PS Problems
 

Just so you all know I have been with out my car for 3 weeks now when I called my dealer it said it might be WEEKS before he even gets the part. As I read this this seems to be a bigger problem then I originally thought. I would say if you have an 08 Mazda and have had power steering problems I would not hold off on taking it in.

what happened to me...
 

When my power steering went out, I was on the turnpike here in jersey, i had the AC on mid-level, was caught in a bunch of traffic it was stop and go for 1 1/2 hours. When i was getting off the exit ramp of the highway is when the steering went out completely. It was hard as hell to turn seeing how i was on the ramp, going maybe 5mph trying to make the whole turn to get off. I drove it to my grandparents house which was 5 min from there, let the car sit there for 3-4 hours, and when I came back the light was off. I was able to get it back to my house, which was about 40 minutes away because the light stayed off, and the next morning i took it into the mazda dealer because I didn't trust it. They replaced the pump, charger, and lines. I was without the car for 2 weeks, they told me my dealer was one of the first in the coutry to get the pumps in.

I dont understand why they wouldn't fix your car if they couldn't see the problem. When i brought my car into mazda to get it checked out for this, my PS light wasn't on. I told them what needed to happen and its all good now.

and1bball87...Where are you from? What dealership did you go to? I am very upset I need to basically "drive" it there for them to see the issue because by the time I get it towed there it resets itself some how. I guess I need to be more persistent. Any other info would be greatly appreciated. Did your dealership mention this is a consistent problem? Thanks for all of your help!

mrspike...im in new jersey. I take it to the Maple Shade Mazda dealer in Maple Shade new jersey. There were about 4 other people he said waiting at the dealer for the same parts as me. As soon as the parts came though, they made it priority to get these new pumps in first thing in the morning before other things needed to be worked on. The part came in at 8am, the car was ready to be picked up by 10am. This dealership is phenomenal with their customer service. They hooked me up with a loaner car the morning i called and brought in the car. They called to give me updates on the car as to when the part would be in, and they called me to let me know the part was in too.

I wish they would do that for me...They still just say "we need to see that it is truly broken so we don't get a fine". I even said even if it means it causes me to crash it first?

My wife is still without her 08 MZ3 with 8000 miles. The car has been in the shop since April 24th and now we are being told that it could be the first of July before we could see the car again. The dealer does have the ps pump there and ready to put on the vehicle but they are now waiting on replacement lines to come directly from Mazda. They did not use any lines from the shop or ones that they could get from other dealers as they said that they would still be defective lines. Our service adviser told us that the lines that Mazda is making to send out now are the replacement lines for this problem. At this point I don't know whats going on but I am coming up on my third car payment without a car to show for it and it is starting to get real annoying. Mazda did give us a 6 to drive in the meantime but compared to a 3 it kinda feels like a boat.

Frostuzy,

Let me ask you this. Did it just die on you or was it starting to go like in my situation? Thank you for your insight. Is the power steering considered a 3yr/36k warranty, or is it considered part of the 5yr/60k powertrain warranty?

In my case it went out in the afternoon so we drove it to the dealer when it was acting up. When we pulled into the service kiosk I left the car running so the adviser saw the ps light was on and actually sat in the car and tried turning the wheel. We turned the car off and went in to do the paperwork and 10 min later the car was fine. They kept the car anyway but it did go out on them the next day so they kept it. We have the three year warranty on ours and everything has been covered so far. The big thing that I am chuffed about right now is I just drove by to see the car today and it is just trashed. It has been sitting outside this whole time so it is dirty as sin with the rotors all rusted up and a couple of nice big door dings from being in the service lot. I am going to give Mazda call next week and see if we can start working out a deal for the payment now. I am getting tired of paying for a car I can't drive.

call corporate mazda, tell them you're not paying for a practically new car that you can't drive because its a problem that THEIR having with their vehicles. Tell them it isn't fair. I did that and they offered to compensate me if I made my car payment. Luckily I didn't make my car payment before I got my car back so they didnt compensate me. I was expecting a longer delay like you. but try that...

I had the exact same thing happen to my 2008 Mazda Hatchback back in April. At the time I had about 11,000 miles on it. I was making a legal U-turn when the wheel just jammed and got real stiff.

I took it back to the dealership where they had it for almost 1 month because there were several cars having power steering failure too and parts were back ordered. They said that there was a contamination in the fluid lines and the pump and much of the power steering system had to be replaced.

Luckily it was under warranty and it didn't cost me a dime.

Galpin Mazda in Los Angeles (where i bought it) didn't charge me for the rental either.