general problems of the 2003 Mazda MAZDA6

2003 Mazda6 model cars were built with faulty throttle bodies. Unaware of this, I bought one of these vehicles and immediately began experiencing issues with it. When driving very slowly, under 15 mph, the car will suddenly throttle, accelerating it in bursts even when applying the brakes. That issue is problematic but relatively minor; however, there is a much more dangerous issue the faulty throttle body creates. When driving at any speed, the faulty throttle body can cause the engine to cut out without warning. My wife was driving with our kids in the car the first time we had the engine cut out while driving (soon after purchasing the car). Luckily, she was driving in a residential area at 25 mph. The engine has cut out on me while driving 65 mph on the freeway. I was forced to coast through freeway traffic to the shoulder in order to stop the car and restart the engine. The engine has cut out, without warning, at several speeds. There is no rhyme to when it will cut out and no indication it's going to cut out ahead of time. I spent over $500 trying to solve the problem with mechanics unsure what was wrong. Then a mechanic happened to have an old service bulletin (sb), dated 5/18/2006, from Mazda that stated throttle bodies with the markings aa, ab, or ba at the end of their serial numbers (as is the case with the one in my car) are "no good". Because the part is labeled "no good" under Mazda letterhead, I figured there must have been a recall issued before I owned the car that the previous owner somehow missed. I took the car in to a Mazda dealership where I was assured no recall has ever been issued on the part and in order to replace it, the cost will be over $1,000. A recall must be made on this extremely dangerous and faulty, by Mazda's own admission, part before unsuspecting people are injured or killed, if that hasn't happened already.

I purchased a 2003 Mazda 6 about a month ago, and I have had the hard shifting problems and the temp gauge going up to high all the time and floating back down. I was not informed of this and other recalls of this model and I have been denied to get the problem fixed. The dealer where I bought it said they flashed it a couple times but it is not stated o n my repair receipt. I feel that I am driving a dangerous car and something needs to be done!!!! I am not going to keep driving this car and I feel I can take it back because my first payment is not due yet. Be it said that this car has been in the shop 4 times since day one! they still will not fix it and it is under warranty. This is a rip off and this model is unsafe and these models should be taken off of the market!!!.

Traveling at speeds of 30-60 mph during any type of traffic (stop and go, freeway speeds, etc), my 2003 Mazda6 will suddenly go into a "safe or limp" mode characterized by abrupt loss of power with no ability to accelerate. The rpms drop to between 1000 and 1300 and fluctuate quickly between the two numbers. I have had to quickly press the clutch, turn the car off and back on to regain normal function. When taken to a mechanic, the root cause was determined to be a defective throttle body. Upon more research (including this site), this does not appear to be an uncommon issue for this model of Mazda.

On several models of Mazda 6's Mazda has issued a TSB for the problem which is a defective throttle position sensor. I have read thousands of complaints by consumers. Mazda has made a new part yet not recalled the old part. When this part fails you lose all acceleration power to the vehicle. The way to reset this is to turn off the motor and turn it right back on. I was driving on a two-lane highway crossed over the broken double yellow line to pass another vehicle when this defective part failed and I lost all acceleration. Thankfully, I had just enough time to be able to allow the same car I was passing to pass me and I pulled off the roadway. The car worked fine for the rest of that trip it occurred again on the freeway in the fast lane. I contacted Mazda corporate customer care they advised me that they were aware of the issue but had not issued a recall at this time.

Traveling at freeway speeds in CA on the san francisco bay bridge during evening traffic, my 2003 Mazda6 suddenly went into "safe or limp" mode. This caused abrupt loss of power with no ability to accelerate, which almost caused a multi vehicle accident. When taken to a mechanic, the root cause was a code dtc p2135 for a defective throttle body. Mazda admits 3 (three) versions of their throttle body for that vehicle defective with automatic discard if there is a mil with dtc p2135(per technical service bulletin no. 01-016/06 issued 05/18/2006 by Mazda north american operations), and throttle body markings "aa","ab","ba". Mine is an "aa". Obviously Mazda admits that these are defective, but only replaced them under warranty and my vehicle is not under warranty any longer. They call the new part an "upgraded version". My vehicle has done this (safe mode) several times, so now it is parked until I can get it fixed (quoted price for repair is $714 from Mazda dealer). These incidents creates an extremely dangerous situation and I feel very lucky that I was not involved in an accident when this happened to me, and luckily no one was injured, it could have been a very dangerous situation. I feel Mazda has made a technical service bulletin admitting that this part is defective and it can cause danger and possibly loss of life. Mazda needs to be forced to make a recall and replace these parts at no cost to the consumer. Defective part - throttle body with markings "aa", "ab", "ba" mine is "aa".

Engine seized up as it was sitting in driveway warming up. Oil was all over the driveway under the car after the seized up.

Since I first purchased my Mazda there has been a faulty fan control module that shorts out my computer. This time the vehicle forced my into an intersection with my grandchildren in the vehicle. It could have been a serious accident. I could keep my vehicle from moving even with the brake on.

Beginning in 2006, my 2003 Mazda 6 would randomly experience power failure while driving. This was both scary and dangerous. I would be driving, the car would completely loose power with no warning and all the lights on the dashboard would come on. I would have to pull over, turn my car off and back on, and then it would work fine till it randomly happened again. Obviously loosing power at a high speed is extremely dangerous for both myself and the other drivers. I took it to the dealership many times and they were never able to determine a cause. I brought my car to the dealership over 10 times for this behavior. Finally in August 2008, I was reading on a Mazda message board that this behavior is caused by a bad throttle body. There was even a Mazda service bulletin issued for it in 2006 (bulletins 01-016/06 last issued may 18, 2006). I called the dealership, had the throttle body replaced and have not experienced this behavior since. The service bulletin had serial numbers of bad throttle bodies listed on it, mine was one of them. I believe that this should be a Mazda recall, not just a service bulletin, as dealerships do not even seem to be aware of the problem and it the car is extremely dangerous if the throttle body fails.