Model: Mazda 3 - Automatic, 4 door
Year: 2008
Mileage: over 109,000 miles

My car broke down last night . From what I see, the support for holding the whole engine up, is broken.
Even the hose (air filter cabin?) that connect to the engine had detached too because the engine is lower (closer to touching the ground).

A few people (friends & family) says the engine mount is broken. I called a mechanic he told me, it can't be the mount because if the engine mount is broken, it would still be able to drive, but running rough.

What other possibilities could it be? I need your in-put, please!

I already used up one free towing. My insurance is allowing me another free tow to a mechanic shop.

Thank you!

 

Come on, how could anyone make a judgment call based on this info? have towed to a decent mechanic. He'll tell what wrong and what it takes to fix it.

 

Guess he towed it home, LOL.
Always good to know of a place in advance. This should be a part of everybody's plan. If you have major problems, know where to bring it.
Worse comes to worse, tow it to local Mazda dealer if it's a Mazda.

 

was then engine still in the car after the tow - or on the roadside :-)

Just kidding mate but it could be anything around the engine mounts or subframe - without pics we can only guess

 

Of course, I had to tow it home that night, since no auto shops were open, duh!
I ended it up having my car towed to Mazda the following day.
My insurance won't cover the costs, since the car is over 100,000 miles. Damn it!

 

Isn't it always how it happens? Please let us know what exactly was broken and how they fixed it. We learn from feedback.

All the best to you.

 

I sure will you keep you folks up-dated. Waiting to hear back from Mazda.

 

.. and good luck we hope its something inexpensive

 

**UPDATE March 28, 2013**


Before I go on and tell you folks what the cause was, I would like to say something. Back in January of 2013, I had my Transmission mount and Rear mount replaced with new ones. I had taken my car in to a regular mechanic shop (Capitol Auto). Hoping that every piece was put back. The owner told me that the engine mount was still good that it never needed to be replaced.

The Mazda technicians finally had a chance to take a look and diagnose what the problem was. The service man told me that a bolt from the transmission mount was loosen that caused it to break away and eventually made the engine caved down. Because of a bolt from the transmission, it made all the other mounts break from letting the engine hang. I'm not sure if you readers can understand what I'm saying. So all the mounts including the ones I had changed back in January has to be replaced.

It just seems that having a bolt not tightened good enough, caused a big $$$ replacement. An estimate of parts including tax and shop fees, comes out to almost $ 1,000. I don’t know any good mechanics here = ( It makes me believe that the only person I should deal with is the dealership instead of shopping outside and believing reviews on YELP!

 

thats a bummer mate - unfortunately the only way to be sure a job is done 100% properly is to learn to do it yourself, which isnt practical for most people. In this instance they probably reused a bolt that should have been changed as if its high torque setting the bolt will stretch (hence you should only use once)