Mouse Troubles
 

Anyone else having problems with mice eating the blower motor wiring causing the resistor pack to fry? (2004 Mazda3 5door with 12000 miles). The dealer has had two trys at fixing this, the first at my expense ($700) and the second under warranty. Each "repair" lasted only a few days and now Mr. Dealer wants a third try to "pull the whole dash out" at "$90 per hour until we find the additional damage... It will be VERY costly." Mr. Dealer says I will have to pay for this adventure as well. Contacted Mazda North America (no response yet) and I'm looking a Hondas!

uhh yeah...cuz honda is going to pay for mice chewing on wires ??? :cookoo:

taht sucks, but dude that's just tough luck, not a faulty product or bad customer service....

True enough. I accepted my mouse fate and paid for the repair. Mr. Dealer claimed mouse damage and I took him at his word. They cleaned everything up and replaced/repaired as needed to the tune of $700. That lasted a few days and failed again in exactly the same fashion (no blower on 3 lowest speeds, works fine on high). Mr. Dealer tried again, at no charge this time, with the same result. A few days then no low speeds again. He now expects me to pay again for his advanced education. Perhaps a properly engineered ventilation system (the damage is inside the vent system) and/or better technician training and dealership responsibility would have cured the problem on the first itteration and I wouldn't be tilting at windmills.

Honda and their dealers may treat their customers the same. I don't know yet. But the Honda dealer is 1 one mile away and the Mazda dealer is 30. I can walk home from Honda instead of having to add rental car expenses to an already unbalanced equation.

Doesn't seem to matter which dealership or repair shop it is, you're always gonna have to pay for them to 'find the problem'. No one wants to work for free.

Unless you have a private mechanic who can help you out, you're probably stuck paying too much. :/