Mazda 6 timing chain

CardinalJ

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.

Timing chain needs to be replaced. Along with repairing seized valves in engine, removing/replacing the camshaft, headgasket. Essentially the car is fairly f***ed. Labour comes to almost €1900.

I've two questions.

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

2. The dealer suggested that this is a 'relatively' common problem with Diesels of this generation. The car (allegedly) works hard to burn efficiently which leads to carbon build up... I dont know exactly what he meant by this, but we did have an issue 2 years ago with a build up of Carbon in the engine which was a €1,500 repair. Mazda covered this. I very much doubt Mazda agreed to cover the first repair if there isn't a known problem here. Does anyone know if there are timing chain issues with the 132 and more recent Mazda 6s? There certainly seem to have been in the previous model.

Thanks for your help.

J.

colm_mcm

Have you heard of that engines reputation as being a bit of a disaster?

It’s probably the most troublesome Diesel engine of the last 20 years bar none.

galwaytt

CardinalJ wrote: »

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.

Timing chain needs to be replaced. Along with repairing seized valves in engine, removing/replacing the camshaft, headgasket. Essentially the car is fairly f***ed. Labour comes to almost €1900.

I've two questions.

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

2. The dealer suggested that this is a 'relatively' common problem with Diesels of this generation. The car (allegedly) works hard to burn efficiently which leads to carbon build up... I dont know exactly what he meant by this, but we did have an issue 2 years ago with a build up of Carbon in the engine which was a €1,500 repair. Mazda covered this. I very much doubt Mazda agreed to cover the first repair if there isn't a known problem here. Does anyone know if there are timing chain issues with the 132 and more recent Mazda 6s? There certainly seem to have been in the previous model.

Thanks for your help.

J.

Tbh, the best thing that could happen your 6 now is that you get an offer of scrappage on it. That RF generation of engine is the worst mechanical object to be foisted on an unsuspecting motoring public.

It even out-does BeeEmm timing chains, and thats some feat of non-engineering in itself.

XLR 8

CardinalJ wrote: »

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.

Timing chain needs to be replaced. Along with repairing seized valves in engine, removing/replacing the camshaft, headgasket. Essentially the car is fairly f***ed. Labour comes to almost €1900.

I've two questions.

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

2. The dealer suggested that this is a 'relatively' common problem with Diesels of this generation. The car (allegedly) works hard to burn efficiently which leads to carbon build up... I dont know exactly what he meant by this, but we did have an issue 2 years ago with a build up of Carbon in the engine which was a €1,500 repair. Mazda covered this. I very much doubt Mazda agreed to cover the first repair if there isn't a known problem here. Does anyone know if there are timing chain issues with the 132 and more recent Mazda 6s? There certainly seem to have been in the previous model.

Thanks for your help.

J.

I was going to buy a 2015 one of those last year. On the test drive it drove & behaved beautifully and the car had every extra fitted. However while it was idling in the yard of the dealer it started billowing out smoke like a train. I was seriously disappointed but I dodged a bullet. A bit of research and I now would never buy one. Such a shame as it really was a lovely car.

CoBo55

CardinalJ wrote: »

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.

Timing chain needs to be replaced. Along with repairing seized valves in engine, removing/replacing the camshaft, headgasket. Essentially the car is fairly f***ed. Labour comes to almost €1900.

I've two questions.

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

2. The dealer suggested that this is a 'relatively' common problem with Diesels of this generation. The car (allegedly) works hard to burn efficiently which leads to carbon build up... I dont know exactly what he meant by this, but we did have an issue 2 years ago with a build up of Carbon in the engine which was a €1,500 repair. Mazda covered this. I very much doubt Mazda agreed to cover the first repair if there isn't a known problem here. Does anyone know if there are timing chain issues with the 132 and more recent Mazda 6s? There certainly seem to have been in the previous model.

Thanks for your help.

J.

Welcome to the Mazda experience... Have you the money to get rid of it? Seriously consider it if you can as its days are numbered. Not what you were wanting to hear I'd imagine but that's the reality.

CardinalJ

CoBo55 wrote: »

Welcome to the Mazda experience... Have you the money to get rid of it? Seriously consider it if you can as its days are numbered. Not what you were wanting to hear I'd imagine but that's the reality.

Ah, there's having the money V wanting to write off a lot of money. A car that was worth maybe 8k on Monday morning now worth f all.

Didnt know they had this level of problems until was reading up last night.

Seems incredible that a €35K car can just throw in the towel in under 8 years and that's accepted. Especially given its in otherwise immaculate condition.

We're having it out with Mazda this morning to see if we can claw back any ground.

Thanks for all your replies.

