Mazda Problems

The starter motor on this vehicle is located down low on the front of the engine. Conventional wisdom is to remove the air-box and part of the intake trunking to access the starter motor's fasteners and wiring, and then remove the starter itself from below the engine bay after removing the plastic underbody protection panel. Don't forget to remove the negative battery terminal before starting any of this.

In some cases, with some versions of the CX-9, you can get a long screwdriver in between the bonnet and grille and manually flip the catch that will allow the bonnet to spring open. The trick is that you have to know where the catch is and since you can't see in there, it can be very difficult if not impossible.

If you have access to one, a borescope (a tiny camera on a thin, flexible shaft, might get you to the point where you can identify the latch and successfully aim the screwdriver. But at all times, you risk damaging the grille or bonnet.

You could take the car to a Mazda dealer or specialist who has probably seen this thing before and may have a few short-cuts to get the bonnet open. And since you're going to need a new cable anyway, you're then in the right place. If the job is a really tough one, you may find you need to remove the grille and even the front bumper to gain the access you need.

The best approach might be to have the car independently inspected and assessed. Your local motoring club (NRMA) would be a good place to start, but you could also probably take it to an established panel shop an achieve the same thing.

The results of that inspection will determine which way you go from there. If the inspection really does determine that the car has damage to its bodywork, then Mazda should treat it as a warranty claim and fix it. If the car does get resprayed be very selective on who does the work, as a brand-new car that has obviously been resprayed will raise eyebrows if you try to sell it.

Modern vehicles have lots of electronics that operate functions such as the dashboard and warning lights. If the car is showing a 4WD light when it's not actually in 4WD, then there's an electrical glitch somewhere in the system.

But the fact that it occurs in tandem with a second fault (the incorrect speedo reading) makes us wonder if you're not looking at something as fundamental as a bad earth somewhere on the car. Electricity can't flow if the circuit isn't earthed, and this is a common source of problems like the one you're seeing. A good auto electrician should be able to sort both problems with simple test gear. If not, a scan of the vehicle's systems may throw up the answer.

It certainly looks like that could be the case. Mazda HQ has announced plans to stop production of the 6 at the plant that supplies Australian 6s, so barring a switch to a new supply-factory, that would seem to be so. There's a sense that some Mazda factories will continue to build the 6, but the suggestion is that this will only be for some limited Asian markets.

Unfortunately for those who like conventional vehicle packaging, the almighty SUV has just about killed off the traditional sedan and station-wagon.

That's quite high mileage, but in a modern car with vastly better metallurgy, engineering design and oil quality (particularly multi-grade oil) it's not impossible for a car with that sort of mileage to still be in perfectly serviceable condition.

Frankly, if you're not after something newer with newer tech and convenience, and you're still happy with the Mazda, the advice is probably to keep it and drive it till it will drive no further. As it is, if it's getting close to 300,000km, it's not worth very much to trade-in or sell second-hand, so keeping it and squeezing every last kilometre out of it is the budget-conscious way to go. The exception would be if a bunch of little things all go wrong at once. At which point, you're probably wise to quit it  - even though it's worth very little - as a means of not throwing good money after bad.

Rather than the steering completely locking up, it’s more likely you’re feeling steering that has lost is power-assistance. It can make the wheel extremely heavy and could feel as though the car won’t steer at all. This is linked to the engine stalling, because the power-steering on this vehicle is driven by a belt from the engine. No engine means no power-assistance.

The other questions, of course, are why is the engine stalling and why only on left-hand turns. There are plenty of things that can cause a modern engine to stall from a dirty fuel filter to a blocked injector or an electronic fault. And about a million things in between. An electronic scan of the vehicle might throw up a fault code that will help a mechanic unravel what’s going on.

I can assure you the 2013 BT-50 was, indeed, engineered with a heater and this came standard with any BT-50. The dial that controls the coldness of the air-conditioning is the same one that controls the heating. Turn the dial all the way clockwise and you should have warm air entering the cabin through the various vents.

If not, then I'd suggest that a previous owner has blocked off the car's coolant supply to the heater core by rerouting the plumbing so the hot engine coolant no longer enters the heat exchanger in the cabin. This was probably done because the heat exchanger was leaking and this was a quick way to stop the leak and keep the vehicle operational, albeit without a heater. It's one of the oldest tricks in the used-car book.

The best bet is to take the car to a radiator specialist who will be able to figure out what has been removed or bypassed and reinstate the necessary hardware so that your car is heated once again.

Rubber window seals are a constant source of frustration for car restorers (and let's not forget the RX-7 Convertible is getting on for 40 years old now). The seals don't last forever (particularly in Australia with its UV radiation) and once the dealership supplies dry up, there's not always the demand for rubber manufacturers to continue to make them. Popular makes and models don't have quite the same problem, but even newer niche models like, say the latter-day Holden Monaro, is giving owners all sorts of problems sourcing replacement rubber parts.

Social media might be your friend here. Try to find an online RX-7 owners' group and ask the question, Even if there are none readily available, some car clubs have enough members that specialist manufacturers will run off a batch of replacement parts, provided the club buys a job lot. If not, you might just find another RX-7 owner who has stumbled on to a replacement rubber that was originally made for a different car (or application altogether) that will fit and do the job. Don't rule out finding a similar rubber seal and modifying it to fit your car by slicing off part of it.

We have heard some reports of Ranger and BT-50 (they're the same vehicle mechanically) suffering oil pump failures with fairly terminal results for the rest of the engine. The other quirk with this engine is that you can't drain the engine of oil and leave it for any more than a few minutes without the pump running dry and needing to be primed before the engine is started.

Not all mechanics know this and many a Ranger or BT-50 engine has been destroyed when the oil has been dropped from the sump and the mechanic has gone to make a cup of tea or do some paperwork. They return half an hour later, replace the sump plug, fill the engine with oil and start it up. But because the pump hasn't primed, there's effectively no oil pressure and the engine is reduced to scrap in a few short seconds.

The problem is partly to do with the different design of the pump and there are even companies that have engineered more conventional oil pumps to replace the standard units on these engines.