Mazda Problems

Given that it’s just a small piece of stamped aluminium, a car’s compliance plate is a big deal as it confirms that the vehicle to which it’s attached meets all relevant rules and regulations to be used on the street. The laws vary from State to State, but in WA right now, it seems that replacing a damaged compliance plate with a new one is not permitted. Instead, what you may have to do is to apply for an exemption to have a compliance plate fitted to that particular vehicle.

According to the WA authorities (who I contacted about this) “If a vehicle’s original compliance plate is destroyed or lost, it cannot be replaced, however the vehicle owner can apply…for an exemption from having to fit a compliance plate”. There’s a process to be followed including having the car inspected and, if the vehicle is deemed to qualify for the exemption, a note will be made on its registration record to reflect the fact that it doesn’t require a physical compliance plate. This inspection will confirm that the vehicle is legal and hasn’t been stolen or written-off.

My concern is that it’s something you’re going to have to explain to a buyer when you sell the car on. Even though a car with this exemption is perfectly legal and shouldn’t present any insurance hassles, some buyers might be leery of a car without a compliance plate. For that reason, I’d be doing everything I could to preserve the original compliance plate. Unless there was a fire that melted it, even a bent and buckled compliance plate may be able to be straightened and left attached to the car. That would certainly be my preference.

My take on it is that dealers should stop telling lies to their customers. Take your problem straight to Mazda Australia’s customer service division and side-step what is clearly a smoke-screen from your dealer. It is ridiculous to suggest that a relatively new vehicle needs ten seconds to engage a gear after it’s been sitting for a few days.

As for the problem itself, start with the basics. Check for a blocked filter in the transmission (which can slow down the flow of fluid) and make sure that the fluid itself is not just the correct grade and type, but also the proper brand. These modern transmissions are complex and intricate, and even something as simple as the incorrect fluid can create chaos. Beyond those simple fixes, the problem could also be caused by a few other faults. For starters, it could be an accumulator inside the transmission that is failing. The accumulator’s job is to store some hydraulic pressure (created by the transmission’s pump) so that the transmission always has enough pressure and fluid volume available to effect gearshifts. If this accumulator is bleeding off pressure when the car sits, it will need time to refill (again, from the pump) before the unit will be able to select Drive. The other possibility is that the pump itself is slacking off and taking too long to build up pressure within the gearbox. You could also be looking at a pressure valve that has lost the plot and supplying the part of the gearbox it’s responsible for with an incorrect line pressure. Either way, a gearbox that is slow to select gears is often headed for the scrap-bin.

Given that it’s possibly a fairly major problem, it isn’t going to get any better. Your problem is that Mazda didn’t introduce its five-year warranty until August 1, 2018, and vehicles sold before that date were covered only for three years. That said, you’re BT-50 might squeak in, particularly if you pointed this problem out to the dealer some time ago (within the first three years). At that point, it’s a pre-existing condition, and it will be covered by the factory warranty as it occurred within the warranty period, even if the dealer – as it appears in this case – elected to spin you a yarn and do nothing about it.

Let’s start with the basics here, Bryan, before lashing out on mechanics. Are the tyre pressures where they should be? A tyre can be pretty under-inflated before that’s actually obvious to the eye, but a tyre with an incorrect pressure can be harder to turn. Next, what about the wheel alignment settings? Has the car bounced off a kerb lately? Has there been any incident that could have wrenched the front end out of alignment? When was the last time the wheel alignment was checked?

For all of that, however, I’m tempted to suspect that there’s something wrong with the valving in the power-steering rack. I’d be having the rack checked for any foreign matter inside that could be blocking the valves or in some other way preventing the rack from guiding the wheels smoothly in both directions. A dodgy steering system is an obvious safety issue, so don’t mess about having it checked.

I’m not sure if you mean pick-up as in acceleration or pick-up as in a sensor that should `pick up’ electronic signals and send them to the computer to control the car’s functions. And even if I assume you mean the car has a problem with accelerating, I have no idea what could be causing the issue with no list of symptoms or observations. It could be dragging brakes, a worn out engine, poor tuning, a dodgy fuel pump, tired park plugs and about a million other possibilities. Sorry, but you’ve stumped me.

I’ve had a flick through the BT-50 owner’s manual (and I suggest you do the same) and all I can find relating to a transmission warning light is a single 'powertrain warning lamp' which suggests something is not right somewhere along the length of the powertrain. Sometimes this light will come on in conjunction with the 'check-engine' light and it indicates that either a sensor has failed or there’s an actual problem with the hardware. Beyond that, the light doesn’t offer any suggestions on what might be wrong, but bear in mind that the four-wheel-drive system in this vehicle is electronically operated, so there’s lot of scope for errors.

A scan at a workshop should offer up some answers, but before you do that, just check that you haven’t bumped the rotary four-wheel-drive selector dial and have triggered the system into a mode it doesn’t like being in right now.

