general problems of the 2004 Mazda MAZDA3

There has been no accident- the vehicle is my mother in laws vehicle- my concern is while at work she has at times loaded our daughter into the vehicle- I inspected the vehicle one day while as an employee of les schwab- the driver cvc axle vibrates so bad from the boot being torn and having no lubrication- these axles power the vehicle forward and if not maintained can snap and cause damage- the wipers no longer work correctly- the tires are 2017 and old and weather cracked- potential to separate while driving or blow out on the heated pavement. Upon inspection also found that the front shocks are blown out and bouncing in the mounts under the hood- causing the tires to not have the correct contact patch on the road thus decreasing traction and control- on top of all this the vehicle hasn't been registered since 2020 and has no insurance on the vehicle- again there has been no accident. . . Yet- this is my concern- that if this vehicle continues to remain operational and on the road it not only puts the driver and occupants at risk but also other drivers- kids- teens and anyone that may be on the other end o the crash when the vehicle does snap the cvc axle or blow I out a tire.

This model car has a fuse box under the glove box known as a "passenger junction box" that has a faulty or defective relay soldered onto the circuit board. The relay is tied to lighting that includes the interior lights, exterior front parking lights, exterior rear tail lights, and the license plate light and is controlled by the left turn signal stalk (rotating switch). Based on my experience and many others (on the Mazda 3 forums), this relay has the tendency to fail and cause all of these lights tied to this relay to intermittently or permanently be disabled. There is no warning for this; the driver will only notice when driving at night that the interior illumination of the dashboard goes completely dark, which could cause disorientation and confusion as to whether or not the car is operable. Subsequently, the problem can be recreated by attempting to turn the lights on and off and there will be no response (and no clicking noise. . . It is audible when working and it switches on); the relay fails to operate and all the lights will not turn on. Driving at night without tail lights is extremely dangerous and I am surprised this has not caused serious injury from rear-ending incidents in nighttime or inclement weather situations. The serial/model number of junction box on my vehicle is bn8b-66730-c and many others on the forums have had the same issue with the same model, as well as other variations of the box. Some on the forums went as far as replacing the culprit relay (see attachment); however, at the risk of destroying the entire junction box and rendering the vehicle unusable. I finally ended up purchasing a replacement unit on ebay which corrected the issue so far and has made the lights reliable again.

The contact owns a 2004 Mazda Mazda3. The contact stated that the power steering warning light illuminated and the steering wheel became inoperable. Also, the contact mentioned that the exterior and interior lights failed. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 125,000.