navywife202

Back in March my engine flooded (not knowing that is what it was). I had it towed to the dealership and they told me the compression on both rotors were in the low to mid 50's instead of 150.
I had an auto shop tell me it would cost about $2500 to fix the seals, but that was without looking at it. I'm taking it Monday morning to get an estimate, but was wondering if anyone had any idea as to how long I could get away with driving it before the engine lost all compression and completely died on me?

I'm trying to get it fixed asap, but my husband is in the military so we don't exactly have the extra cash lying around and a place on base can only loan up to 50% of the trade in value of my car. It is a 04 with about 118,000 miles...

Ricky SE3P

iTrader: (10)

can you share a photocopy of the compression results? did you actually pay for a compression check or is that just what the dealership (stealership) told you? when was the last time the spark plugs and ignition coils were changed on the car? lets start there before going on to spending big $$$ for a engine.

navywife202

I had the spark plugs changed in February. They were only able to replace 3 of the 4. They didn't want to risk either stripping the plugs or completely damaging the housing. I have been trying to get rid of the car for the last two months, so I haven't attempted to take it somewhere else to get the last one replaced. I am not sure about the ignition coils. I haven't had the car even a year yet. Everything I have read online about bad apex seals describes practically word for word what is happening to my car.

I paid for a diagnostic and a compression test. They had to deflood the engine in order to do that. I have the results somewhere, I'll have to find them.

Ricky SE3P

iTrader: (10)

sounds like they were being lazy with that last one... you paid them to replace the plugs, they should replace all the plugs. if they were to damage your car (specifically the engine) thats on them to fix, not you. you can get ignition coils online or from auto parts store for a pretty good price and that might help a little bit. If you can find those results, that will help a lot. and unfortunately nobody knows when compression will go... might happen gradually, might happen suddenly.

navywife202

They didn't want to take a chance on me getting stuck. My husband was on deployment and I had 2 girlfriends with me with no other way of getting home. They said it could have been caused by corrosion from being in Virginia or from being screwed in too tight.
I'll look around tomorrow and see if I can find the results. I know for a fact that none of the numbers were higher than 56 and I think that one was on rotor 2, but also were not lower that 52. I'll let you know for sure when I find it.
Thanks for your help.

Ricky SE3P

iTrader: (10)

no problem. let us know so we can be of assistance. my plugs were locked in really badly, but if youre careful and take your time doing it, they can be loosened without damage. then you just put anti-seize on them when putting new ones on so they dont lock up. i removed my plugs months ago to check their condition, and the previous owner had not put anti-seize.. so it was rather difficult removing them.. i took my time to make sure nothing was damaged and spent a good 5-10 minutes per plug just putting a light amount of force till it finally broke free/loosened from being seized and i could use the wrench to remove it. there is a DIY thread somewhere on here on how to change your plugs...i would look for it but my netbook is warning 6% battery life remaining and is threatening to shut off so hopefully someone could find that for me if you cannot. will check in to follow up

pistonhater

If that 'auto shop' specializes in rotary engines, then they were probably giving you a general estimate for an engine rebuild. 'Fixing seals' in a rotary generally means an engine rebuild. It it was just a regular auto shop saying that, then they are totally full of crap.


If your ignition system is healthy - including a good battery of course - you can probably 'get away with driving it' for a while.

SamPappas

iTrader: (1)

If it was a regular auto shop i'm surprised they would even offer to do anything for you.

Chino_rx3

iTrader: (1)

To tell you truth I have about 1800 in parts for a rebuild so not sure how they quoted you only 2500 for all.. if you have bad housing etc will go way up. Or you can just replace apex seals . Housing seals and sell it with compression .......

Bladecutter

Might be cheaper to call around to various auto salvage yards in your area, and see if anyone has a crashed RX-8 in with low miles, and a good engine you can buy.

If you're really lucky, the shop has an in house install service.

If you're even more lucky, they might be able to give you the VIN number for the car that the engine came from, and you could call up Mazda NA and see if the engine in that car had been replaced recently. If yes, then you have a fresh rebuild with low miles on it that would be worth more, and you wouldn't need to tell the salvage yard/shop about that small fact.

And honestly, once you get the car up and running, if there isn't some form of personal attachment to it, sell it, and get something more wallet friendly.

BC.

navywife202

I took it to the shop yesterday. They told me that basically I only have half of a working engine. The place I took it to is a small family owned place that doesn't rip you off. He said that the entire housing is shot. He could rebuild my engine for $3700 or put one in it from a newer rx-8 that only has 40,000 miles on it.

There isn't any kind of personal attachment with this car. I've had nothing but issues with it since day one. The previous owner changed out the intake and didn't do it right, so the car wasn't getting enough 'air' the way he had it installed. The only issue is I live in Cali, and even though I am not a resident of this state (military) the law out here makes the seller 100% responsible for the car passing smog. So, either way, I would have to pay out the *** to get it fixed.

Thank you all for your help and advice. I think I'm going to go with them putting the entire new engine in the car instead of it being rebuilt.

Chino_rx3

iTrader: (1)

good luck.!

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Mazda does not sell new engine for this car anymore. it does not matter what the dealership tells u. its not new and it comes straight from a plan in Virginia

you can try to give mazmart a call, they can put a complete new engine for you that's spec better than new Mazda build engine for around the same if not lower price.

plus you can get the missing intake piece used from them for really good price too.

sorry to hear that you are not happy with the car, i too hate those idiots who just doing it wrong all the time, then when they mess it up bad enough they just sell it off and make the next owner pay for their own dumb mistakes.

Bladecutter

If you can have any say in the matter, ask for an engine from a 2006 through 2008 car, as they are slightly better than the 2004 and 2005 engines.

If there's any way you can get a compression test done on the engine before install, it will help you decide if its worth putting into your car in the first place. No point going through all the expense of installing the engine, only to find out its not in any better shape than yours currently is.

At the very least, after its installed, get the compression test then, and if it fails, have your shop find you a better engine, at their expense.

BC.

fuztupnz

iTrader: (4)

they're the same engines, doesn't matter if it's 04 or 08. Used is used and you don't know exactly what your getting. The only difference is the MSP16 flash for 04-06 cars that could theoretically have improved the life expectancy. Late 06 and on already had the flash.