Hi all!

Not been on for awhile as no longer have a Mazda but the girlfriend does!

Quick question.

She has a 59 plate Mazda2 with an energy drain problem from somewhere. Initially the car struggled to start so I took it to a garage and they decided it was the starter motor so changed that. It didn't fix the problem.

Next symptoms were strange electrical glitches - the key fobs stopped working and everytime the steering wheel was turned or a window wound down the headlights would dim or the clock/radio would reset.

We decided to get a new heavy duty battery. Still no change.

I suspected a bad earth somewhere so took it to an autoelectrician. He checked all the earths under the bonnett and tried putting heavy load on the battery. As expected the turning of the steering wheel caused lights to flicker etc He said alternator is fine and no bad earths under the bonnet. He gave me the car back and said to bring it back next week and he will test it over the course of a day or two as he suspects a bad earth somewhere in the steering column.

Just thought I would throw this out to Mazda people to see if they had any ideas. Also what is a fair price to pay if he finds a bad earth. Current quote is £180-£240 inc VAT - does this seem fair?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

There is no set labor time for electrical issue tracing. It takes what it takes really. The possibilities are various. Ignition switch contacts carboned up and not allowing full power to circuits. A poor connection somewhere. Maybe in the fuse/relay box. We don't have that car in the US so i can't really say but the PCM controls the alternator output on a lot of our cars. Since the clock resets i highly doubt it is the PCM though. It all boils down to his skill/greed/motivation.