Electrical problems? Clean your earth!
Discussion
I was having electrical problems with my 2009 Mazda 6 2.2D Sport, the most recent of which was a red key symbol on the dash and car not starting properly. After lots of trawling through forums it seems like a common fault (along with quite a few others, mostly electrical).
We had a new battery fitted as it was tested and past its best. Mazda OE batteries are crap apparently and only last 3-5 years.
Anyway, my wife took it to Mazda and they wanted to change the whole instrument cluster and keyless module at a cost of around a grand inc. 3 hours labour. I told my wife I would see if I could fix it first. I read a post from a guy having similar problems who found the chassis earth point to be corroded. So I first cleaned up the main earthing point from the battery to by the suspension strut as it looked a little rusty. I went to start it to rule it out and no more warning symbols and it started perfectly. The boot now opens properly too.
After years of owning a 60s Lotus Elan and knowing full well the importance of poor earth connections it didn't occur to me to suspect a poor earth on a modern car.
Mazda have now also joined my long list of car manufacturers that I think are b
ds.
We had a new battery fitted as it was tested and past its best. Mazda OE batteries are crap apparently and only last 3-5 years.
Anyway, my wife took it to Mazda and they wanted to change the whole instrument cluster and keyless module at a cost of around a grand inc. 3 hours labour. I told my wife I would see if I could fix it first. I read a post from a guy having similar problems who found the chassis earth point to be corroded. So I first cleaned up the main earthing point from the battery to by the suspension strut as it looked a little rusty. I went to start it to rule it out and no more warning symbols and it started perfectly. The boot now opens properly too.
After years of owning a 60s Lotus Elan and knowing full well the importance of poor earth connections it didn't occur to me to suspect a poor earth on a modern car.
Mazda have now also joined my long list of car manufacturers that I think are b
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