HBC08

Is this the case with the Mazda 6 for a certain time period or model or is it right up to today's?The Mrs is considering one (she might aswell at this stage as she's had me research almost every other car on the road!)
Was looking at a 16 or 17 for her as they did a facelift then I think.

bazz26

Any generation of Mazda6 diesel is a powder keg. Get a petrol one and it will be fine.

HBC08

bazz26 wrote: »

Any generation of Mazda6 diesel is a powder keg. Get a petrol one and it will be fine.

Not 1 Mazda 6 petrol (2016-18) on Donedeal!
She probably needs a diesel but I don't think we could risk a Mazda 6 having read up a bit on them,it's a shame because theyre a lovely looking car and some are well specced.

Vicxas

HBC08 wrote: »

Not 1 Mazda 6 petrol (2016-18) on Donedeal!
She probably needs a diesel but I don't think we could risk a Mazda 6 having read up a bit on them,it's a shame because theyre a lovely looking car and some are well specced.

I had a 2011 Diesel 6 and never had troubles with the engine.

Seems like when they brought the first gen of Skyactiv engines in it all went to ****

colm_mcm

The first generation 6 certainly had a bad reputation. We wouldn’t retail them back in the day and they were fairly new back then.
I can’t remember the exact issue on them old ones but think it was related to oil dilution.

CoBo55

CardinalJ wrote: »

Ah, there's having the money V wanting to write off a lot of money. A car that was worth maybe 8k on Monday morning now worth f all.

Didnt know they had this level of problems until was reading up last night.

Seems incredible that a €35K car can just throw in the towel in under 8 years and that's accepted. Especially given its in otherwise immaculate condition.

We're having it out with Mazda this morning to see if we can claw back any ground.

Thanks for all your replies.

They're worth feck all anyway as no one will touch one. Unless Mazda are picking up a sizeable chunk of the bill I'd walk away from it, not nice to hear at anytime but unfortunately that's the reality. Did the chain break?

R.O.R

It got to nearly 8 years old, and 150,000km without cr@pping itself?

That is what I'd term a miracle.

Mazda weren't the best to deal with when they sh@t themselves within 18 months, so I'm afraid there's no hope for the OP of getting anything from Mazda.

v0ldeMort

CardinalJ wrote: »

Ah, there's having the money V wanting to write off a lot of money. A car that was worth maybe 8k on Monday morning now worth f all.

Didnt know they had this level of problems until was reading up last night.

Seems incredible that a €35K car can just throw in the towel in under 8 years and that's accepted. Especially given its in otherwise immaculate condition.

We're having it out with Mazda this morning to see if we can claw back any ground.

Thanks for all your replies.

Had similar dilemma with a CX5 - same 2.2. engine.
I put 7k into trying to make it right.
I wish I didn't bother.

btw Mazda will be no help.

Turbolounge

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have you heard of that engines reputation as being a bit of a disaster?

It’s probably the most troublesome Diesel engine of the last 20 years bar none.

Even if the chain was fixed, don't they have head gasket issues too?

CoBo55

v0ldeMort wrote: »

Had similar dilemma with a CX5 - same 2.2. engine.
I put 7k into trying to make it right.
I wish I didn't bother.

btw Mazda will be no help.

Op, don't be like this poster, what he says is spot on.

grogi

CardinalJ wrote: »

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

1. The constant DPF regeneration cycle leaves diesel in the engine oil.
2. Contaminated engine oil looses its lubrication properties,
3. Accelerated wear in the engine happens.
4. Worn chain snaps.

Abcryan123

Does anyone know whether the oil dilution happens due to incomplete DPF regenerations or regenerations in general being a problem in some cars?

Borzoi

CardinalJ wrote: »

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.
.

Yep, known issue. Your full Mazda dealer history should work for you.
I researched the issue previously when I had a 131 with the same engine. Thankfully I never had an issue. If you Google it, you'll find a UK sliding scale of how much Mazda will pay. Good luck

cuculainn

CardinalJ wrote: »

Hi there,

Looking for any advice more knowledgeable
people may have.

Our 132 Mazda 6 2.2 Diesel cut out in traffic yesterday. We have had it since new.

Towed to Mazda dealer than has serviced it since new.

Timing chain needs to be replaced. Along with repairing seized valves in engine, removing/replacing the camshaft, headgasket. Essentially the car is fairly f***ed. Labour comes to almost €1900.

I've two questions.

1. How can a 7.5y/o car that has a full service history, 150,000km and no engine warning lights etc just kick the bucket. It all seems to be down to the timing chain.

2. The dealer suggested that this is a 'relatively' common problem with Diesels of this generation. The car (allegedly) works hard to burn efficiently which leads to carbon build up... I dont know exactly what he meant by this, but we did have an issue 2 years ago with a build up of Carbon in the engine which was a €1,500 repair. Mazda covered this. I very much doubt Mazda agreed to cover the first repair if there isn't a known problem here. Does anyone know if there are timing chain issues with the 132 and more recent Mazda 6s? There certainly seem to have been in the previous model.

