2004 mazda tribute, 6 cylinder. the engine exploded upon starting, specifically the intake manifold. upon starting, an extremely loud explosion occurred, the hood was raised about an inch and smoke and flame poured out from under the hood. i exited the vehicle and the smoked subsided and plastic parts where scattered about the parking lot. towed the tribute to the dealer where they stated that the intake manifold blew up and it would cost over $1000 to repair with no guarantee that the engine is not damaged. the dealer stated that they had no clue what caused the explosion. i was lucky that the car was parked and that my child was not near the car, otherwise this could have been an deadly incident. *tr
Vehicle exhibited extended crank prior to the incident. as it was nearing 30k mile service, we decided to wait and have dealer inspect at that time. before the car went in for maintenance, it shut down going uphill. although it would restart, it ran rough and had to be towed to the nearest dealership. #3 ignition coil was replaced that that visit. the car began starting hard again in late 2007 and was brought to the dealership again - this visit, they replaced the idle air valve, hoping to fix the problem. it continued to start hard and 2 weeks later it ran very rough again on startup. this visit had the dealership replace the #2 ignition coil. the car continued to start hard, was returned to the dealership, and the #4 ignition coil was replaced. hard start continued, car back to dealer again, fuel pump replaced. this brings us to today - the car has been out of the shop for 6 days and is starting worse than it had been prior to the last visit. note: warranty ran out on the vehicle on 4/2 and the dealer and mazda would like me to start paying for repair. this is a major safety issue, as the car shut down while driving. on top of that, the frustration of having to go back and forth from the dealership has been awful. also, note: the hard start was easiest to duplicate after the car had been driven and warmed up, rested off for ~ 1 hour, then restarted (like when you got ot the grocery store). *tr