MsMazarattii08

Hey ya!!

Forgive me if I dont talk male although I will describe the problem I am having in my best mechanical lingo for a female!! lol.....

I have a 08 RX8 Revolutionary with 72,000 on the clock.... Full service history etc...

Went to pass someone a few weeks ago in a hurry, put the foot down to boot it and no power what so ever... Car started loosing power, revves extreemly low like it was going to come to a stop... Continued driving 20 metres and engine light came on and continued flashing.. While driving, the car would do like a bunny hop sensation... Sounds absolutely terrible, exhaust sounds like its got a hole in it...

Once at the servo put bonnet up etc, and it was unusually hot. Water and oil fine as I had just had a service 2 weeks prior.

Checked out the book it said electrical, emmission or fuel....

Had an ex-mazda mechanic look at it, spark plugs are fine (replaced at 50,000), he's hoping it is fuel related.

Fueled up, took it for a spin, gave it a bit every now and then, of course light was flashing the whole time.. Drove for at least 45 mins, no problems, just not as much power as it normally would... Then all of a sudden the backfiring, coughing and spluttering and lack of power and reves occured again....

Parked car in shed, and it was that hot in the exaust/catlystic area that the carpet caught on fire, and the exhausts had white/grey powdery carbon or something in them.

Can anyone help or advise what this problem could be and a possible outcome/solution to fix. An estimated cost would also be very helpful..

Thankyou

Arca_ex

iTrader: (10)

Catalytic converter may have gotten clogged and caused catastrophic engine failure. If you live in America there's an 80,000 mile warranty on the catalytic converter and 100,000 mile warranty on the engine, it might be a good idea to have it checked out at a dealer.

When was the last time the ignition coils were replaced? They should be changed about every 40,000 miles and spark plugs about every 20,000 miles.

The flashing check engine light means the engine is misfiring.

Try searching the forums a bit, there are other threads like this and you can learn from them as well.

DarkBrew

Wow, that is hot!
If the cat got that hot the engine probably went into limp mode to protect itself.
The convertor gets hot when lots of unburned gas is coming from the engine due to lots of misfires typically from weak coils.
You may get away with the typical new plugs/wires/coils but it is also possible the corner/side seals of the rotors suffered excessive wear due to extreme exhaust port heat. Also likely the convertor is toast.

Time for a Mazda service call to take advantage of the warranty offered.
They need to check the Catalytic convertor and perform a compression test.

ken-x8

Definitely check the coils. Flashing engine light means a misfire, so it's more likely electrical than fuel. Your symptoms sound very much like what happened to me last year. Two coils, both on the same rotor, failed. Unburned fuel leaving the engine took out the cat and O2 sensor. Smoke was wafting from under the car as I barely made it to the dealer and coasted into the service department.

After replacing the cat, O2 sensor, coils and plugs the car has been running just fine.

Ken

jasonrxeight

time for new coils and sparkplugs.

MsMazarattii08

Hello everyone!!!

Thank you very much for you advice.... Will be running all of this by my mechanic.. Any idea on the costs involved in these procedures or ur experiences?

Im in Australia by the way!

DarkBrew

Brilliant! My Brother lives in Brisbane, Qld. and my niece lives in Dubbo, NSW

Ordering on line is cheaper.
In Canada Plugs, wires and coils can be had for around $300 plus shipping and border tax.

If you post those questions in the Aus/NZ thread you should get relevant answers.

Also check warranty provisions in your region for emission and engine issues.

ken-x8

I can give you the US dollar price for my incident last year.

The dealer quoted $1200 US to replace plugs, coils, wires and O2 sensor. Cat was free because it was under warranty. The dealer gave me a $500 "mercy" discount, which they considered to be the cost of the coils and wires. I knocked off another $120 by having them use my own spare set of spark plugs (bought for $80 on line) rather than them charging $200 for theirs. Final bill included 4 hours of labor.

Now...

A set of plugs from a dealer is $200 to $250. From a decent third party store $80.

Coils not from a dealer are around $50 each. From a dealer..."bend over."

Don't know how much an O2 sensor (should yours be gone) is if not from a dealer...they charged $200 for the part.

Cat is $1200. If emission rules in Australia are similar to those in the US, there's really no substitute for the Mazda part. But over here that's warranteed for 80,000 miles.

From posts here, changing all the ignition stuff (coils, plugs, wires) is an hour of labor, two at the outside. Don't know how much labor is involved with the O2 sensor.

By the way... the mileage on my car at the time was about the same as the kilometerage on yours. That's a little beyond the 40,000 miles at which lots of folks here recommend changing coils. I am now a believer!

And, as near as I can tell, despite the absolutely frightening way my engine ran and sounded, it seems to have suffered no harm.

Ken

azzuro

Hopefully you can get your catalytic converter under warranty, so it'll be free. If not, it'll be quite expensive. When I had my cat replaced under the warranty the dealer said something about the cat costing ~$1600 just for the part.

The other stuff is not cheap either, but nowhere near as stupid pricy.

MsMazarattii08

Hey Ken!!

Thank you very much for your information.... It makes sense to an extent.. Is basically what my ex-mazda mechanic and father thought could be wrong..

I really appreciate your advice.

Dad said to say he loves your sprint car!

Amy..

MsMazarattii08

Hey Azzuro,

Thank you for your advice also.. I am very appreciative, will have to find out what warrenty we have here in Auz..

Thank you again - Amy..

FastFreddy61

Ms, check out Online Mazda Parts, they're in the US ,but, are very cheap compared to a dealer in Oz, forget about SuperCheap or Repco, they don't **** from clay. And, real Sprint car's have wings