Maintenance, Replacement and Repair, May 2012
Time for maintenance on my wife's 3 so off to my local speed shop where I purchased 5 qts of Red Line SAE 5W-20 and 3 qts of Red Line MT-90 SAE 75W-90, API GL-4 nectar of the gods. Expensive but worth it. Then, off to my local, friendly Mazda dealer to obtain an oil filter, part# LF05-14-302A. Did the lube work and then congratulated myself on another job well done.
And then, a few days later disaster struck as it always does when you least expect it. My wife reported that the AC no longer worked and was blowing hot air. Rat's rectum, I really didn't have time to check this out just now and since I've never worked on an AC system in the past (before my Protege I never had a car with AC and I just toughed it out in the hot weather), I knew it would be a long process, at best.
But wait I'm not through yet, as those obnoxious shills on TV always proclaim, since a friend of mine thought that the repairs might be covered under warranty. So, back to Mazda where I consulted with a Service Consultant who looked up the records for the 3 and announced that yes, the car was still under warranty until July of this year. It's an '06 and still under warranty, just. Amazing!
Made an appointment, brought the car in and it turns out that there was a crack in one of the condensor welds that allowed a seam to open up and dump the refrigerant. Mazda replaced the condensor, part# BP4K-61-480D and evacuated and recharged the system. The condensor was US $488.95 and the labor was $128.70 for a total cost of $617.65 (state theft extra). Cost to us: $0.
So now I'm happy, my wife's happy and her motoring is happy again. And to all of you:
Happy Motoring!
Time for maintenance on my wife's 3 so off to my local speed shop where I purchased 5 qts of Red Line SAE 5W-20 and 3 qts of Red Line MT-90 SAE 75W-90, API GL-4 nectar of the gods. Expensive but worth it. Then, off to my local, friendly Mazda dealer to obtain an oil filter, part# LF05-14-302A. Did the lube work and then congratulated myself on another job well done.
And then, a few days later disaster struck as it always does when you least expect it. My wife reported that the AC no longer worked and was blowing hot air. Rat's rectum, I really didn't have time to check this out just now and since I've never worked on an AC system in the past (before my Protege I never had a car with AC and I just toughed it out in the hot weather), I knew it would be a long process, at best.
But wait I'm not through yet, as those obnoxious shills on TV always proclaim, since a friend of mine thought that the repairs might be covered under warranty. So, back to Mazda where I consulted with a Service Consultant who looked up the records for the 3 and announced that yes, the car was still under warranty until July of this year. It's an '06 and still under warranty, just. Amazing!
Made an appointment, brought the car in and it turns out that there was a crack in one of the condensor welds that allowed a seam to open up and dump the refrigerant. Mazda replaced the condensor, part# BP4K-61-480D and evacuated and recharged the system. The condensor was US $488.95 and the labor was $128.70 for a total cost of $617.65 (state theft extra). Cost to us: $0.
So now I'm happy, my wife's happy and her motoring is happy again. And to all of you:
Happy Motoring!
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