NHTSA — Engine Problems

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
42,604 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2015 Mazda MAZDA3 engine problems

engine problem

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2015 Mazda MAZDA3 Owner Comments

problem #5

Mar 162023

MAZDA3

  • 200,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The contact owns a 2015 Mazda Mazda3. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH smoking was coming from under the hood of the vehicle, follow by the vehicle shut down and the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact son opened the hood and flames come out from under the hood. The contact son burning his fingers but did not seek medical attention. The fire department extinguished the fire. A police report was filed. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The manufacturer was contacted, and a complaint was filed. The failure mileage was 200,000.

- Marion,, LA, USA

problem #4

Feb 222022

MAZDA3 4-cyl

  • miles
In February, 2022, my 2015 Mazda 3 experienced a major failure, while I was driving on a local road, going 35 miles per hour. All of a sudden, the engine lost power, three warning lights came on, and the car was struggling to go 20 miles per hour. Being near a friend's house, I drove there. From there, her husband followed me home. The next day, my car was towed to the Mazda dealership. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as -€œfound TBS NUMBER: 01-014/16 and inspected coils found they were bad according to lot numbers-€. He replaced all four engine coils and all four spark plugs. The service manager told me that the parts were not under warranty. My research revealed that engine coils are supposed to last the lifetime of the car, which is 150,000 to 200,000 miles for a Mazda 3. My car only had 43,048 miles. The spark plugs should have lasted about five more years. I looked into the Bulletin issued by Mazda USA. Mazda USA was first aware of a problem January, 2016. On 17 March 2016, I bought the car. Mazda USA updated the Bulletin to include my car on 29 July 2016. The car was under full warranty at this time and could have been fixed, if I had been notified of the defects. The faulty coils can cause a catastrophic failure, resulting in serious accidents and injuries. My car was a -€œticking bomb-€, waiting to go off. I was on a local road, with light traffic, not a secondary road or highway, with heavy traffic. Rather than notify customers of the danger of the engine malfunctioning, Mazda USA chose to remain silent. The Bulletin directs that nothing be done until a customer complains. The customer does not know to complain until the car malfunctions! The customer must complain within the normal warranty period. Mazda is hoping that the bad coils fail after the warranty period.

- Shawnee, KS, USA

problem #3

Sep 152017

MAZDA3

  • 18 miles
The engine suddenly stalled without any warning lights and the car went dead right after I exited the freeway. It was very scary. I pushed the start engine button and the car started and I continued my drive. I took the car to the dealer the next morning. I am currently waiting for a phone call from the dealer.

- Burbank, CA, USA

problem #2

Jun 182016

MAZDA3

  • 12,000 miles
Vehicle was inadvertantly turned off while in drive, when parking the vehicle no alarm sounded. Upon exiting the vehicle, the vehicle began to roll backwards, forcing me to jump back into the car and jam on the brake. One would think that as a safety measure, the car would be required to be in park, before turning off the engine. While its conceivable that in an emergency the driver may want to turn off the vehicle while in gear, this would be very rare, and could be accommodated by programing the off switch to require multiple pushes or holding in the button for an extended period. Exiting the car when it is not in park is a dangerous situation, just as dangerous as trying to start the car while in gear, resulting in unexpected movement of the car. Since the car requires the gearshift to be in park and the brake on before starting, one would think a similar process would be used for turning off the vehicle.

- Bryn Mawr, PA, USA

problem #1

Sep 182015

MAZDA3

  • 1,000 miles
The car shut off in the middle of an intersection. Would not stay running when I attempted to start it again. I had it for one month.

- Omaha, NE, USA

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