Triumphant New member & owner

[Tonks5460]

So, im a new CX-7 owner, 2007 Cx-7 to be exact. First mazda i've ever owned (since my 626 like 9 years ago.)

Bought it with the popular VVT actuator problem... (i didnt know of the problem when i bought it.) Now you're probably wondering how i didnt question the loud rattle from the loose ass chain. Well the story is that both the test drive, and pickup days for the vehicle it was turned on for me while i wasnt outside with the car, now with it being like 0 degrees i thought nothing of it, and of course when i turned it off/on on my own it didnt make the noise (or atleast loud enough for me to be concerned.) due to the oil pressure.

Long story short, the dealer was a dick and did everything possible to throw the cost on me. We end up aggreeing on him paying for the repairs and told me i had to do it with his sketchy ass mechanic. His mechanic took the car for a day, determined the problem that i had already diagnosed was infact the issue (after 1-2 hours of him telling me the internet was wrong.)

The next day i go up to the mechanic to sign paperwork/ect and he claimed to have taken the TC apart and put it back to diagnose the problem, and claimed to have put it all together again because i had not given him the green light on paper to work on the engine. Clearly all a lie (plus i looked at the engine and noticed that every single bolt was still rusted on and none of them showed any recent threading marks...not even the intercooler so i knew he hadn't even checked the plugs.) That being said i took the car from him, brought her silly ass home ordered all the parts, and did the job myself along with my father who is a skilled home-bred mechanic.

It took about 19 hours total over the course of 2 days. but we did it and it came out great. Didnt even hesitate to turn back on, kicked on right away no hassle and i followed the "HOW TO: VVT" walkthrough, which made it super super easy, even for someone as mechanicly impaired as me.

When it was up and running again i took it to autozone and plugged in the scanner, only to find code: P2088.

After doing my research on this code i think it could just be that the plug got wet for the sensor and just needs time to dry.

It also threw up the p0012 code that it had before the fix, aswell as a misfire on cyl 2. but i know that the plugs need to be replaced, they look stock and the car has 107k on it which will be done this week.

I cleared the codes to see if they re-appear, but is this P2088 code soemthing i should be worried about? Should the codes have come back up after the job was done? (note: i didnt take off the battery when i did it, which i know i probably should have, but we just didnt think of it at the time.)

The car runs like new, starts and sounds fantastic.

Below are 2 pictures of the part that needed replacing, note that the broken "pin" looking object was wedged BEHIND the timing chain, totally off the sprocket. Dont mind the dirty sprocket, it was already thrown out by the time i thought to take a picture.

The old tensioner was about 1-2 clicks from being fully extended, and the chain had ridiculous stretching.

[Hargarbl]

first off, welcome to the forum.

Secondly, looks like you got damn lucky on that one. I had the rattle for much longer than I like to admit (I thought it was due to the coldish weather here in Florida since that's when it started and at first only when it would rattle) But even after letting it go for far too long my pin never managed to break out.

[Tonks5460]

Thank you, and yeah I couldn't be alive it...it was jammed right behind the exhaust sprocket....I w as soon so lucky...

[Aja1732]

Congrats, and welcome! They are definitely finicky machines but once you get them settled they are a great value, IMO.