2003 Mazda MAZDA6 problems
NHTSA has received 245 complaints about the 2003 Mazda MAZDA6, and 18% of them involve engine. Next are air bags (12%) and brakes (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 245 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 18% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 14 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 8 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 25,000 miles 163 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 73 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 11 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 8 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 8 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 26 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 11 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 12 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 7 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 3 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 163 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 25,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 61,000 miles (29 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 14 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 8 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 17 model years of the Mazda MAZDA6 with enough data (147 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 6 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
While driving the driver lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree. The front, side, and rear air bags did not deploy. The driver sustained a broken arm and the vehicle was declared a total lost. Please provide any additional information.
While driving at 45MPH consumer's vehicle was hit from behind, causing it to rear end another vehicle. Upon impact, both frontal air bags did not deploy. Driver sustained minor injuries. Prior to accident, left front tire kept loosing air. Dealer re-beaded it but didn't found anything wrong with the tire. Dealer told consumer to come back if tires still losses air.
Check engine light came on car was hesitating in middle of highway felt like it wanted to shut off made it home next day car did not start had it towed to the dealer car kept in shop for a month dealer could not figure out the problem said it was a sensor in the engine that was defective got the car back but it since then continued to give me problems brought the car back to original dealer crystal mazda for 3 recalls in july04 and other problems, in april05 check engine light suddenly turns on in the middle of a…
2003 mazda 6 with regular maintenance and approximately 60k miles. Having incidents of stalling and idling hard. Per one mechanic it is a pvc and lines. A second mechanic showed us a crack in the intake manifold. These parts are cheap since they are plastic. But the quoted installation is over $700 for just the pvc.