New RX-8 owner in Louisville, looking for a good shop.
 

Hello, I just bought an 04 RX-8 (beautiful winning blue) and I'm super excited about it. I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a reputable shop in Louisville, KY that knows RX-8s in and out.

Moving to the regional subforums.

But there aren't "RX-8 shops". It's a common question based on an assumption that there are shops that know the RX-8, but the RX-8 isn't common enough to make such a focus profitable. Pretty much the only "RX-8 shop" in existence is BHR's shop in AZ. There are maybe a dozen shops around the US that focus on rotaries, but even then, most of their experience is with the RX-7, not the RX-8. Some larger number more may have a Mazda focus, like dealerships. But even dealerships with access to OEM material usually don't really know what they are doing with RX-8s either.


In the end, the RX-8 has it's quirks, but we can tell you about them here. It has a unique engine, but you won't actually be dealing with that unless your engine fails. Everything else is common to many other cars, and any shop can do the work. You will pay through the nose vs learning to do it yourself, so many of us have just learned to maintenance work ourselves since it's REALLY easy, but shops will still charge you crazy labor times.

So don't worry so much about a specific shop unless you happen to live near one of the good rotary ones (and I don't think there are any in that area), and if something odd comes up ask here first in case it's an easy free fix, and if not, we can arm you with knowledge of what to tell your mechanic.

If you are on Facebook, join 'Louisville Rotary'. There are guys on there that know people that know a lot about everything. Good luck and maybe I'll see you around town.
*There's also rotarycarclub.com and 502streetscene.net

Thanks for the quick reply. What you said makes a lot of sense, most of that I kinda figured. Perhaps I should restate my question.. and change reputable shop to reputable person. :D I'm not looking for a shop or person the works only on RX-8s just a person/place where I could take it that knows what not to do.

I don't mind doing the work myself, however, sometimes my time is more important and I might just need to get something taken care of while I'm at work. :D

pianoman-1: Thanks! I'll do that.

Yep. I've learned a lot on these forums but it can sometimes be information overload and can also tend to make you very paranoid about all the things that can happen. I'm not a mechanic whatsoever, but i was able to take care of the 'common' quirks that can happen that are not mechanical. I've been to both Mazda dealers here in town for the bigger things (engine replacement, mounts, coils, plugs, wires, etc.) and while not cheap they have always done good work and have treated me well.
Do you know about the car? (engine warranty, all the quirks, etc.?)

I think I'm feeling a bit of that information overload you mentioned. I've done a lot of reading on it, most of which has been about the quirks and regular maintenance.

When I bought it, I made sure to get a 2yr/24000mi warranty since It's got 102k miles on it. I just wanna make sure should something happen I take it to the right place that's not going to take 5 tries to fix whatever issue there may be.

There is a hidden rotary gem close by. He knows his rotaries, Granted he hasn't done alot of work to 8's. As far as I know but he has built alot of racing rotaries and high HP rotaries. Just google Ludwig motorsports. Also +1 on the louisville rotary thing on FB. Most of my friends are on that and most on on their double digits of owned rotaries. They are the ones who talked me into my first RX7 and I cut my teeth on a Turbo II.

You don't happen to live in Hillview or frequent that area do you in you WB rx8 do you?