Boredom v5.2.1
Oh yeah... fucking bored... a bit too chilly to be out working on my car, and nothing compelling to do indoors.
Anyhow, for a little update... Here's how my clusterfuck of a new year has been going...
First off, a couple of weeks before Christmas my Mazda3 decides to start fucking up. I start getting a knocking noise out of the engine compartment. I try my best to diagnose what's going on, even going as far as picking up the Mazda workshop manuals for my car. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I took it up to the local Mazda dealership to have it diagnosed. The technician says that it is due to an issue with the knock sensor, and offers a quote of $310+tax for the diagnosis/parts/labor.
Well, $514 and a week later I get my car back. Now, not only is the knock WORSE than when I first brought it in, but it is now bogging down on takeoff. I brought it back to them on their request, and they gave me a complimentary loaner vehicle to use while they worked on my car. The service manager told me that they had a Mazda engineer coming in on the beginning of the following week to take a look into another vehicle that they had in the shop, and he would have the engineer take a look at it while he/she was there.
Well, while I had the loaner vehicle over the weekend, I found out real quick that the Mazda MPV minivan steers like a pregnant cow, and I ended up scraping the shit out of the lower passenger side of the bumper (bad enough to crease it inward, but not doing any damage to the bumper mounts or anything underneath.
So, that next week comes and nearly goes without hearing from the dealership on my car, so I give them a call on Thursday to see what was going on. The technician I talked to said that the engineer thought that my car is having an issue with either a piston rod bearing or a piston pin on cyl 4. And that he was putting together a quote for me on how much it would cost to swap out my motor for either a used or rebuilt engine. He told me that a USED engine would run about $3,200 with $1,100 in labor to put it in. He was also telling me that a REBUILT engine would run me $4,000.
I told them I would be by for my car as soon as I could. I reminded them once again that I am on unemployment benefits and would not be able to come up with that kind of cash.
Once I had my car back, I started doing some junkyard searches to see if I could locate another engine for a reasonable price. I was able to find a complete 2.0 engine with wiring harness and ECU for $1,100 (keep in mind that my car has the 2.3l engine, so a small downgrade...), but that it would be a direct swap for my car... Same motor and transmission mounts, and same wiring harness. I was able to find some 2.3l engines as well, but those started at $2,000 and up. Still nowhere NEAR what the fucking Mazda dealership was quoting...
So, at this point my car is parked, and I'm saving up the $1,100 to get that 2.0l engine to put in it. I may have some workshop space lined up to do the swap, so that would be incredibly schweeeeeeet...
Anyhow, that's how my new year is going... little to no job leads and expensive car repairs to deal with... YAY!!! :-P
I sincerely hope your new year is going better than mine... ;-)
Anyhow, for a little update... Here's how my clusterfuck of a new year has been going...
First off, a couple of weeks before Christmas my Mazda3 decides to start fucking up. I start getting a knocking noise out of the engine compartment. I try my best to diagnose what's going on, even going as far as picking up the Mazda workshop manuals for my car. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I took it up to the local Mazda dealership to have it diagnosed. The technician says that it is due to an issue with the knock sensor, and offers a quote of $310+tax for the diagnosis/parts/labor.
Well, $514 and a week later I get my car back. Now, not only is the knock WORSE than when I first brought it in, but it is now bogging down on takeoff. I brought it back to them on their request, and they gave me a complimentary loaner vehicle to use while they worked on my car. The service manager told me that they had a Mazda engineer coming in on the beginning of the following week to take a look into another vehicle that they had in the shop, and he would have the engineer take a look at it while he/she was there.
Well, while I had the loaner vehicle over the weekend, I found out real quick that the Mazda MPV minivan steers like a pregnant cow, and I ended up scraping the shit out of the lower passenger side of the bumper (bad enough to crease it inward, but not doing any damage to the bumper mounts or anything underneath.
So, that next week comes and nearly goes without hearing from the dealership on my car, so I give them a call on Thursday to see what was going on. The technician I talked to said that the engineer thought that my car is having an issue with either a piston rod bearing or a piston pin on cyl 4. And that he was putting together a quote for me on how much it would cost to swap out my motor for either a used or rebuilt engine. He told me that a USED engine would run about $3,200 with $1,100 in labor to put it in. He was also telling me that a REBUILT engine would run me $4,000.
I told them I would be by for my car as soon as I could. I reminded them once again that I am on unemployment benefits and would not be able to come up with that kind of cash.
Once I had my car back, I started doing some junkyard searches to see if I could locate another engine for a reasonable price. I was able to find a complete 2.0 engine with wiring harness and ECU for $1,100 (keep in mind that my car has the 2.3l engine, so a small downgrade...), but that it would be a direct swap for my car... Same motor and transmission mounts, and same wiring harness. I was able to find some 2.3l engines as well, but those started at $2,000 and up. Still nowhere NEAR what the fucking Mazda dealership was quoting...
So, at this point my car is parked, and I'm saving up the $1,100 to get that 2.0l engine to put in it. I may have some workshop space lined up to do the swap, so that would be incredibly schweeeeeeet...
Anyhow, that's how my new year is going... little to no job leads and expensive car repairs to deal with... YAY!!! :-P
I sincerely hope your new year is going better than mine... ;-)