think i got a lemon
 

i sure hope i'm wrong abou tthis, 'cause i love this car.
here's a little history.......
the car is only a year and a half old, 22k miles, and only a couple of long road trips.
first thing i noticed was a bad pull to the left at 10k miles, took it in and had the dealer "realign" the front end. then at about 15k the clutch chatter started and the syncros went out in the tranny between 2 and 3. now i noticed that old framilliar grinding between 2 and 3 agin(and yes i'm using the clutch). and the car is now pulling to the left agin. the other day i was rotating the tires and noticed EXCESSIVE wear on the right front (down to the wear bars). the left front was at 60% or better, and the two on the rear were like 90%. now i understand that the fronts will wear faster but the car only has 20k miles on it!!!???? the tranny problems are what concerns me the most. i can go to a private more reputabile shop for the realignment (a guy that i know and trust). i'm very nerotic about keeping up with the records on the car. got all the recipts for dealer oil changes, and services. hell i've even got all my recipts from autozone for the oil and other things that i've bought for this car. any help or advise would be great. PLEASE no flaming. i'm looking for constructive help before my time runs out to file a claim for the texas lemon law.

'02 p5
pure white
mazdaspeed axelback pipe
and some dark ass tint

is it a lease or your car?

Re: think i got a lemon
 

I had a similar problem as well - my car pulled hardto the right and then therefore had more wear on the front left tire. I had 3 different alignments done by 3 shops. I replaced all the tires and that pretty much completely fixed my problem - and I know of a friend who had the same problem and new tires helped. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the bridgestone potenza's being lemons and not the actual car?

You might try convincing your dealership that it's not an alignment problem and maybe they'll replace the tires for free while it's still under warranty. If you haven't already tried that.

As for the tranny problem - I'm pretty sure that's been discussed here before, but I don't know enough about it to be of any help.

it can only be considered a lemon if you take it to the dealer for the same thing and they can't fix the problem. ie: if your tranny goes, and you return the car to the dealer, they replace it, and it goes again. so, you return the car to the dealer, they replace it, and it goes again. the specifics are included in the lemon law written for your state. you do not have a lemon if your car goes in for different problems and they can fix each one.

for more reliable information, it would be best to consult with a professional.

Reason I traded my cavalier was simply because it was in the garage every week. Under the Lemon law, thye have to repair a specific problem several times with no success before it can be considered under the lemon law.

My advice to you is to keep bring it back to the dealer and get them to keep trying to fix it without mentioning the lemon law. After 3 attempts call head office people and complain (your now on record) . Dealer and head office is aware of the problem and even when out of waranty, those alighnments should cost you nothing, tires are warantied too. Keep biattttching. They'll get tired. If all out fails, then threaten law suit. But really just keep bringing the car back in and let the Dealer fail at the repair.

I am on my second set of potenzas (these Z-rated) with no alignment or wear problems at all. However, a new set of tires could fix the issue; but it doesn't sound likely with that kind of wear pattern. IM very HO

look up your lemon laws in texas as they are state laws...there is a website that gives info on lemons

usually its a two prong test...if your car is in the shop for more than a total month out of 12 months or it has the same problem resulting in the same fix at least 3 times you can consider it a lemon and the mfgr and dealer have to pay your way out of the car (you then have a choice to get a new one or walk away from that deal and start over elsewhere (different dealer, make or model, etc)

Re: think i got a lemon
 

Those will come in handy if you need to prove your case in court.

Lemon laws vary by state, but usually if you can show that you are deprived of use of the vehicle for an unreasonable amount of time, you've got a strong argument. You might want to total up the car's downtime before your next trip to the dealer and casually mention that they've had possession of your car for x days out of y that you've owned it.

A call to the Mazda Mother Ship might be worthwhile as well.

Yeah. The Potenzas are high quality tires, no doubt about it. But even high quality tire manufacturer's can pump out a very small percentage of tires with undetectable defects. Theoretically, it would only take one defected tire to make your car go haywire. I'm just speaking from experience when I say that replacing the tires helped the wear and pull problem, but his situation might be different.

Most likely, if I got a new set of Potenza's I wouldn't have a problem with them, unless I'm just cursed. :bat:

Re: think i got a lemon
 

is this the 1st time you are rotating those tires? The dunlops
need frequent rotations to perform the best. Seeing as how the
backs were at 90% I would say you skipped a couple of important
tire rotations.

you should at the least do a rotation every other oil change.