Check Engine Light

[mkol88]

Hi - just looking for a bit of advice to be honest.

I have 57 reg 2 Sport which has done about 24k. About 2 weeks ago the 'Check Engine Light' appeared and so I booked it into the dealer. The light comes on intermittently. When it comes on it stays on (normally when idling), however it will, from time-to-time, turn off when I start the car. The diagnostic test showed that there is a fault with the EGR system, however they checked the wiring and everything seemed fine, so reset the ECU and cleared the fault. This seemed fine for a week but now the check engine light has returned.

My first question is, given that my car is within the 3 year warranty, should they have charged me £60 for a diagnostic test? The rather snotty receptionist insisted that the warranty only covers engine issues, and for the sake of less hassle, I forked out the money. With this in mind however, I'm now reluctant to go back to that particular dealer if they're going to charge me £60 for another test.

Secondly, is the EGR component an important part of the car? I'm currently working away from home so would ideally just like to book it into the dealer who I bought the car from when I go back home, but this might be a while yet.

Cheers for your time

[hockeyshooter]

This business of charging for inspections is becoming more widespread, I'm afraid - certainly not unique to Mazda. I guess its another way for the garages to bring in money.

[vxvivaro]

Hi Shocking isn't it £60 for less than five minutes work. The Egr valve recycles exhaust gases and reburns them when the engine is underload. the valve is probably coked up with carbon deposits.If it is jammed open it could give you poor running at low revs. You have paid for the diagnostic test, Which I think was unfair, so go back to the dealer and ask them to now repair the car. As part of the warranty package you have RAC cover you could have called them out. They may have been able to Scan the ecu and locate the codes for the EGR. Worth remembering if your unlucky in the future.I would be asking the dealer for the Egr valve to be cleaned or replaced. If they are unhelpful try contacting mazda uk.

[Smthers]

Do the 1.3 engines have EGR values as well?

This can be a bugger to diagnose properly, as leaking vacuum lines "can" show up as EGR failures on some cars.

Let us know how you get on and what the outcome was.

[sarahliz]

i have had my Mazda 2 for a month and it's a 10 plate, the engine light has come on twice now and the my car is currently at the dealership. i was just wondering if anyone else was having the same problem as me with their new car. they first told me it was an issue with petrol but now they think its the accelerator pedal being faulty!!!!

needless to say they have had my car for two weeks now trying to solve the problem....

[andy_g]

i've not had the same problem as you but i have had various problems with mine Im currently going through the process of rejecting my 2 month old m2 sport because of the numerous repeated problems.

[geordiemick]

Hi just noticed this post.this is a warranty fault and the dealer should have given you your money back due to the egr valve being covered for 3 years or 60,000 miles.

[MSBurger065]

Our cars reset the angine light with every 5th start.  My car is 'chipped' that sometimes trigger the light but then it disappears after the 5th start.  If it comes on again there's a problem and the dealer should repair it at their cost.

[mkol88]

As a quick update:

The dealer has now refunded me the cost of the initial ECU test.

The car went into the garage to have a new EGR valve fitted, 2 days later, the check engine light appeared again.
Returned the car to the garage, and they determined that the "new" replacement valve was faulty! The car was then repaired with another new EGR valve a week later.

Surprise surprise the check engine light has come back on earlier this morning. Getting fed up so will have to return the car to the garage once again.

[andy_g]

The problem with so called mechanics these days is they have no diagnostic skills it's a computer says no situation.
They are so reliant on the ECU telling them what is wrong that they don't know what to do when the ECU tells them the wrong thing.
I've just had it with the car I had to have replaced the ECU said there was no faults but I was only getting 15.6 mpg and the alarm went off every time I locked it so there was a fault somewhere.

[Longshotkickdebucket]

Just had this problem. Called Mazda Assist and they sent RAC out who diagnosed it for free (as the car is only 18 months old). I reckon the dealer would have charged for this, so I'm quite pleased....

BTW, in my case I have been told it is a faulty 02 sensor. When this happens there is no signal from the sensor and the engine cannot adjust the fuel mixture - so they advised getting it rectified sooner rather than later

[shawnho]

I think this problem should feedback to the UK Mazda Home page. Let them to recall all the affected car and diagnose the problem.
I will feed this problem to Malaysia homepage too.

[Longshotkickdebucket]

The £57 charge for an inspection is highly annoying - and it will certainly be a MAJOR factor in the decision on my next car.

Refering back to my post in January, I have been getting the 'check engine' warning every few weeks since the o2 and airflow sensors were replaced under warranty. I have taken the car back to the dealer on two occasions and they have plugged it in to the diagnostic machine, declared it a past fault i.e. the signal is not re-occuring ('Catalyst sytem below threshold'), cleared it and charged me £57. After the last time, they  asked me to bring it in a week later for a more thorough investigation. On this occasion they found nothing but admitted they didn't have a the correct technician on site, so they didn't charge me. The warning light came on again last week and, this time, they gave me a free courtesy car and are finally replacing the catalyst under warranty. Don't know if I'm getting a refund for the two lots of £57.

Hopefully this will be it. I am assuming the damage to the cat occured when the sensors went initially - but shouldn't this have been spotted earlier? Fingers crossed anyway


****UPDATE 11/05/2011 Catalyst replaced under warranty. Free courtesy car for 6 days. Two lots of £57 for earlier diagnostic tests refunded in full. Just hoping the problem is solved now. Would be very happy if this is it!