General – Page 25 – The Wacky World of Chris Knight

2007/12/262008/07/22

2007 Mazda Lemon, RX-8 Edition – Wiring Harness

So, I’ve been kind of scattered in my postings about my RX-8 troubles. I took a lot of the issues with patience and grace: console display failure, A/C that spontaneously turns on (still not fixed), alarm issues up the wazoo. The most troublesome problem has been the repeated failure of the passenger airbag system while I am driving with a passenger. This has happened at least six times. The short history is such:

Happened twice in one weekend. Took it into the shop. 2335 miles on the car. They re-calibrated the seat sensor.

Happens again, at 3660 miles. This time they replace the seat sensor.

Again at 5273 miles. A Mazda ‘engineer’ comes out, spends a couple of weeks poking at my car. They replace the seat track.

Again at 6837 miles. They replace the control module, run some tests, and Mazda has the shop replace the ENTIRE wiring harness. This is no easy task, and it introduced four new problems to my car:

Steering wheel is off-center
Air vents seem blocked, and no longer work correctly. Can’t get split-level air.
Windshield washer fluid pump no longer works
iPod connector cable no longer anchored down behind dash. The foam cable mounting piece is sitting in my glove box. One light tug and it will probably rip out of the stereo.

Oh! And best of all… Eight days after I got my car back from having the wiring harness replaced the passenger side air bag system failed again. So, after four visits to the shop, two of them lasting over two weeks long, and countless labor hours… my fracking lemon of a car is still not fixed.

My car has spent FIFTY-EIGHT days in the shop for one problem alone: the passenger airbag system failures. In those FIFTY-EIGHT days, Mazda has not only failed to fix the problem, they have introduced four new ones.

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2007/12/222018/02/01

The Never Ending Lemon – An RX-8 Adventure

Today is Saturday, December 22nd. Seven days ago, last Friday, I picked up my car after its most recent warranty repair session. Trying to win my love, the dealership had detailed and waxed my baby; after having ripped her completely to shreds to replace the wiring harness. No matter how much polish and wax you apply, my car will never really be the same.

The first thing I noticed was that, while driving in a straight line down the road, the steering wheel was a few degrees off to the left. So I had to take it into the shop, losing another day of my car on top of the ninety five it had previously spent in the shop for warranty work.

Last night it was particularly cold, and for the first time since picking it up I cranked up the heat. That’s when I realized that the air ducting is fracked up. No longer do I get split-level heat at the floor and vents. I was not looking forward to having to take it in so the dash can be disassembled and rebuilt again.

The icing on the cake was slopped down on me less than thirty minutes ago. Mel and I were driving back from groceries and the airbag light in the driver’s console started flickering. I look over to the passenger side, and sure enough the passenger airbag had disabled itself again. This is the problem for which it has spent fifty-eight days in the shop, so far… They have replaced the seat sensor, the control module, the seat track, and the entire wiring harness; and the problem is back already! Thank the gods I didn’t take their offer of ‘compensation‘ seriously. Less than three days after that discussion the problem would have returned and I would have been stuck back at square one.

Will someone at Mazda grow some fucking reproductive organs and a backbone and commit to replacing this damned 2007 Mazda RX-8 GT Lemon?

2007/12/162008/07/22

What ever happened to Proximate Cause?

This is just nuts. Involuntary manslaughter is a charge associated with a direct action that has a harmful effect, such as an automobile accident. There is no way that a reasonable human being could have forseen that running away would have caused the police officer to have a heart attack. The way the story reads, the officer didn’t even try to chase him down; he had his heart attack while cuffing one of the suspects who remained at the scene.

I have to wonder… Had this police officer ended his shift without incident, and proceeded to the local strip club for a little ‘relaxation’, would charges had been filed if he had his heart attack while getting a lap dance? Who would they charge? The dancer? The club owner?

What if he had his heart attack watching Monday Night Football? Do you charge the NFL with his death, or Direct TV, or the maker of his television set?

How about the deli owner that served the guy a bacon and three-cheese sandwich for lunch for the last six years? Let’s charge him with involuntary manslaughter a well.

There are a hundred factors that lead to heart conditions, including genetics. Will they press charges against the officer’s parents if they have a history of heart disease?

Maybe they should charge the doctor who failed to detect the heart condition and order him to desk duty?

I’m not saying the guy should have run, but it is vindictive and petty to charge him in the officer’s death.

-Chris

Suspect Tried to Help Stricken Deputy

By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press Writer
12-14 21:58 PST Columbia, S.C. AP —

A passenger handcuffed after a car chase with police early Friday tried to save a sheriffs deputy who had suffered a fatal heart attack moments after arresting him, authorities said.

Police later arrested the driver of the car, who fled after the 5:30 a.m. chase. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deputys death, authorities said.

Deputy Darral Lane, 41, tried to stop the car after noticing some suspicious activity at a convenience store, authorities said. The car sped off and stopped behind a house after about two miles.

The driver ran into a nearby wooded area, and Lane drew his gun and ordered the other two men inside to the ground, said police, who watched video taken by the camera in Lanes cruiser.

Lane handcuffed one man and then crumpled to the ground, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. “He falls to his knees and then he falls to the ground,” Lott said.

One of the two men ran off, but the man who was handcuffed tried to help once he realized the deputy was in trouble. He tried to keep Lane talking and tried to use the police radio to call for help, Lott said.

“He tried to talk to him,” the sheriff said. “Ive got to give him credit.”

Deputies who already had been dispatched after Lane radioed about the chase arrived and tried to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later, Lott said.

The passengers, whose names were not made public, were picked up by other deputies and will not be charged, Lott said.

The driver, Matthew Denny Hooks, 34, was arrested without incident at a Columbia motel late Friday, authorities said. It wasnt immediately clear whether he had a lawyer, but a message was left late Friday with sheriffs Lt. Chris Cowan.

Deputies consulted with prosecutors and charged Hooks because the chase led to the stress leading up to Lanes heart attack, Cowan said earlier.

Hooks is also charged with possession of stolen car tags and failure to stop for a blue light, he said.

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