To put your question into context, an overdrive gear is one where the output shaft of the gearbox spins faster than the input shaft. Or, put another way, a gear in which the car’s propeller-shaft is spinning faster than the engine’s crankshaft. This means the drive wheels can be spun faster (for more road speed) without making the engine rev too hard. Overdrive gearboxes have been common for many years now, typically when five-speed transmissions replaced four-speed units. Those earlier four-speeds generally had a 1:1 ratio on their fourth (top) gear which means the output shaft (and propellor shaft) spun at exactly the same speed as the input shaft (or engine).

Many manufacturers have now, of course, switched to six-speed transmissions and some do, in fact, use that opportunity to fit an overdrive fifth and sixth gear. But in the case of your Mazda, only sixth gear is overdriven (with a ratio of 0.794:1) while fifth gear takes the place of a traditional fourth gear by being 1:1. That gives Mazda the chance to make fourth gear a little lower and tighten up the gaps between all the gears to eliminate any dips in the power delivery. Ultimately, of course, how fast the engine revs at a given road-speed is also down to the differential (or final-drive) ratio fitted, and the diameter of the wheel and tyre package.

Refuelling is actually a pretty dangerous practise, even though it’s one that most of us do on a weekly basis. So the first thing to know is that you need to stick to all the safety requirements issued by both the car-maker and the service station you’re using, including not using mobile phones while you refuel and making sure that even a few drops of spilled fuel is washed off the car and diluted with water on the ground.

Beyond that, the Mazda 323 should have a fuel-flap release lever on the floor, down beside the front-right hand corner of the driver’s seat. If the seat is positioned for a shorter driver, you may need to slide the seat back to reveal the release lever. Then, once the lever has been pulled upwards to release the external flap, you should be able to turn the actual fuel cap anti-clockwise to remove it. But take it slowly and don’t be surprised if there’s a hissing noise as some air is sucked into the tank as you break the cap’s seal. Once you’ve refuelled, replace the cap and turn it clockwise until it clicks once and spins freely, close the fuel-flap and you’re all done. It’s also a nice idea now to zero your trip-meter so you can calculate your fuel consumption next time you fuel up (not all cars back in 2001 had trip computers).

There are literally hundreds of things that could have caused the engine to suddenly stop. It could be anything from an electrical failure to a broken crankshaft to a seized torque-converter to an empty fuel tank. And practically anything in between. The dash lights illuminating when the engine stopped is actually quite normal, as the lights are trying to warn you that something’s wrong (in case you hadn’t noticed).

The fact that it won’t restart is no real clue, either, as you haven’t told me whether the engine turns over and won’t fire, or won’t turn over on the starter at all.

It all depends on whether you bought the car privately or from a licensed used-car dealer. If it’s the latter, you might have some redress under the mandatory warranty conditions in your State. If you bought the car privately, I’m afraid there’s no comeback at all beyond contacting the seller, explaining the situation and perhaps coming to an arrangement on a refund or part-refund. I wouldn’t be holding my breath, however, and a private seller usually has no obligations whatsoever to make your problem their problem. Did you have the car independently inspected before the purchase? If you did, I’d be taking the matter up with whoever did the inspection, because a faulty transfer case should perhaps have been picked up as part of any pre-purchase test.

If the transfer case is damaged beyond repair, you’ll need a new one. The problem there is that the only Mazda 6 that featured this driveline (with a transfer case) was the MPS model which only sold in small numbers. So you might have trouble finding a second-hand one. Even the main gearbox (a six-speed) was different to the manual gearbox (a five-speed) on the other Mazda 6 models.

I never cease to be amazed at the rubbish some car dealers resort to dipstick explain faults with their products. As far as I know, there is no allowable `tolerance’ for a brand-new aluminium tray to be out of whack. Nor should there be one; if a manufacturer can’t build a tray that is square and true in 2020, it really should be in another industry.

The other puzzling thing is that the tray on your car was re-set to 15mm out of whack and seems to be gradually returning to its original 35mm discrepancy. There are a few possible causes here. One would be that the tray itself is twisted and doesn’t sit square on the vehicle. The second is that the vehicle is somehow bent and won’t line up with the tray and its mounting points. Perhaps there’s a problem with the vehicle’s suspension that is sitting one side of the ute higher than the other. That could be a broken or faulty spring, a damaged shock absorber, a worn suspension bush or maybe a tyre that is a different size to the other three. But those are all pretty crazy suggestions in the context of a brand-new vehicle.

I actually contacted an aluminium-tray manufacturer to be told that in some cases, the vehicle’s cabin and chassis will not be aligned precisely from the factory. In that case, the tray would be fitted to visually line-up with the cabin so that the truck looks `right’ to the eye. Even then, this condition is very uncommon and, either way, 35mm is too far out to be considered anything like acceptable. The specialist I spoke with was confident that, in your case, Jason, the tray is simply incorrectly fitted and needs to be removed and fitted properly. Make it the dealer’s problem. One other thing is for sure, too; it’s not the location of the fuel tank that is causing this problem.

Further to that, Mazda Australia has weighed in and confirmed that there’s no tolerance involved but that the problem would be an easy fix at a Mazda dealership. Your best bet is to contact Mazda’s customer service hotline on 1800 034411.