2008 Mazda6 recalled in Australia: 1821 vehicles affected

Article
Gallery

By Tim Beissmann | August 11th, 2011

More than 1800 Mazda6 vehicles have been recalled in Australia over a potential engine defect.

In total, 1821 Mazda6s produced between January 8, 2008 and February 12, 2008 have been recalled. All affected vehicles are second-generation Mazda6 models equipped with the L5 Series 2.5-litre petrol engine.

The official recall notice on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission website explains:

“It is possible that one of the circlips that retain the piston pins within the pistons has been incorrectly installed.

“If the clips fail during use, this may result in the piston pin sliding out of position and contacting the cylinder wall. The resultant damage could cause the engine to stall (if this should occur, the engine will not restart).

“In a worst case scenario, engine parts (conrods) may crack the oil pan on the bottom of the engine or the cylinder block, causing oil to leak.”

Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by mail and are advised to contact an authorised Mazda dealer for replacement of the piston ring and connecting rod assemblies with revised ones.

The repair will be conducted at no charge to owners.

F1MotoGP

Where is any of the VW haters. This is a potential engine defect or for the Japanese it is OK.

Lang Chye

Presumably rectification will be costly to Mazda – would need to open the cylinder head to access the pistons?

Reckless1

To fit new piston pin circlips requires removal of the head and sump, then removal of pistons. Depending on the particular vehicle, it may mean removal of the engine from the engine bay and possibly the removal of gearbox and final drive assembly.

Then the piston pin circlips are accessible for replacement. I would expect Mazda would then fit new piston rings and big end bearings, as well as the new circlips.

Freddo

At least they recall them instead of doing nothing in the hope that they run out of warranty….like VW!

Reckless1

Idiot.

Hung Low

What about the well known and documented defects with the 118tsi engines from VW???
No recalls needed folks, lets use cost as an excuse to ditch this engine from the line up!

GTI

This is what people get for buying German.

Oh wait…
Eric

Mazda Vrs VW who has the highest % recall?

Eric

Devil’s Advocate

Let’s see Eric, what ‘facts’ did I find with a bit of simple research on “official” recalls from 2006 to now (5 1/2 years) on the “recalls” website…
Looks like Mazda wins with a higher number of recalls than VW. But wait a second, I wonder how they both compare to some other popular makes over the same period of time???!!!!

Total number of recalls from the start of 2006 to now:
Mazda: 9
VW: 2
Ford: 32
Holden: 30
Toyota: 31
Honda: 23
Hyundai: 7
Mitsubishi: 24
Subaru: 12
Nissan: 19
Suzuki: 12

Devil’s Advocate

I wonder why the rest of this didn’t post???

Thema

VW try to avoid recalls…which is why their official recalls are lower. When are are pressured into action and have to advise customers of a recall they sugar coat it as a Service Campaign and then be very vague as to what the defect actually is.

Devil’s Advocate

During this research I also found out that Mercedes Benz has had 47 recalls since the start of 2006! Most of those recalls are for the Sprinter and Vito vans. So what does that tell you???!!!!

Also as a matter of intrest BMW had 3 and Audi had 8. These figures and some others etc were a part of the post above but for some reason it didn’t post

GTI

Vw never recall cars, listen to their customers or develop their products. They’re just one of the largest auto makers in the world by sheer volume of advertising and bribing of motoring journalists so that their crappy grey fridges are made to seem appealing.

In fact, no Japanese car has ever been recalled ever. Why would they need to? They call it a “recall” so that they appear to be looking after their customers, but really they’re just kneading the character out of their cars and trying to get them into the showroom to buy a new car. Can’t sell many new cars when the old ones don’t ever die.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/ Alborz Fallah

Bribing Motoring Journalists? They must be sending my money to the wrong account!

Volkswagen has been producing great vehicles for years, there is no doubt there has been some quality issues along the way but that’s generally what happens when you try and introduce new technology in every day cars and push the envelope further, believe me, if it wasn’t for VW, all these other manufacturers with dual clutch transmissions and ultra efficient engines would have little motivation. Even if you don’t like VW, respect them for changing the automotive field.

GTI

Alborz,

Sorry, that post was sarcastic. I was actually attempting to take the mickey from all the VW “haters” that frequent this site. The bribery line was only a jib, as VW have been getting sooooo many favourable reviews for so many years now on any vehicle they’ve made, let alone all the awards they’ve won. Car reviewers love them, but punters here seem to be mostly very against VW for reasons I can’t fathom.

