I have a 2007 Mazda Miata that I just found standing water under the passanger seat. Took it to dealership the drain is plugged if I had brought the car in when under warranty they would have done the retrofit it needs to fix their lousey design problem for free. Now I have to pay $600. I am trying to talk to Mazda and the dealership about them fixing the problem for free. They issued a in house service bullentin but not to the public. any one had this problem and gotten them to fix it out of warrenty?
What exactly is the design problem that would affect a drain and what drain are we talking about? AC drain? I don’t know of a vehicle that is not affected by plugged drains.
rain drain. It drains out just behind the door on side of car. It drains the soft roof and it has gotten plugged up.
It drains the soft roof and it has gotten plugged up. I assume you mean sun roof and they are all well known to have leaks. If you live in a dry area with not too many leaves etc. Then you will not likely have problems, but if you live where there are leaves etc. You are almost certain to have problems.
He probably means convertible top. It’s a Miata.
All drains get plugged eventually. It’s not a function of design. It’s a function of crap getting mixed in with the water and then clogging the drain. They could re-design it by making it a really big opening, but then rodents would get in the car. They could stop that by putting a fine mesh screen over the drain, but then the crap would get clogged in the drain again. From time to time you have to clean out your drains.
$600 to have a drain unclogged, and to dry the interior of the car?
There’s no way I would pay anyone that kind of money for that amount of service.
On my Boxster, there are quite a few different drain points around the car, and I have to go through them all every couple of months to make sure they aren’t clogged. Much more vigilant about it during fall, if I park under trees.
With my car, if they get plugged up, the rain water can also find its way under the seats.
The difference is that there is a computer under the drivers seat, and it costs several thousands of dollars to replace, and reprogram, if it gets destroyed in a puddle of rain water, or snow melt.
You should just add this bit of cleaning to your regular maintenance, and save the $600 for something more useful. Like a new set of sticky tires.
BC.