21st Aug 2011, 12:48
I just had my 2003 Mazda Protege5 serviced under this recall in Canada 3305C... I was driving when the screw fell out of the shutter valve of the intake manifold, causing the engine to misfire in 1 cylinder. The valve jammed causing the valve rod to bend. See this link for details on the recall including applicable serial #'s. Even though I'm in Canada and this notice is for California, recall still applied to my vehicle based on its serial #.
http://www.protegefaq.net/tsb/3005C.pdf
Mazda has not advertised this recall, and I was lucky to find out about it by searching my symptoms online. Anyway, took it to the dealer, and they replaced my entire intake manifold free of charge.
2nd Feb 2012, 12:17
Mazda of Canada will NOT cover this at all, as this was a California issued problem (EGR valve problems were part of the intake manifold and head destruction, and Ford could not get around the EPA laws in that state, so they covered a select few on recall). As for the rest of North America, GOOD LUCK getting this fixed by Mazda unless your car was in range of the limited recall. If you look up that engine on Wikipedia, even they state this problem exists regularly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_F_engine
See under heading FS under VICS system.
As well, forget being covered on a 3rd party extended warranty, as they will often have a "loose fastener policy" in place to prevent payout. Do yourself a favor and walk away from an extended warranty with this policy, as most problems occur for this reason.
16th Nov 2008, 23:33
It seems to me that the manifold screw problem has been well documented in other forums, such as Mazda3club.com and Mazdas247.com etc. etc., and the only reason the recall stuck is because of the emissions problem that the EPA figured that the loose screw would cause, not anything to do with the motor damage it creates... They know what a loose screw in an intake manifold will do!
Unfortunately this IS a very serious problem, and Mazda should have let ALL their dealers (at least in secret) know about this VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM ASAP (we are fully registered with our dealer), so that proper inspections could have taken place by the dealers (we are fully registered owners). They know the issues with these 03 cars, and they even know about other problems such as the rear stabilizer bar bushing blowing out after 60,000 KM. It is unfortunate that I am Canadian and I can find only the American source of the recall (recall #3005c). Yet my car comes from the same place the other recall cars came from, and has the same defect that the recall mentioned. I will keep you posted on any comments from Mazda of Canada and any "fancy talk" from my local dealer.
BTW... When we purchased our car from our Mazda dealer, our 03 Protege5 had 20,000km on the clock, but when my wife showed up for her 24,000 km inspection at the same dealer, she was chastised by the dealer for not having the 18,000 inspection done, saying it would void her warranty.
My wife reminded them that she bought the car at 20,000 from the same dealership, and the matter was dropped by the dealer... Not a very good start with the dealer!
I will keep you posted about the results.
Oh BTW, my next car will be a Honda!
My old 1987 Honda Civic is still running and has over 200,000 on it, and has only had 3 brake jobs, 1 brake booster, 2 timing belts, 1 alternator, 1 radiator hose replacement and one clutch replacement!