Anyone know to any garages in the Birmingham (West Midlands, UK) other than main dealerships that are able to work on the RX8 engine.
It looks like a new cat and some leads at best (Mazda quoted £2K) and depending on a compression test on Monday possibly a new engine (Mazda quoted £9K). If the £9K cost applies then does anyone want to buy a scrap 06 plate fuel and oil guzzling car that hates cold weather and icy roads!
Apparently all of these problems are due to a previous service agent (not Mazda) having used the wrong oil and oil filter and of course my wife who wanted to change her sensible run-around for something a little more sporty!

Wrong oil and filter causing a bad catalytic converter and faulty coils? Untrue...
Trust me, a new engine costs less than half what they quoted. Pm me for infos in case.
Coils plus emission compliant catalyzer are around 1000£ staying very large.

The closest shops are near the London area btw, try contacting california style to receive some help.

G is right as usual. You're being played* if they want 9K Pounds for a motor. Same with the cat. I would contact contact bse50, and california style as he suggested, and never go back to that dealer again

*what is the proper slang for expressing the dealer is bullshitting you? they're telling porky pies?

LOL, this reminds me of sometime ago (when I first bought the 8) when the dealership quoted me $1000 to change spark plugs....

Then realizing I could do it myself for about $150 (cost of plugs)

LOL, this reminds me of sometime ago (when I first bought the 8) when the dealership quoted me $1000 to change spark plugs....

Then realizing I could do it myself for about $150 (cost of plugs)

Or for 80-100$ if you picked up the plugs from the right vendors :bowdown:
Dealerships in europe are super expensive, you can end up paying more than 550€ for a set of coils. The plugs are over 150€.
That's why i'll send this guy, if he ever logs back in, in the right direction!

Thanks for all of your replies, I had none from the UK owners site!
Just to keep you informed of the problems, I picked the car up from the dealers on Monday and they have reported the following.

1) The cat needs replacing.
2) The plugs and coils need replacing.
3) The ignition system, leads etc need replacing.
4) All of the above are pointless because the engine needs replacing. Apparently the compression on rotor 1 is 3.8 and on rotor 2 is 5.8 when they should be at least 6.8?

I have no mechanical experience even on standard engines so this rotary one baffles me even more but with a £6K repair bill Mazda have basically said that it is not worth repairing as the repairs are worth more than the car, this is more than a little annoying as I paid £9K for it 8 months ago (not from Mazda so I have no way of getting this money back).
The worst thing is that when I picked it up from the dealers it started first time and drove like there was nothing wrong with it.
It really guts me as the car is in perfect condition (other than the obvious engine problems), the leather interior looks like new and the car is great fun to drive but it looks like it will have to be sold for parts.

£6k for what parts? Still looks like a very high price!

Have you tried talking to these people?

http://www.mazcare.co.uk/service.php?view=information

Basically a brand new engine. this is a dealer quote as in the UK it is difficult to find anyone who can work on these engines.

I have not tried this site but I certainly will give it a go

I have no mechanical knowledge and cannot afford to replace the engine until the new year. I have had the plugs and coils replaced and will get the cat replaced if I need to but will I be able to keep running the car with low compression? When I picked it up from the dealers the technician was full of doom and gloom but the car is in such good condition, apart from the engine, that I hate the thought of selling it for parts. Also it starts and runs ok apart from in cold weather.
If I can find someone in the UK who can replace or recondition the engine other than a dealer then I will do it but if a dealer remains my only option the £6k cost will mean that selling for parts is my only option.

Have you spoken to:

http://www.hurleyrotary.com/contact.php

or

http://www.mazdarotary.co.uk/

A few UK owners have had rebuilds carried out there.

Hurley's website has been down for almost a year :(

There are several shops in the uk that can perform a rebuild so i wouldn't be too worried. You could also have an engine shipped from mazmart for way less than that, with the peace of mind of having the best builder in the world do the build :)