Well, I thought I'd play safe and get my engine fixed by a highly recommended local family owned 'back street garage' - mainly to avoid the extortionate bill I would have ended up with by going to a Mazda dealer...........

However, the Local Mazda Dealer has still managed to foook things up for me - probably in spite.

You may have read that I had to have my engine decoked, then to get it back and find she was hesitant upon acceleration, and puffed black smoke - mainly when cold.

Well, for obvious reasons when fixing the original valve problem (coked up with carbon) I took the advice of the said garage and we installed official Mazda parts into the engine.

When I got the car back and still had problems, we suspected that the Lambda sensor was at fault and knackering the fuel/air mixture - hence the poor running and smoke screen when cold. So I duly took her back to the garage (after about 100 miles) for further investigation.

Anyway - they did find a diagnostic fault on the Lambda sensor -which incidentaly wasn't there when the car went in first time round, but the garage was concerned at the amount of smoke coming out of the car when cold.

Further investigation revealed that also they used official Mazda parts, the local Mazda dealer had managed to send the wrong bits!!!!!!

When repalcing the seals of the inlet and exhaust valves, it would appear that the Mazda dealer sent 16 inlet seals, when they should have sent 8 inlet and 8 exhaust seals - which is what had been asked for. As they apparently all look the same they all got fitted.

So you start the car up, and the inlet seals - fitted to the exhaust valves - were allowing oil in the cylinder which was duly getting burnt!!!!

All the shit going through the exhaust had coated the Lambda Sensor which explains that one too - although it turns out that a Lambda sensor fault may have been the original cause of the carbon on the valves in the first place - as in running too rich.

So here I am, waiting for the correct parts to be delivered on Tuesday (missed the friday noon cut off for Monday) and hope that I get my car back next Wednesday!!!!!

Bugger blast and damn....................but at least the Mazda dealers error isn't going to cost me a penny to get it refixed.

Moral of the story - pray your car doesn't go wrong, cos the Mazda dealer will alwats manage to sting you in one way shape or form!

i wouldn't go to the local mazda dealer here anyway.

I know of one of the mechanics as i work with his girlfriend. As he thinks i am having sum sort of affair with his girl he hates me and often chases me round in his astra when he sees me (which i beat every time). So i ain't gonna let it near them coz i know he will prolly try his hardest to trash it for me. So i take the cheaper option and go to a good local mechanic that the family have been using for years.

That way at least i know my car is gonna come back in one peice....

Arty

My local mazda dealers is also crap.
not too long ago I asked them about servicing my air-con, and the mazda muppet behind his nice counter informed me that mazda vehicles don't need the air con servicing because it's a sealed unit and said that if it wasn't operating properly it would most definately be down to leak in the system.
What a load of BS, all vehicles with air con need servcing at some point in it's life, usually when the air con gas runs out.
So I asked them how much this would cost, he said that it would take at least 3 hours at £65 per hour labour, plus parts, if needed, just to find out why my air con wasn't working properly.
I was looking at nearly £200 quid just for them to take a look & diagnose the problem.
So I went fishing on the internet to find a good local air con engineer to see if they could help, & guess what, I did. OK I had to travel around 35 miles, but it was worth it.
The guy charged me £55 quid for the gas re-fill, a coloured die that they put into the system to find any leaks and it only took half an hour.
DONT TRUST A MAZDA DEALER!!

iv always been wondering abt this mysterious air con of ours bcos i looked at craigs and compared it to others as well it seems then if air con does exist in our cars then we sud have a metal pipe runnin cross the metal chasis bit also i fink aircon requires another seperate fan so i doubt we got air con

Well, it's a case of hoping for third time lucky.

Got the car back on Wednesday having had the 'correct' exhaust valve stem seals fitted, and she still smokes (and runs rough as fook)!!!!

Turns out - after taking her back for it to be fixed AGAIN - that the new OE Mazda exhaust stem seals are not sealing and oil is still getting into the cylinders.

The Mazda dealer insists they're the right seals, but my garage aint so sure. Next step is to try some non Mazda seals?!?!?!?

So here's to another week wazzing around in the wifes near standard Civic!!!!

My fingers are crossed !

Time for a 1.8 upgrade Rich........

...How wrong can they be getting all this?!?!


..do they know who they're dealing with?!?!



...One of the 'Web's most foremost 323F ambassadors!!



...I hope that they're prepared to reap the whirlwind!! (..well, suffer 1001 people slagging them off, EVEN more, all across the internet!!! :twisted: )

hey rich dis is totally off the subject why aint u got a spoiler? are u finkin aerodynamics?

Why ain't I got a spoiler?!?!?

I think that they spoil the smooth lines of the rear of the 'F'.

No offence to those who've got one - just a personal opinion........


Sayin that, I have been keeping my eye out for one for about three years - just haven't found one that suits the car yet (again in my opinion!)

Rich

As for my seals, well Mazda only ever made one set of seals for the 323f 1.5 litre engine - even though they made three versions of that engine (according to my EPC disc). The garage are truly miffed, and as I'm sure you'll appreciate they're not just a normal back street garage - they're a very highly respected one - else Maisy wouldn't have gone there in the first place! And as it stands Mazda are footing the bill for initially sending the wrong seals......

ahh i see well in my personal opinion i think the F is very bubbly if u ask me its smooth but very bubby, i decided that the original spoiler for it is the best spoiler in my option and i think it makes the car less bubbly from behind. im very interested in seeing what spoiler you add onto the car until den i hope ya car gets well soon!!!

Cheers for that thought Lantis!

Until the 'F' is fixed, and much to your discust - CIVIC'S RULE OK!

[quote="richardesty"] CIVIC'S RULE OK![/quote]

Richard !!! Go wash your mouth out with soap NOW ! ! !

tell u da truth i really like civics myself hahaha just that people talk about them like they are all dat so i decided to buy a car complete without vtec or vvti , tvis or gti.. so in the end i stumbled cross this 323F 1.8

i actually hate golfs !

I just hate anything French, oh and I'm not so keen on Vauxhalls either......