Mazda has announced a recall of roughly 58,000 Mazda6 sedans in the United States and Canada. The cars in question were produced between November 3rd of 2014 and December 9th of 2015 and guilty of some shoddy welding. Cars from the 2015 and 2016 model years could have wires under the front passenger seat rubbing against welding debris, running the risk of an electrical short.
The end result is a dashboard plagued with warning lights and, in some instances, the loss of power steering. Shorting can also run the risk of disabling the airbag. Mazda has decided to conduct a voluntary safety recall even though it says the warning light illumination is in full compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
No incidents have been reported as a result of power-steering loss, however owners who notice their dashboard lighting up should be aware of that possibility.
After a potential defect was brought to Mazda’s attention in December of 2015, the automaker began installing protective pads to the seat frame as a countermeasure. The company initially determined that there was a low frequency of occurrence and safety risk but further investigations to assess the frequency of failure, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It eventually decided upon a recall of all 2015-2016 MY vehicles in late August.
Dealers will inspect the cars and install insulating tape and/or a protective shroud to shield the wires from any rubbing. Mazda says the recall is expected to start on September 29th.
[Image: Mazda]
“The end result is a dashboard plagued with warning lights ”
They really are trying to compete with Audi aint they?
Don’t look now, but Audi has been near the top of the reliability rankings for several years now. And unlike Mazda, an Audi won’t lose half it’s weight to rust after eight years.
I wont argue that Audis are more reliable, or fight rust better, but I think you took my comment a bit too seriously.
So your comment was a joke?
Seemed pretty clear to me.
MAYBE it was a joke, I dunno, it is what it is, give or take.
I smiled when I read it.
And yet, VW is forever in the bottom-half. How odd!
30 years ago I took a car to body shop to have painted, when I walked into the office there was a large poster on the wall making fun of Audi and their ‘German Engineering’. Once a brand get negative rep, deserved or not, it’s very difficult to shake.
As a longtime VW/Audi owner, I definitely appreciate this joke and believe we still have about another decade of usefulness with it.
(My parents’ 2014 Q5 is in the shop right now for intermittent power mirrors, which sounds like a first world problem until you realize the mirrors can’t be manually folded back out when the motor locks them into the folded position.)
FYI, not once in last 20 year any of my Mazdas had any plague of any warning lights. I had check engine once for a bad O2 censor.
Series 3 production for NA was moved to Hofu Japan. NA never got a diesel or a V6. Instead the choice was made to save weight & space with skyactive 4. On one of the trims there was a capacitor-thingy that stored electricity when disengaging the alternator on heavy acceleration – ievolve or something. Can’t recall the exact acronym. Shoving this fancy $hit in on the line may have reduced time for underseat welding. Who knows. Only the workers.
i-ELOOP
What does a capacitor in the engine bay have to do with wiring under the seat?
If it were Toyota… I wonder if this is the sort of thing that Toyota’s “If you see something, say something” empowerment of line workers is suppose to catch.
It could be a weld done by a robot, possibly on a sub-assembly. It’s not likely that a human would consistently make rough welds in the same spot.
Skyactiv engineering tried to save a little weight by welding only half of the steering column together.
I think there’s a typo in the first paragraph: how can Mazda recall more units than they’ve sold?