Junzhi

Hey everyone! Just bought a used, blue 2005 RX-8 with around 27k miles on it for $15k.

Unfortunately, it seems the previous owner must've driven it really hard cause I already had to get my tires and front brakes replaced.

I began hearing squeeks from time to time from my brakes a week ago, and brought it to the dealership today to get them checked and ask if the previous owner already brought it to all necessary recalls. Thankfully, the owner did bring it for all recalls, but unfortunately, I found out that I needed new tires for at least for the rear.

So, I decided to just get 4 new tires since the front ones would be needing to be changed really soon as well, maybe another 5k miles, and there was already a whole in it so I didn't want to risk it not knowing the previous owner of the car. That being said, my dealer picked out these tires for me, and I foolishly just went with everything he said and bought them.

Later I told my mom about the purchase(I'm still a college student with no income sadly) and she got pissed and said I should never trust the dealership and that I got totally ripped off.

I checked online and sure enough, I could've gotten the same tires for maybe $100 cheaper, excluding shipping. Of course, I also should have picked out tires of my own choice, like high performance summer tires, but I just trusted that the service person knew what he was talking about and was giving me his honest advice.

I inspected the tires myself and sure enough, the tires really are worn, but really, how much can we trust our dealerships? I'm not just talking Mazda, but every one.

Do you guys go to small shops for service/inspection or do you still go to dealers despite the relatively high prices they charge? I was thinking that it made sense to go to a dealership since I question how much small shops would know about rotary engines, but at the same time, I didn't even have any problems with my engine so far, so maybe it's better to only go to a dealership when it's necessary..

Thanks for the input!

The Reverend

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you learned your lesson, at least it wasn't on YOUR tab heheh.

I come to the forums for two reasons because I like to learn about my car and I don't want to have to take it to the dealership if at all possible. Read around the forum there is really not much you cannot do on your own with the knowledge that is here.

WTBRotary!

iTrader: (6)

^^^ Word...

expo1

While you should never trust the dealership I do not see that in this particular incident they were really that bad. Worn tires @ 27k is not that unheard of. Brakes depend on the type of driving the last owner did. Expecting a brick & mortar business the size of a dealership to price match 'cheaptires.com' is also not realistic. That still doesn't change my overall feeling that dealerships are not to be trusted. Mine went out of business this year so I must not have been the only one to feel that way.

Junzhi

Oh no I don't mean to say I don't trust their inspection, just that they charge significantly higher than other parties on the tires/service. I think I could have bought the same tires for $160 + shipping each, but they charged me $250.

Of course, that might be a result of their needing to pay for the waiting lounge, wifi, and the huge building, but either way, I should have picked out my own tires and bought them elsewhere.

That's just my question though, are their prices justified or are they ripping us all off?

Hehe I guess from now on I'll try to do these things by myself though! Hopefully I can learn more about cars at the same time to fulfill my curiosities since I'm a EE major and learn absolutely nothing about cars in school..

btw thanks for all the replies!

expo1

Did that $250 also include the mounting and disposal of the old tires?
That said my warranty ran out almost four years ago. I have gotten by ok with little help from a dealership. The one time I had an important issue they got the diagnoses wrong. For many things you can do it yourself, the amount of info on the net is incredible. You can also just use the dealership to troubleshoot issues and then have someone else fix the car. There are also many rotary shops across the country, you might not be far from one.

Junzhi

Umm.. it came out to be $1100 or so total for everything dealing with the tires..

I didn't know that there were rotary shops though! That's definitely interesting and I'll surely be looking into that. And using the dealership to inspect the problems would be a good idea too.

Thanks for all the help! I'm quite fond of learning so hopefully I can learn a few things from this forum and maybe start fixing a few things myself

dmorales

It doesn't sound like you got totally ripped off, but you should learn to have done research first. You could have chosen your own tires for example.

But I have had this car for about 5 years now and I have almost 110,000 miles and I have NEVER got 27k out of a set of tires no matter what brand...although I might get close on the Yokohoma I have on now.

As for the brakes...I highly doubt they needed to be changed, the squeaking is a pretty common issue. You could've searched and found that out.

It sounds like you're set for any future issues though.

Happy Motoring!
________
Roll a joint

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Tires at 27k, replacing OEM, it sounds like the previous owner wasn't driving it hard enough. I got 16k off my OEM tires, though 35k off my Yokohama S Drives without slowing down one bit.

I am still on my original brake set, though pads are due for replacing now. I use engine braking a ton. If the dealer replaced your pads and/or rotors (Assuming just pads, since everything from the dealer is over $1k by themselves, not including tires that you got) because of squeaking, then they were just happy to charge you for something you didn't need. OEM brakes squeak anyway, even if installed properly and with plenty of life left.

So yeah, you should have researched a bit more first, but most of this stuff you can do yourself. The new tires probably nto of course, though there are alot of places to buy tires from other than the dealer, and alot of places to have them mounted other than the dealer. The brakes you can do yourself for far far cheaper, same with coils, plugs, wires, oil changes, transmission fluid changes, diff is a bit more difficult, but doable.

Mazda made this car extremely easy to work on, very little reason to pay a dealer to do any of it.

CyberPitz

Yeah, having a dealership do tires isn't the best plan, just because there are other places that specialize in working with tires like that and do it for less.

I'd only use the Dealership for warranty issues alone. If I can do it myself and not screw something major up, then more money for me.

Junzhi

Alright well learned my lesson haha.. I'll do some more research from now on and try to do as much as I can by myself. It'd be interesting to learn more about my car anyway.

The service person said that my brakes needed to be replaced though but I guess he could've just been lying.. guess I'll never know since I have no idea how to inspect it myself.

My only question now is.. seeing as how I can change my brake pads and all that by myself, how will I know when to change them? I thought that squeeking was a sign that I would have to change them but if it's a common problem, then how would I know when to change them and.. doesn't that mean they're going to still make that annoying noise after they're replaced?

Thanks a bunch for the help guys

CyberPitz

My brakes only squeak when I first start moving and it is cold out. Once they are warmed up, it's fine.

If it's a constant squeak, it could be they need changed. You can go buy new ones, then take a pad out and compare the size of the pad left. If you notice it's WAY too low, then change them, otherwise save the new pads for when you do change em out.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Your brake fluid level is another rough indication without taking anything off your car. As the brake pads wear down, the caliper will remain farther and farther closed, which moves it further from the master cylinder, which allows a high volume of fluid in the line. Across all 4 brakes, this will give you a brake warning light from low fluid when they are getting close to needing changing. This doesn't really work if you manage to wear one wheel or axle alot faster than the rest, so it is just a rough guess.

And if the "squeak" all the time, you are probably still fine. If you apply the brakes harder and it vanishes, then it is normal, and not a problem (remember, these are higher performance brakes than your standard street car, and thus have more metal in them, since noise is less of a concern). If it is more of a squeal, and gets louder when you stand on the brakes hard, then your low-pad wear bar is grinding into your rotor, and you need them replaced ASAP.

I'm still on my original set a 50k, and they still 'squeak', but never 'squeal', and any noise vanishes when I brake even moderately hard.

CarAndDriver

Welcome - did you post any pics of your 8 yet?

So what tires did you get and what tires were on the car? Front brakes should have lasted longer than 27K under normal street driving.

I wouldn't say never trust a dealership - but I'd never do anything they suggested without doing research about it on here. And for any major work, try to find a good Mazda mechanic in you area. I find the dealership markup is outrageous for servicing in my area.

And there are a lot of items on the 8 that can be improved by not going with the Mazda stock replacement.