ccbaze

Alright so it goes like this...

Im 19, just bought an 04 AT RX-8, and need as much info/help as possible. Im a rookie when it comes to knowledge about cars, and from what my friends keep telling me and from what I keep reading on here, I decided to pick a very... complex, vehicle.

My first car was a 96 integra that I beat the snot out of, granted it was already trashed when I got it, but, whatever. Now I have this amazing monster sitting in my driveway and I love it more then life, but I dont know a thing about all the tips and tricks of the trade as far as my vehicle goes, or the rotary engine for that matter.

Like I mentioned before, my buddies have been telling me a great deal about my vehicle but im not so sure what I should count on with a $15k vehicle on the line. Obviously they were right about needing to add oil all the time, othwerwise it wouldnt be posted on here. Right?

So are there any recommendations for a good oil for my car? And how often to check it and fill it?

Also, Ive come to understand that its apparently very important for me to warm my engine off before shuttin the ole girl down. No just on and offs. So say for example, im sitting at the house and decide I want to go get some grub. So I drive down to wherever im going and eat and this that and the other. If its only just a few minutes away should I sit in the parking lot and let my car warm up before shutting her down or what?

Then comes redlining. I read in a few earlier topics that its good for your car to be redlined around once a day to help clean the pipes out? Is there any truth behind this or what?

Any additional info that would help prevent me from destroying the engine of my new most valued possession would be sooooo appreciatted. Thanks guys!

sanyok

iTrader: (1)

First of all congrats on the new car.

Secondly you should check to see if all the recalls have been done.

And now onto a few of your questions sorry I can't give input to all but heres the stuff off the top of my mind.

The oil question is always debated with rotaries some say synthetic, yet others live by pure dyno juice so IMHO it's up to you what you use just so long as you don't cheap out on quality.
Checking the oil should be done regularly in these cars most do it every other fill up, but I'm **** about it so every time i pull into a station the first thing to be popped is the hood then gas cap.

Amazingly unlike most cars redlining a rotary (when warmed up correctly) is actually good for the engine, not to mention the fact that it's a joy to hear the exhaust note.

The best advice that I could give to you would be to keep up with all the maintenance, redline a day, and enjoy the car as much you can, these things are kind of addictive .

Also a quick note even though i didn't cover all the stuff you asked the search button is where you'll find the answers, most members are tired of answering the same old questions so just search for things before starting threads.

bse50

Welcome and congrats for your first post
Some search tips: check out for the right maintenance, oils (synthetic or not it must mix well with fuel and burn clean... mobil1 is a cool oil for most engines but in our case not for instance), premix, coils and catalyzer info are the next things that you should research
Do the eventually needed reflashes, get ready to change your spark plugs often and you're ready to go with a rotary!

Spin9k

Congrats and welcome. The "don't shut it off when it's cold" means don't move it out of the garage and into the driveway and shut it off immediately (give it a couple minutes). Once you're driving ther car, even if only for a couple minutes, the engine is safe to shut down. The load when driving quickly heats the necessary engine parts, so no problem.

The best things you can do to learn about your new car is is dedicate some serious quality time (hours and hours over time) to...

1) read the manual front to back....boring in parts, but there good stuff as well.
2) just browsing thu threads on this forum in different topic areas
3) google the RENESIS, rotary engine, and RX-8 and read some of the collective info available on the web.
4) repeat 1-3 as necessary until you are way smarter than now, or you get tired or bored or both.

Most of us here have been doing these things for years, some decades, so don't feel bad if you haven't learned enough even after spending what seems like an eternity. If you get really hooked on the car, you've got your whole life ahead of you to study and improve your rotary knowledge

redcopper06

read this fully:
http://pettitracing.com/rx8/index_information.htm

good maintenance will be your friend.

there are a ton of nice posts on this site, and some good groups. read up. hang out with your locals, have fun at the get togethers, join a race club, etc. you will learn a ton and have fun too.

synthetic vs standard oil is a nonissue if you have a sohn adapter installed with a tank of 2 cycle oil. in that case you go mobile 1 synthetic 30 or 40w depending on climate

if you dont have a sohn adapter then you have a lot of reading to do and decisions to make

not all of us redline the engine all of the time. once in a while is fine, if you stand on it constantly your engine wont last

the best oil i've been told for the tranny and differential are redline. MT-90 for the tranny and 75W90 GL-5 Gear Oil for the differential, with the limited slip additive also if you have a slip.

upgrades: by far the most important is probably your ignition first (BHR) well worth the $500+ with the plugs, followed next by a cobb AP and tune from MM/Jeff at BHR

i'm of the opinion that those two upgrades will extend the life of your engine by putting misfires in their place, and improving poor OMP rates, and will improve your mileage and hp as well.

Baghli

iTrader: (1)

About warming your car, I would suggest warming it up before driving it so you dont damage your engine. That way its already warm when you get back anyways so you can shut it off right away. A good habit to get into is to rev the engine when you park then shut it off, that will get all the excess gas out and prevent flooding. The oil thing is heavily debated, ulitmately if the car is still under warranty then I would say stick with a good mineral 5w20 so in case something does happen to the engine you dont get crap about replacing it. Red line it once a day but make sure your transmission oil is good, while red lining it is good for the engine, it will cause your transmission to get hot so just check the trans fluid. You will pretty much find answers to all your questions on here. Use the search feature. Just have fun with the car and take care of it.