Otherwise, I agree with all your points! For the record, I am a VERY happy owner of the new Polo GTI. Great car!
Thema

Valid point Sir,

Didn’t the Fiat Group develop the worlds first Turbo/Supercharged engines for Rallying capable of pumping out 600+ HP under the most grueling conditions thrown at them and perform with huge success and reliability. They even Homologated 200+ road cars and therefore the pioners of this technology during the 80′s.

Throughout the 90′s FiatGroup devoloped Common Rail TurboDiesel Technology and then made it available under liscence to other manufacturers.

Moving forward Fiatgroup has just released the International Best Engibe Of The Year “Multiar” which achieves comparable power/consumption/emissions to the VW TSi without the complications and production warranty failures.

Dual cluch DSG great for high speed gearchanges but very jerky and at times dangerous when not engaging during overtaking. Its a start and will improve with time though.

Dont get me wrong I’m not anti VW….in fact I’ve owned 3 of them with mixed emotions.

Reckless1

DSG not engaging when overtaking? – WTF are you smoking?

The VW DSG is a bit snatchy in stop-start driving, ut from 20kph to max speed it is never caught out.

random

the DSG box at times confuses itself in which way it wants to change gear and hesitates, the down-side of pre-selecting gears…
random

mind you the majority of time it has it sorted

http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/997596 Pogo

Vw has had plenty of recalls, just none after 2007. See recalls.gov.au for a full list of all manufacturers. Audi hasn’t had one since 2009 and Skoda has never had one in Australia.

BMW hasn’t had one since 06
Phil

Mazda never recalled the diesel 6 to fix it’s various engine problems. In fact they carried them over from the old model to the current one!

Devil’s Advocate

The problem of the diesel 6 Phil is not actually a fault with the engine itself, it is the DPF and the way that it operates that causes the problems. Unlike other manufacturers, for some strange and to me silly reason Mazda didn’t fit an extra injector in the DPF for the “burn cycle” and instead inject extra fuel into the engine to pass through the exhuast. This of course has the associated effect of “watering down” the oil as excess fuel runs past the rings as well as out the exhaust. This combined with the short distance/stop start driving most people do means that the engine doesn’t get hot enough to “evaporate/burn off” all of the extra fuel in the engine during the burn cycle which then can increase engine wear if you don’t change the oil often enough. If you do lots of open road driving it is not an issue as the excess fuel “evaporates/burns off”. The manual even recommends a “country/hard drive” now and then. It is this lack of regular “highway” driving that prevents a proper “burn” and hence the DPF gets blocked due to not burning off properly and then throws a CEL putting the car in “limp home” mode. It is a poor design considering many people only ever do “stop/start” city driving. Poor form Mazda…

Also Phil, I haven’t heard of there being as many issues with the 2.2L as the dpf is made of different material and hence doesn’t block as easily and can withstand higher temperatures. I still think they use the same method during the burn however which is still not that good and leaves it open for problems in the long run if you only do short trips and don’t change the oil as prescribed.

Hung Low

DPF problems are widespread across all brands. I have known of an S Class Merc that suffered serious long term oil dilation caused by the DPF never getting a chance to complete its burn cycle from short trips!

Devil’s Advocate

Yep, they are not the most reliable method of removing particulates. Effective maybe, reliable, definitley not. However the methods used by some other companies in having the fuel injector inside the DPF means there is less problems with oil dilution inside the engine. As you mentioned though, they don’t work properly unless you do a long/hard drive higher up the RPM range during a burn cycle (they say at least 30mins). Not the easiest thing to do when most of these modern diesels only do short stop/start city trips and only rev at around 1500-2000rpm at 100km/h which is too low for an effective burn!

Devil’s Advocate

Whilst Mazda may not have issued a “recall” as such (as a CEL isn’t really a “safety” issue like bad engine mounts or possible fires from fuel line clamps etc which is the main driver for most official recalls), it has been an ongoing part of normal “software updates” during servicings which changes the “burn” cycles etc. This over time has resulted in less CELs and less DPF issues (still hasn’t eradicated it though). The catch is you have to get your car plugged into the Mazda computers at their “stealership service centres”. They haven’t just sat there and done nothing which is what you appear to be implying.

