Greeting fellow Canadians;

Was just wondering if everyone else is having the following problems with your new RX8's???

1. Both Rear Taillights Assemblies cracking
2. Oil Pressure indicator needle is not right in the middle as it should (mine is 3 notches HIGH)
3. Temperature Guage Needle also is not right in the middle as it should (mine is 3 to the COLD)

Other than that I love my New RX8 (6 days old - 680 kms on it)

Cheers
Andrew

 

hey another Andrew... that's cool. welcome guy.

your rear tails BOTH cracked, just out of the blue?? that should NEVER happen.

also, the oil pressure gauge is an idiot light: on or off, it doesn't show real pressure. it's probably just misaligned.

the temp guage i don't know enough about: it could be your thermostat, or the guage, or something else... have you been to your dealer to fix these things that shouldn't be happening?? i sure hope so.

again, welcome.

 

Welcome Andrew! Another Ottawa member I think we have 6 now.

You, Me, Len, Fritzman, mdmaclean, mac

The guages sound normal, that's what mine are set to.

The lights though shouldn't be cracked!

 

*shrug* ok.

haha, no i don't have the car (nor sat in one... yet). don't mind me.

 

My guages are also the same.

 

My gauges are the same too.

 

Wow 6 of us!!! Kewl

As for the rear taillights I talked to Mazda Canada and they know its a problem. Apparently the Rx8 suspension is too tight for the body so when the body torques the clear exterior lens crack. Nice eh.....I have 2 on order and the joke is that when I get those 2 in I'll be ordering 4 more so they have them in stock for me. The dealership has no clue when I'll be getting my taillights....nice eh?

As for the gauges......I have owned BMW's and Honda's and as far as I am concerned they should be pointing straight up. I didn't pay 46K for mis-aligned gauges.

Do you guys go to the Place D'Orleans Car shows on Wednesdays. I was there last week and I was the only RX8....a few 2nd and 3rd Gen RX7's were there. I had a good time yaping about the cars.

Let me know and check your taillights!!!

Andrew

 

I'm pretty sure that you are the first to post a problem with cracked taillights. I don't profess to read all the threads but this would have registered on the oh-oh scale. One of the things that the RX-8 is claiming is the low level of flexing (hence the fixed rear seats). I would call again to see if you get a similar answer.

edit-
Could you post a pic of the cracked tailights?

 

The temperature guage is also a dressed up "idiot light"
They have been doing this for years on the RX-7.

BTW, if you want to see the guages in action, do this:
Hold down the right hand trip meter button ( the "A" one)
Insert the key and start your car.
Observe the dash, guages, etc.
You are now in diagnostic mode.
Press the button on the trip meter again.

With each press it will go a step forward and will cycle through the different test and diagnostic steps, including the guages.
When you get to the oil and temp guages note that these only have two possible readings. Off and where you see them when you drive.

If you want, take the car for a spin this way and watch the displays. It is kind of neat.

Here's another neat trick:
With the car running, press and hold down the left hand trip meter button for about 4 seconds. It will switch the speedo to MPH instead of KMH.

To go back, press and hold again.

 

Gauges sound fine to me. For what reason would you think they should be point straight up an down? The proper operating position is just going to be some arbitrary point on the dial face.

As for the clear tail lights... the rear suspension being too tight and causing the body to torque the taillight housings? That's the saddest excuse I've ever heard.

But, if they know they are having a problem with the clear housings, this could be good. Hopefully they'll release a solid-red taillights cluster and I can get these gawd-awful Altezza look lights off the car.

I know on a lot of car's (like the EVO) that come with Altezza's in the US, the hot thing to do now is swap the Japanese solid-red tails back on. Gotta get all that factory rice off the car. Looks like the RX-8 has Altezza's world wide though.

 

Hmmm my lights aren't cracked, nobody else has mentioned this yet!

I haven't been to the Wednesday night car show, I have been to the Tuesday night one in Kanata a couple of times and we have a "meet" there with 2 RX8's and 4 guys from the forum showed up.

Orleans is too far, since I live in Kanata, and now that gas is $1 a liter!

As far as the guages as canzoomer said it's arbitrary, why straight up? My hyundai actually had it over the mid point for the temp guage.

Something I've never paid attention to, but will probably notice in the winter, does the temp guage rise slowly? I hope it's not also a dummy light, even the hyundai had a working temp guage.

 

I will post the pix of my cracked tail lights soon....It might be difficult since they are clear so hopefully they will turn out. As for the gauges, them pointing straight up (right in the middle) is pleasing to my eye telling me there's nothing wrong with my car...thats all...like I said before my BMW and Honda had them pointing straight up and it gave me peace of mind.

My first full tank of gas lasted me 377 km all city driving with the A/C on most of the time too. I am driving to Washington DC in 2 weeks I will report on long distance with Cruise Control results when I get back.

Cheers
Andrew

 

I have the guage problem too. On my BMW all the guages were pointing straight up when at normal operating condition. This is normal for race cars as well, so that you can observe at a glance that everything is OK.

I was planning to bring this up at my first service. It sounds like everyones guages are exactly off by the same amount.

 

As I said in the previous posting the "temperature guage" is really a dressed up "idiot light"
It has 2 settings: On and off.
To verify for your self read my posting and try the trick with the diagnostic mode.

 

just checked for you gael, my gauges are the same as yours, but my tail lights are not cracked

 

My gauges are the same. Is their really a problem since all of our gauges appear to be reading the same?

 

It has more than 2 settings, it has a range from C - 3 notches below centre.

I watched my guage this morning it started at C then SLOWLY moved up to the resting point. If it was "ON - OFF" only it would be C then bam it would shoot up. I suspect it will be more obviously in the winter, it will stick in the middle for a bit while warming up.

The oil pressure I believe is on-off, though.

I played with my dash this morning saw the DSC OFF ligh and the traction control light. I don't have either so that was neat, funny they even put the led in the hold for them!

went around a corner this morning and BIG OVERSTEER going to have to be carefull in the winter!

 

Here is a picture of the left cracked rear taillight:

 

Here is a pic of my cracked Right Taillight

 

Make that 7 for Ottawa

I went to the Wednesday night show at Place on the 27th and I was the only one there. Sombody told me that there was blue 8 there the week before. You?

I'm going out to check the taillights right now. Which dealer have you been talking to that "knows" of the problem.

 

The gauge positions are normal - nobody ever said that all cars had to be the same, did they? The oil pressure idiot gauge shows just to the right of centre (and as noted, is an on/off deal), but the coolant temperature is NOT on/off, it's a damped analog gauge that shows normal operating temperature as just to the left of centre.

I don't care whether they point straight up or not - lots of cars have gauges that point to the right or left! Those positions are normal, so I certainly wouldn't bother complaining to a dealer about them. Who really wants a dealer pulling apart their dash to reposition the gauge needles???

Regards,
Gordon

 

I missed the last Place Car Show. The week before I was the only 8 there and I'm Titanium Grey unless he came a lot later then me. My car was stealing the show away...no other car had the most crowds. As for the gauges, you pay high 40's for a car I would expect even the "IDIOT" gauges to show normal. But then I'm picky..guess BMW spoiled me.

Andrew

 

How about this Wednesday.. last show at Place

Tim

 

Tim

Sure I can be there anytime after 6pm.

Andrew

 

Anybody else in the area going to go.....

Come-on let's get a big happy family picture

Tim