Red_Fox

congrats on the car!

as far as oil i've been running synthetic for a year now and havent had any problems theres a debate between synthetic and regular motor oil either way you cant really go wrong just remember rotary engines burn up oil so when driving around 1500 miles check your oil and top off or your light will come on telling you you need oil.

search button is your best friend learn well from it theres loads of information thats been going on for years use it to your advantage

welcome to the club enjoy your car!

Pico

iTrader: (2)

Congrats on the ride.

SEARCH BUTTON and all your questions will be answered. Zoom

BTW-- This car is far from a monster LOL

Sigs

Invest 20$ in this http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Str...9781557885494/

zoom44

NO! go for a longer drive and enjoy the time in the car

Anytime i hav ethe car out of the garage and I need to put it in for the night its always "okay honey im going to put the car away, see ya in 10 minutes"

ccbaze

Good deal. Thanks so much guys!

Grungepup

iTrader: (2)

welcome to the addiction.... happy zooming

ken-x8

Congrats on the ride...these cars are fantastic. Sounds like you know what you need to know, but are overwhelmed. Other than warming before shutting down, and needing to add a little oil every now and then, the RX-8 is not any more complicated than any other modern car. It's simpler in a lot of ways.

But all the opinions can sure make it sound complicated. Zoom44 gave you the best advice...always listen to him.

Sign up in the owner's section at mazdausa.com. You can download electronic versions of the owner's manual and quick tips manual. Quick tips is great because it gives the real skinny on warming before turning off. If you get service at a Mazda dealer, there are usually discount coupons that are way better than the dealer sends you directly.

Have fun!

Ken

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

first thing to do is u need to make new friends

Gr8Bullet

iTrader: (5)

Lol welcome. Have fun with the car check the oil and redline once a day and you'll be fine!

Razz1

Clean da pipes out..................

Get real... Take an automotive class.

Nothing will clean the soot out of the tail pipe other than a manual cleaning.

I suggest you do some home work before you start thinking crazy.

A good place to start is the local rotary shop and your state club meets.

They can be found in the correct section of this forum.

Reading and comprehension of the stickies are another valuable source.

ken-x8

Nah - all he needs to do is learn how to smile and shake his head sadly whenever they try to tell him anything technical.

Ken

fyrstormer

Always use 5w30 full-synthetic oil, check the oil level every couple of weeks, redline it from time to time, and don't shut the engine off until the redline changes to 7000rpm. It shouldn't take more than a couple minutes of driving to warm up the engine enough. Not very complicated at all.

But no, it's not a Honda; it doesn't have a huge margin for error engineered into it, so you can't abuse it endlessly and expect it to run forever.

As for your friends' advice, they're just trying to live vicariously through you, so just nod and say yes and forget whatever it was they said.

Flashwing

Reading is going to mean the difference between issues and solutions. The RX8 isn't the mystery vehicle that some people make it out to be and 90% of it's care would be the same as any other vehicle. The difference is that almost anyone who could normally help you with other vehicles will be useless with this one. As such, the owner is required to take more responsibility with both knowledge and being proactive.

There is a wealth of information on this website but very few people take advantage of it and instead insist on being spoon fed information. Do NOT be that guy. Be proactive, learn about the car and learn the mechanics. If you're not willing to do that then find a trusted Rotary Engine mechanic to take care of your car.

ken-x8

This might be an odd notion, but maybe - just maybe - the temperature gauge can be useful in telling whether the engine is warmed up.

Ken

fyrstormer

The temp sensors on all new cars are set up with two separate sensors; one of the sensors is accurate and has a linear response, and the other has a dead spot usually 10 degrees C above and below the "ideal" coolant temperature, and doesn't start responding at all until the coolant is within 30-50 degrees C of the ideal temperature. The accurate one feeds data to the ECU, and the one with the dead spots feeds data to the temperature gauge. Why? Because the driver doesn't actually need to know the exact temperature of the engine, and most drivers will just ask a bunch of annoyingly useless questions if they see the temp gauge bouncing around at all.

However, the redline is calculated according to readouts from the accurate temp sensor, which makes it useful as a sort of "back-door" temp gauge. I don't know exactly at what coolant temperature the ECU will bump the redline to 7000rpm, but it's hot enough that fuel spray won't condense on the sparkplugs and cause fouling. That's all you need to worry about as far as the "don't shut it off cold" rule goes, which is why I said to look for the 7000rpm redline before shutting off the engine.

If you wait for the coolant temp to hit the lower-bound of the ideal zone (which coincides with the redline bump to 9000rpm, I'm sure you've noticed), that's fine too, but for short trips you'll waste a bunch of gas waiting for the engine to warm up all the way when it isn't actually necessary.

jrbirch

Wait a tick...are you saying that the "beep to shift" changes as the car warms up?

If so, cool: I never noticed that before. If not, how the heck do you find the "bouncing around redline"?

SheffieldSteel

Just put it in first and floor it. If you forget to change gear, the rev needle will visibly bounce off the dynamic redline, and your face will redden as you realise that bystanders are inwardly laughing at you.

Apparently

Socr8tes

He's got an '09... series II has standard variable redline. Series I just has a constant rev limit (no beep) when cold.

fyrstormer

Ah. Hmm. So the older cars don't go from 5000 to 7000 to 9000? What is it then, just 7000 and 9000?

For the record, my '09 beeps at 8500, regardless of what the redline is at any given moment; the beep-to-shift doesn't change on mine either.