How do I know all of this? It is not just based off hearsay/chinese whispers/random bagging, my parents have had a 2L 3 diesel since they were first released. They mostly do highway/country driving, have had one CEL/DPF light early on which was reset at the dealer with a software update, and haven’t had any issues since in a total of around 100,000km. I will also mention my parents abuse their cars quite badly. That CEL/DPF light also made no difference to how the car ran other than a slight increase of fuel consumption.

Having said that it still doesn’t totally fix what was IMHO a poor design in the first place. Which is not much different I guess to Nissan and their 3L diesel as another example but I don’t see you bagging it Phil….

Phil

Recalls are a lousy way to assess a cars reliability.

Devil’s Advocate

I totally agree Phil, it is not always an accurate/definitive indicator. I would rather a company put their hand up, say they made a mistake, issue a recall and fix a problem for free than to just leave you to it and fix it yourself out of your own pocket.

Whilst I still remember Phil, seeing as you hold this particular survey in such high regard from previous posts of yours, did you hear that the Suzuki Kizashi has just recently taken out number 1 spot in the 2011 JD Power Satisfaction Survey for mid-sized cars? They aren’t near the bottom any more like you have always been saying with such conviction… What a turn around and who would have “thunk it”!! TIC

Hung Low

Could that be because it is a Japanese built car Phil, and not a rebadged Daewoo as we have been telling you?

Nada

No BMW recalls there Devils Ad? My 335 was ‘requested’ to be inspected in a service campaign early last year… and after a fuel pump failure, apparently a common issue, denied by BMW of course, got rid of it.

Devil’s Advocate

These were offical recalls (and mostly safety related) from the Govt Recalls website, don’t shoot the messenger! A “recall” is a different thing to a “service campaign” or “TSB” (technical service bulletin). Car companies like BMW/VW etc prefer to have a “service campaign/TSB” in the first instance where they only “fix” something if a customer specifically complains about a particular fault. This method costs the company less money as they don’t have to check every single car within the “suspect period”. It also “saves face” by not broadcasting the fault on a govt website for everyone to see as opposed to keeping it within the dealership service departments. There a many “service campaigns/TSBs” that are carried out without the customer even knowing about it.

Also “service campaigns/TSBs” are generally for mechanical/cosmetic etc faults that don’t have as big a safety implication as an official recall.
ie: a fault like a door rubber seal not fitting properley would come under a “service campaign/TSB” as there is no real safety issue and they only have to worry about the cars where there is an actual problem. This is also where something like Mazda’s DPF problems fit into.

However something like a fuel line clamp under the bonnet not being the correct item and could cause a fire to start in the engine bay would be classified as a recall as the risk of safety to the public is much higher and at times life threatening if not fixed ASAP. There are also different legal implications WRT recalls when compared to “service campaigns/TSBs”.

I hope this helps explain some of the differences.

Westie

“worst case scenario blah blah causing an oil leak” Methinks “causing total destruction of the engine” may be more like it!
Even if the gudgeon pin just moves enough to “cause the engine to stall”, the damage will be $$$$

Devil’s Advocate

That is what I was thinking. However at least Mazda are putting their hand up, admitting the mistake and fixing it even though most of the cars recalled would now be outside of the normal manufacturers warranty. Which I can say is much better than some other manufacturers out there when it comes to engine design faults…

random

I have never read so much crap before, as to official recalls forget about them – most companies will not instigate an official recall unless it is safety compromising. As mentioned by someone earlier all companies prefer to treat non-critical “recalls” as service campaigns or technical service bulletins depending on severity of the problem.

As to reviews on cars and what not – drive it yourself and see what you think, everything is subjective to the point where I’ve started disregarding reviews on the basis of how I perceive the car compared to how the motoring journo perceives it.

While some like the Volkswagen’s/Audi’s and worship everything that comes out from that company (think apple), I am not one of them, not because of the way they look, how reliabile it is or the build quality, but more so because of the way the car lacks any feel or involvement when driving it, which is a shame because they make some nice cars that could have great potential.

Sadly apart from BMW, Porsche and some of the more exclusive brands out there, nothing really compares…

And yes if you want quality/reliability go buy a japanese car, also be aware that the drive is quite “sterile” and bland compared to the makes I mentioned above.
Maddy

Mazda have had my car for 5 & 1/2 days now & have had problems with the new part not responding well with my engine. Who knows what is going to happen now & when I will get it back. Not Happy!

Noel

I am not happy they did my car in 1&1/2 days had to take it back with oil coming out arround sump area. Touch wood has not leaked again. It is not the car I bought.
I have meeting next week with dealer. Has anyone had any more problems Like Maddy???