car trouble

I understand I normally blog about baby products, but I have to share my frustrations about my car issues. Right before we went on our family trip oversees my Mazda Protege5 broke down. Hubby was merging onto the highway when the engine started to stutter. Since we were only a couple days away from leaving for two weeks we did not bring it to the local car repair shop until after our return.

A little background on my car. I love my car and I am the original proud owner of this Mazda 2003. I never had any issues. All the trouble began last may when one of the spark plug blew. The repair shop did not have a good reason, but replaced all 4 plugs. Couple of months later the car acted up again. They replaced several parts that were related to the engine. They also found a mystery bolt and they told me they had no idea were it came from. . The car was running fine, so I did not think anything off it. I spend $2000 on the car and truly believed it would run for a long time.

Back to the present. After running some test's Andy's repair shop had the nerve to tell us we needed a complete new engine and by the way all the work they had done several months ago are not under warranty. My husband was very upset and we towed the car to the Mazda dealership. They told us the valve had a default error and in rare occasions will break and the bolt will get loose. They found 4 bolt in the manifold and that needed to be replaced. Still a costly repair, but it was better then replacing the whole engine. It also explained the spark plug issue from last May and the challenge in November with the mystery bolt inside the engine.

So last Thursday we picked up the car. I asked the service manager if there was anything I needed to know before I left the car lot. His suggestion a transmission flush with the next oil change, everything else was great. I didn't even made it home without the engine stuttering again. Mazda told us to replace the air boot. We picked up the part and installed it. Full anticipation we started the engine again. .......

It was still shaking. Today the mechanic stopped by the house to try to fix it on site with no luck. The car is towed back to Mazda. I did some researching on the web and come to find out there was a safety recall on the valve and the manifold. I contacted Mazda USA and am awaiting reply to see if Mazda is responsible for the initial costs of replacing the valve and manifold.

In the meanwhile I still have no car. Very Frustrating!!!!!