Why does the new Mazda3 in Vietnam report engine errors?

According to statistics from Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), up to this point, 44 new Mazda3 cars have had the engine warning light continuously on, one of the reasons being the quality of the gasoline.

Mr. Tran Vu Son, Deputy General Director of Thaco PC, said that the number of new Mazda3 cars with the above phenomenon is 44 out of nearly 3,000 cars sold since its launch in late 2014. Thaco is currently connecting with Mazda Japan to send a team of engineers to Vietnam to examine this problem.

Mazda3 Skyactiv launched in Hanoi in December 2014

For its part, Thaco commented that the error light phenomenon on some Mazda3 cars is due to the fuel injector being clogged due to too much carbon formed during the fuel combustion process mixed with dirty impurities, leading to blockage of the fuel injector.

According to Mr. Son, most of the Mazda3 vehicles reported to have errors are equipped with 1.5L engines, the 1.5L engine has a smaller cylinder capacity than the 2.0L engine and has a high compression ratio (13:1) to produce a large capacity of up to 110 horsepower/6,000 rpm. Therefore, during operation with the direct injection mechanism on the cylinder head, the 1.5L engine requires a very high accuracy of the fuel-air mixture ratio, so it is quite "sensitive" to fuel containing impurities, just a small change in the fuel-air mixture ratio can easily cause an error to warn the driver about the quality of the fuel.

Check engine light comes on on some Mazda3s

Before Mazda global engineers have a final conclusion, Thaco representative recommends that customers with Mazda3 cars with error warning lights bring their cars to authorized service workshops of Mazda Vietnam to get support for cleaning the injector with cleaning solution (Deposit Cleaner) provided by Mazda Japan. This helps remove dirt that can cause blockage at the injector tip.

“Through initial inspection, we found that although the engine warning light was on, the vehicle was still operating normally. We will coordinate with Japanese experts to soon come to an accurate conclusion about the cause and how to fix this phenomenon,” said Mr. Son.

Mazda3 2015 is manufactured and assembled in Vietnam, launched in late 2014 with 3 versions using 2 types of Skyactiv engines: 1.5 liter (including 4-door sedan and 5-door hatchback) and 2.0 liter. Mazda3 Skyactiv 1.5 liter engine version has maximum capacity of 112 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, maximum torque of 144 Nm at 4,000 rpm; 2.0 liter engine version has maximum capacity of 155 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, maximum torque of 210 Nm at 4,000 rpm.

Currently, the Mazda3 has an announced selling price of 729 million VND for the 1.5L sedan version, 749 million VND for the 1.5L hatchback version, and 862 million VND for the 2.0 sedan version, all 20 million VND lower than the announced price when it was launched in December 2014. However, depending on the region and time, customers buying a Mazda3 car can get incentives of up to tens of millions of VND.

According to VnMedia