Wow, I think the transmission in my car exploded this morning.
- Thread starter Tiltsta
- Start date
Not yet. I had it towed there, and I am waiting for them to call me and tell me what the hell happened to it. I never went to the dealer, as the car failed about 40 miles from them, so I got picked up by my wife and went to work (we work at the same place and she was only about a mile from where my car died). I expect to hear from them any minute now.
I always assumed the mazadaspeed3 versions were built with higher quality parts (in addition to the high performance) since it's targeted for a more demanding crowd. Maybe not?
The engine mounts in my Mazda went bad, but that was inevitable, due to time alone. I think, though, you would have felt this failure building up in your newer car long before it reached a catastrophic event.
From what I have read online, some people notice some transmission clunking and such, and for some people it just lets go with no warning. From what I gather, the mounts are hydraulic and filled with fluid, and some leak slowly and people get progressive clunking and such, but every once and a while they just fail dramatically and leak out all the fluid at once. This drops the trans/engine about 2 -3 inches onto a brace, and rips up the diff, CV, etc. I wonder if this is what happened to mine. Car had no issues at all prior to this, and with only 40K miles, it seems unlikely to be a clutch issue. The events I listed in the original post happened in about 2 minutes, so it was a very fast failure.
FWIW, the mounts in the speed 3 are different from those in the regular 3.
Back from Mazda this morning. Looks like a blown hydraulic engine mount, and a sheared transmission mount bolt as a result of the blown engine mount. Service dude said the tech wants to pull the engine and make sure there is no other damage to the drivetrain. In general, he thought it looked like I stopped it soon enough to avoid major damage, but they want to make sure everything is OK underneath. Good news is this is completely covered by the power train warranty, so it will not cost me anything, AND he told me to email him a scan of the tow truck receipt, and they would pick up that tab as well. Whew.
paulskirocks
Blue Zone Compliant
What the heck is a hydraulic engine mount?!
A rubber bladder filled with oil on which the engine is mounted. In many cars they are solid rubber, but the speed3 uses a hydraulic mount to limit the vibrations and violence of a direct injected 300 hp turbo engine in such a tiny car. I think they are fairly common in luxury type cars, as they reduce engine 'feel' through the chassis.
Here is a diagram of one from Lexus. '
paulskirocks
Blue Zone Compliant
OK... I was picturing some kind of pump and hoses...
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
A rubber bladder filled with oil on which the engine is mounted. In many cars they are solid rubber, but the speed3 uses a hydraulic mount to limit the vibrations and violence of a direct injected 300 hp turbo engine in such a tiny car. I think they are fairly common in luxury type cars, as they reduce engine 'feel' through the chassis.
Here is a diagram of one from Lexus. '
many cite they decrease throtle feedback, increase wheelhop on fwd drivetrains & introduce a degree of vagueness into the transmission shifts (course none of which are concerns w/ luxobarges but an interesting choice on a balls to the wall hatch). They are also more failure prone than a solid urethane mount....as you may be experiencing
Mine is a 2008, so after the rear engine mount recall. They diagnosed it as a failed passenger side hydraulic engine mount which led to a sheared bolt on the lower engine/transmission mount as well. The tech wants to pull spend a little more time on monday making sure nothing else failed in the engine/trans, so they are planning to pull the motor Monday morning.
Absolutely, there is a big aftermarket list of companies making urethane mounts for this car for exactly the reasons you mention. Problem is, with a small, hi-po motor int eh front, there is considerable idle vibration with these mounts. The engine idles like it has a very aggressive cam timing, even with VVT type stuff, and this makes it look pretty darn uncomfortable as a daily driver. I've seen videos of peoples keys dancing around like someone is shaking them, and glasses of water splashing all over the place.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
While that may be true of the mazda, that's not really the case in all higher perf small liter cars. FWIW, solid urethane mounts/inserts are available in different hardness specifically to trade-off between stiffness and vibration transfer. I can't think of too many sports cars that use hydrolic mounts off hand. IIRC Porsche uses/used them on several models. I'm running ~250 HP on solid OEM VW mounts.
Well, the diagnosis final diagnosis is as follows; broken motor mount, sheared transmission mount bolt, and...in the words of the mazda mechanic 'internal transmission failure, catastrophic'. Mazda opted to replace the entire transmission, clutch, and flywheel with new parts rather than try to rebuild. All the parts are FINALLY here, and I should have the car back late tomorrow or early Friday. Apparently, the transmission lay shaft broke several gears, and the transmission housing was full of metal shards. 
Original transmission is on the way back to mazda for an autopsy. The significant delay is repair time was due to the time required for mazda to ship a new 6 speed mazdaspeed unit from Japan.
Original transmission is on the way back to mazda for an autopsy. The significant delay is repair time was due to the time required for mazda to ship a new 6 speed mazdaspeed unit from Japan.
Well, the diagnosis final diagnosis is as follows; broken motor mount, sheared transmission mount bolt, and...in the words of the mazda mechanic 'internal transmission failure, catastrophic'. Mazda opted to replace the entire transmission, clutch, and flywheel with new parts rather than try to rebuild. All the parts are FINALLY here, and I should have the car back late tomorrow or early Friday. Apparently, the transmission lay shaft broke several gears, and the transmission housing was full of metal shards.
Original transmission is on the way back to mazda for an autopsy. The significant delay is repair time was due to the time required for mazda to ship a new 6 speed mazdaspeed unit from Japan.
Fucking rad. Achievement trans wrecking.
Prages
User Error
Yep, that's pretty much what happened when the diff let go on my Ranger.
Prages
User Error
Well, the diagnosis final diagnosis is as follows; broken motor mount, sheared transmission mount bolt, and...in the words of the mazda mechanic 'internal transmission failure, catastrophic'. Mazda opted to replace the entire transmission, clutch, and flywheel with new parts rather than try to rebuild. All the parts are FINALLY here, and I should have the car back late tomorrow or early Friday. Apparently, the transmission lay shaft broke several gears, and the transmission housing was full of metal shards.
Okay, ignore my last post.
The mechanic, and the region service guy think the transmission failed first and the mounts and stuff were a consequence of the transmission lay shaft cracking or splintering. It certainly is achievement level destruction when they want to study what happened.
An engineer from mazda called me to discuss exactly what I was doing when it died and other facts about the failure. He told me "It is covered under warranty, and corporate has signed off on all of the paperwork. I will not say anything, but I need to know so we can get a better idea of what happened, so, did you miss a gear or something? Were you drag racing? Were you really just driving along on the highway? I ask as the same transmission is used by club racers, and lots of people put 400+ HP through it, and yours is the first lay shaft failure we have seen on a street car, heck, any car".
An engineer from mazda called me to discuss exactly what I was doing when it died and other facts about the failure. He told me "It is covered under warranty, and corporate has signed off on all of the paperwork. I will not say anything, but I need to know so we can get a better idea of what happened, so, did you miss a gear or something? Were you drag racing? Were you really just driving along on the highway? I ask as the same transmission is used by club racers, and lots of people put 400+ HP through it, and yours is the first lay shaft failure we have seen on a street car, heck, any car".