a clown dismantling my car for.
Personally, that would worry more than the £190, but of course to each their own. We’ve all got certain things which irritate us and pro/con lines regarding any repair.
Another factor which I guess I consider is if the car is yours, or financed.
If owned I wouldn’t bother, for the reasons above. If financed and it bothered me so much I’d maybe do it, knowing it’ll be ‘handed back’ soon enough anyway, but still I might still not do it if it didn’t bother me enough to risk the £190
Edit: Also, mentioning it when booking a service probably scrubs out the £190 ‘dissuading fee’. But I presume as your car is 1 year old it might not long have had its first service?
All good logical points, thanks. Definately in the class of “irritations”. Maybe I’ll just wait a while and see if they get a lot worse ;-). Otherwise they could indeed just make it worse, or worse! At the first service (which was done for me) a different dealer managed to curb a wheel badly (which was, fortunately, sorted to my satisfaction, but who wants the stress)…
Yes, next service not for 11 months (I’ve only had the car a month). And I own the car/not financed.
I don’t think the window squeak will get worse.
What a nightmare, curbing a wheel on a service!
You’re right about who wants that stress, I’d have been livid.
You’re right about who wants that stress, I’d have been livid.
I bought the car from an independent dealer who got the car serviced at a Mazda dealer just before I purchased it (to do the right thing re warranty). The dealer unilaterally decided to get the wheel repaired, and I said to the independant the car purchase was off if they did that. Long story short, the Mazda dealer replaced the wheel, and it certainly is a perfect match and finish if they didn’t - Shadow Chrome is difficult to match…
The car shouldn’t rattle and squeak like that but my benchmark is a 2015 A3 I have which is definately better put together, with better materials. And definately less fun in all respects
Could you get a passenger to video the problem when it is happening? That would provide evidence for your dealer to send to Mazda UK in support of the warranty claim.
Just sort it out yourself if it bothers you that much or at least take it apart a little bit to have a look. Then keep schtum and tell all dealers/mechanics that you’ve never picked up a spanner in your life.
Squeaky windows: Try some silicon spray lube on the windows, weather strips and any other rubber parts that might be doing it.
Door rattle: Sounds like that might just need the catch adjusting a bit, maybe. Where in the door does it come from? Or maybe it’s the window rattling in the door, in which case that’s a free fix under warranty.
