herbert

I just talked to the Downsview shop (in Toronto). I asked how many holes they normally drill. He says 'about 18'. I had no idea it was that many. 18 holes ! Wouldn't that just contribute to rust. Should I worry about this ? Does this void any part of the warranty on the car ?

I saw in another thread that there's a shop in Whitby that will do it without drilling any holes. Anybody else been able to have no holes drilled ? Or are people just not worried about the holes ?

Thanks for any help.

scoop

My 8 is parked so it has not been done. That seems a lot of holes though, in my Subaru there is one in each door, two in the hatch and few down each rocker panel. I use Metropolitan, they put grease on all the plugs before inserting them so that's not likely to be a rust point. The parts that are going to rust are small cavities and seams, not flat surfaces where the plugs are inserted. The benefits far outweigh the risks in my mind. I would take drilling over removing of panels as doing that repeatedly will do more damage. I also question how thorough and consistent the application can be if is done through drain holes and such. I had a VW dealer once tell me that oil spraying my car would void my warranty, I should not have listened, it's a crock and I think the APA or someone has writeup on this issue . . . A friend had his same car oil sprayed every year, I didn't and his lasted several years longer. First I would avoid driving the car at all cost in the winter, if I had no choice I would oil spray it, no question. There were a number of very weight conscious decisions made when designing the 8, factory rustproofing adds a bunch weight. I bet the the undercoating on the 8 is about 25% as thick as on my only Audi winter car, drive the 8 across a bit of gravel and listen to the tinkling of stuff hitting the undercarriage, it's scary . . . I think I would have the belly inspected yearly and touched up if necessary, I had the floor rot out on a couple previous cars, not so good . . .

bean438

One member had his 8 krowned with no holes drilled. Mine had 2, one in each door.
Mazda can void your warranty if holes are drilled, but you will not need the corrosion warranty from them any way if you Krown. Krown has their own warranty.
Mazda's corrosion warranty is for surface corrosion. Since cars rust from the inside out this is useless.
Get Krowned. The only drawback is you have to get it done yearly to maintain warranty.

Hellbreed

As I posted above I didn't get any holes drilled, I watched the whole processes and you wouldn't believe the mist of oil spray that comes out all around the door when you spray up into the 3 drain holes on the bottom of the door, they have one wand that fits inside those holes. The only concern was the rear doors, we wern't sure how to get the oil sprayed in there so the guy called Krown head office and they told him to remove the rubber seal around the wiring harness, it just pops off pretty easy. They stuck the wand inside there and sprayed around, the stuff misted out around the whole door. If there was an area that he couldn't get to then I would have said go ahead and make a hole but 18?! There is NO way you need that many for this car.

herbert

Thanks for your help Hellbreed, Bean438 and Scoop. I'm going to call around to a few more places and see what they say, mentioning that other RX-8s have been done with 0 - 2 holes in the past and so why would mine be any different. Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes.
18 holes ? What do they think they're doing ... making a golf course ?!?!? That reminds me ... I'm really missing golf. Will this winter ever end ?

jgibbons

Agree with above. I was one of the other guys who went to the Whitby Krown dealer. He's done at least five of these things now.

Both Avante and the dealer I bought from in Owen Sound agree that the warranty is unaffected either way (if you drill or not). Personally, the less holes the better.

herbert

Thanks to the help of people on the forum, I have an appt at the Whitby dealer on Friday on my way down to Kingston. I understand that the car will drip for a few days. I was told by one Krown dealer that it won't do any damage to driveways and that it will not be noticeable on a driveway after a few weeks. Anyone out there disagree with that ? What's the experience been so far ?

scoop

The dripping is no big deal, I park the car on the street for a day after I have it done. The quality oil spray stuff is usually engineered mineral oil which I haven't found to be at all destructive to pavement. After the first day you will just get a drip hear and there, it's no big deal and I can't see any remaining residue on my driveway. You might see it on plain interlock or something that is light and stains easily.

Seeing as you are trekking, I would load up that backseat and leave the trunk empty if possible. The place I go to always says not to lift the hatch on my Outback for 48 hours, just the same you probably want to let the oil really soak into the lower seam of the trunk lid on the 8. Many cars rot out badly in that area so I happily follow their advice. They also recommend not washing the car for a week.

magixpuma

So this is a canadian thing damn. I live in new jersey how long do u think the trip would be?
is it worth it.

scoop

Under ideal conditions I would guess 8-10 hours each way. Put it this way it takes me about 5 hours to get from Ottawa to Killington VT and it was almost exactly same travel time for people I knew coming from New York city. That's is not exactly a straight line but it will give you some idea, it's worth the detour anyways for the skiing :-) If you hit a snow storm you could double your time. It's not worth the trip in my mind and it's something you must repeat each year . . . Have a look also for Rust Check, I used that in the past and they operate in the US.