I have a persistent problem with electrical system on my 2003 Protégé, which the dealer is at a loss to make right. History - After a 3-month idle period the car had to be jump-started but the three year-old battery failed to take a charge. It was replaced but the Protégé still would not start. A local shop (not the dealer) flat towed it and was able to “repair” it but the new battery still seemed not to take a charge and AAA replaced it.

After a few weeks this new battery was also slowly loosing power. The car was taken to the Mazda dealer who claimed that the alternator was bad and replaced it under warrantee but six weeks later the hard starting, dimming lights and such indicated that the new alternator was not charging the battery; back to the dealer, who again replaced the alternator. Six weeks or so later the process was repeated. The service-writer claimed that his “best man” thoroughly checked out the electrical system for bad grounds, frayed wires etc. and found no problems. As I drove off from the dealer this morning the car momentarily cut out three times (all power was lost to the engine, radio, A/C etc) and I was just able to return to the dealer. Their solution is to again replace the alternator! I told them no, find and fix the problem.

I’m wondering is the dealer is reluctant to find the problem because he is only reimbursed by Mazda for the warranted part and scheduled installation time and not for diagnosing the problem?

 

well...at this point, if i were you, i would try to diagnose the problem myself. now, youmay or maynot be mechanically inclined, but i will just let you know up front that, if you put me on an electrical problem, i would look like a chimp trying to disarm a bomb. electrical systems are not my strong suit at all, but i can fix simple electrical problems it is just a matter of looking in the right place.
1. on the negative connection of the battery, there is a ground wire that grounds directly onto the body of the car. check both ends of that wire and see if it is loose at all. any play here will cause major problems.
2. if that shows nothing, check the system for shorts. you can do this simply by putting a charged battery in the car and connecting it. if the battery sparks when you plug it in, that means that there is a short somewhere. at this point, i would recommend that you get someone to help you find the short while you connect and disconnect the battery.
3. find a new dealership to do warranty work for you.

 

A new battery was installed in our 2005 Mazda 3 but with reversed polarity. [Battery caps had been switched on new battery.]
Horn and blowers started in reverse.
Switched to correct polarity, power was evident to vehicle [console lights on with key turn] but car did not attempt to start. Battery re-checked "good" by auto supply shop. What could be wrong at this point?

 

What you need to do to start off with is get a load test done you can get this done at any shop there they can single out the battery from the alternator, while your car is running you should have 14.7 volts and about 90amp's on the alternator because you will always run about 15-20% less than what the alternator says it puts out. now if the load test says your battery is good then no need to change that and if it fails on the alternator then you need to look into that now that you have changed it about 3 times clearly the alternator is not the problem. But do you have a battery light on? because if you do that means it is an alternator problem because that light has nothing to do with the battery. My best guess to start off with if you do have that light on is to look on the back of the alternator you will have a yellow,black,red wire check to make sure all those wires are connected in the plug and not broken because one even cracked wire or partly broken wire will cause your problem to happen. let me know what you find, one of my strong points are in electrical