Thanks for your help.

J.

Did you get a letter last year for a recall on some part that tended to get blocked with carbon??? We got the letter after we had the car sold and after we had replaced the engine for 3.5k☹️☹️

Last year we had a 180 brake 132 platinum spec Mazda 6 which I loved on which the head gasket went with 100k miles on the clock. My wife mostly drove it, it wasn't driven hard by her, it got the odd blast by me to maintain it stop carbon build up. The year before i had DPF issues with it, couldn't get it to do a DPF regen had to bring it to an expert to force it regen. I only ever got 8k miles out of it between services before it had diluted the oil, the car got plenty of long spins with at least 100km+ each way long spin to college at least every 2 weeks. I just traded it at a main dealer. My advice is to get shut ASAP.

punisher5112

Only way I'd be fixing is if Mazda was giving a nice chunk towards it.....

Facebook, name and shame if you get nowhere, get onto likes of talk to Joe and Niall boylan, they'd love to have something like that for air time.

grogi

Abcryan123 wrote: »

Does anyone know whether the oil dilution happens due to incomplete DPF regenerations or regenerations in general being a problem in some cars?

Oil dilution happens with every DPF regeneration cycle. So the more incomplete cycles, the more diluted oil will be.

Its severity however varies from brand to brand, with some being virtually undetectable, to visible increase of oil level on the dipstick. Mazda is the latter.

CardinalJ

cuculainn wrote: »

Did you get a letter last year for a recall on some part that tended to get blocked with carbon??? We got the letter after we had the car sold and after we had replaced the engine for 3.5k☹️☹️

We had a build up of Carbon in the engine cleaned when the engine started stuttering once. There had been a recall but for some reason dealer hadn't done it during prev service or two. Mazda paid for it and we weren't charged.

colm_mcm

punisher5112 wrote: »

Only way I'd be fixing is if Mazda was giving a nice chunk towards it.....

Facebook, name and shame if you get nowhere, get onto likes of talk to Joe and Niall boylan, they'd love to have something like that for air time.

Talk to Joe

cuculainn

CardinalJ wrote: »

We had a build up of Carbon in the engine cleaned when the engine started stuttering once. There had been a recall but for some reason dealer hadn't done it during prev service or two. Mazda paid for it and we weren't charged.

Either way I would be inclined to cut my losses....it was heart braking, cause the car was the nicest we had. Still love the look of them every time I see one.

galwaytt

CardinalJ wrote: »

Ah, there's having the money V wanting to write off a lot of money. A car that was worth maybe 8k on Monday morning now worth f all.

Didnt know they had this level of problems until was reading up last night.

Seems incredible that a €35K car can just throw in the towel in under 8 years and that's accepted. Especially given its in otherwise immaculate condition.

We're having it out with Mazda this morning to see if we can claw back any ground.

Thanks for all your replies.

Many moons ago my Mazda died and I had to scrap it. Lost my shirt on it.

You're not alone. A colleagues 520d died last week - timing chain - and wrote it off. Its a 2010 he bought brand new. That's €4,400 a year down the drain. And it barely made its 10th birthday.

My Porsche is worth more now than I paid for it 8 yrs ago. Mazdas make Porsche driving look cheap tbh.

FGR

CardinalJ wrote: »

We had a build up of Carbon in the engine cleaned when the engine started stuttering once. There had been a recall but for some reason dealer hadn't done it during prev service or two. Mazda paid for it and we weren't charged.

It's frightening how Mazda might try to avoid taking responsibility for a timing chain when it didn't last half as long as some timing belts would !

galwaytt

HBC08 wrote: »

Is this the case with the Mazda 6 for a certain time period or model or is it right up to today's?The Mrs is considering one (she might aswell at this stage as she's had me research almost every other car on the road!)
Was looking at a 16 or 17 for her as they did a facelift then I think.

Oh God no - don't.

Nothing with the word 'Mazda' and 'diesel's on it.

Buy a petrol one - it's like a car made by a different company completely.

HBC08

galwaytt wrote: »

Oh God no - don't.

Nothing with the word 'Mazda' and 'diesel's on it.

Buy a petrol one - it's like a car made by a different company completely.

Funnily enough I'm looking at an MX5 RF for myself next year so I might be sticking to your advise!

Turbolounge

galwaytt wrote: »

Oh God no - don't.

Nothing with the word 'Mazda' and 'diesel's on it.

Buy a petrol one - it's like a car made by a different company completely.

Also, nothing with a rotary engine.