That stinks...figuratively and literally.
I'm surprised she didn't smell it burning on the muffler either in the vehicle or getting out.
Looks like the issue will be solved though which is what counts.

 

My guess is she didn't associate the smell with something wrong and her senses were not heightened, more acute ? Perhaps because Alex has wisely been using protection?

 

Hahahaha yep she didn't notice anything as far as scent goes with the fluid burning. We have to drive the car from Florida to Georgia where she's moving up to next week, so I'm praying it will survive 500 miles of mostly highway driving without traffic. There's a Mazda dealer 10 minutes from where she will be moving to, so we will bring it there and get the diagnosis. From there we'' contact Mazda HQ to escalate the case they created and see what happens!

 

We finally got settled in Georgia and dropped off the car at the dealer this morning. They showed us that now both the valve cover and timing cover are leaking oil and need new gaskets. That's pending whatever they say about the rear differential. They said they could try to open and clean up the rear differential, replace the seal, and put new fluid, but I don't think that will resolve it. When coming to a stop, the rear diff groans a good amount which makes me think it has to get replaced. We'll pick up the car later and try to see what they recommend. I'm gonna have to call Mazda HQ later to escalate the case on the rear diff and tell them about the oil leaks on the car with only 71k miles

 

That diff has a collapsed bearing and considering the distance it's been driven would surley have done damage to the ring gear and pinion.

 

Yep the dealer told us that it's gonna need full replacement. I was supposed to get a call today from a case manager at Mazda HQ, but they never reached out. I'm gonna probably need to call them tomorrow and just check in to see what the status is. We're really hoping they can help. Considering we have four CX-5s (three 2021 models) in the family, the seals definitely have something defective with them on this car at only 72k miles now. It was funny to see the rear diff replacement costs almost the exact same as our private mechanic down in Tampa.

 

I don't think it was a faulty seal but more likely a faulty bearing then when the play got excessive the seal could no longer hold the oil back. The bearing has a certain amount of preload and too mouch or too little can cause bearing failure.

 

Just a quick update. I spoke to a case manager at Mazda HQ. They're going to have another case manager from the Georgia region reach out to me later this week. From there they will contact the dealership we had the car diagnosed at and confirmed it needed repairs. They told me on the phone that we fulfill a lot of the factors that would make it more likely to get some help/goodwill on the repairs (service work, going to dealerships, having multiple Mazda's, etc). I attached an image showing to quoted prices for the rear diff replacement, timing cover gasket, and valve cover gasket. The timing cover gasket costs so much because they have to pull the entire engine out from the bottom of the frame. Didn't even know it required that much work!

I was also told about something else we could potentially do if we wanted to forgo the repairs. They said we could go another route where they give us a full trade value certificate (even with the bad rear diff and gaskets) for the car that could be redeemed on a new car at a Mazda dealer. From there they would give us a new car at employee pricing, which I'm assuming is like 10% off. If the repairs would cost nearly what it would be to get a new car, we may explore this option.


The quoted work repair for the car.

 

I think some of those employee price deals are pretty good so if you were close to upgrading the deal might be worth looking at.

 

Interesting dealers don't really have "dealer vehicle pricing" for more than obvious reasons????
But I know what they will do.
This is not to say you won't get treated unfairly?