Okay so this is kind of embarassing, so no real flaming. After 3 years of owning my RX8, I finally decided to change my own oil, like I have on all my other previous cars.

To make a long story short, there is a small vacuum hose that connects to the underside of the black plastic upper intake manifold. I must have broke it using my cup wrench/ratchet. You can't see the hose or the ~1/8" OD plastic nipple that it connects to from where you stand. You have to look at it from a shallow angle. I only had enough room to click the ratchet once each time so I couldn't have put too much force into it. You can't just replace the nipple because it is molded in, so you have to buy the whole part (some $450 plus about $400 labor since they have to take out the air filter box and tons of hoses). The only warning the manual says is to take it to your authorized dealer like they always do and that it needs a special tool-no warning about delicate crappily designed nipples opposite the oil filter.

Well hope that saves some you some explaining to the wife after you do what I did. Yes it was dumb but if you look at your engine bay, you can see how easily this can be done.

havnt heard of this before... either way, that sucks.

Umm.... I'll have to check that out.

Here's what I do. I take the car in to have the oil changed by a mechanic I trust. I explain to him that I want to make sure the oil filter is not too tight, as these dummies put them on with an air gun.

I do this with any used car I buy. That way you can loosen the oil drain plug and get the oil filter off.

On the new cars I buy... I change them from the start. And if for some reason the filter or drain plug is too tight I go to the same mechanic to fix it.

Sorry to hear about what happened.


If it's the nipple I'm thinking about........

You could save money by buying an aftermarket intake. Then don't use that vaccum nipple. It gets capped off. Then just plug that hole with fiberglass or plastic resin.

Had the same thing happen to me a couple of years back. They replaced it under somebody's warranty or insurance since I had the car dealer serviced regularly.