Hey there! I was wondering if anyone in my area (Richmond/Chesterfield, VA) would be willing to get together and help me work on my car.
We could have a get together of sorts whenever we needed help.
I keep seeing a few RX-8's driving around here but I don't think any of them are on this forum unfortunately.
I also don't mind driving to Hampton/VB to meet up also bc I go there almost every other weekend.
Lemme know! My first project is going to be my spark plugs n wires. :-)

 

if ya ever come up to pa hit me up. i would gladly help out members here but dont have the time to travel distance atm

 

Damn to bad your not closer...I don't get to PA hardly ever now that my grandparents have passed.
I wish there were more people around me that actually worked on their cars. I know how to do everything with help of the DIY but sometimes with 2 people things go a little more smoother and faster esp when they have worked on their car before.
I've seen about 4 different RX-8's in my area but most of them are older people who I'm sure take their car to the dealership for EVERYTHING...so guess I'm SOL for now...lol

 

sry but the offer stands if ya ever find yourself in my neck of the woods. my bro owns a garage too with two lifts, three deep bays and every tool you could think of

 

Im in Towson, MD thats a bit closer

 

Yea looks like your about 2 hrs away which isnt bad at all. Considering I drive to Va beach every other weekend and that's also about 2hrs.
I'll have to keep in touch with you bc I really want to check out my spark plugs and/or replace them, also going to prob paint my calipers but I can prob do that here myself. I'm just nervous about doing my plugs myself for the first time.

 

^ feel the same about doing plugs/wires/coils, im at 33k miles and they need to go before i start misfiring and destroying my cat.

 

eric where in nj? im about 45min from the water gap.

 

^ I'm now basically IN Del Water Gap (and commute into NYC, so I cross the entire northern end)

 

I'm at 59k right now and I bought it with 54k. I don't even know when the last time the plugs, wires, and coils were changed. I'm starting to feel a loss of power a little bit and I'm thinking this will prob help. Anything electrical I just want to be very careful.
I have space at my house to work on my car, just need the tools.
I ended up plasti dipping my front lip this weekend and it looks great but I was too impatient and when I went to take the paper off I ripped some of it so I'm going to have to redo it this weekend.

 

Plugs are probably the easiest thing to do to get some confidence

Get a 3/8ths plug socket for $3 from an autoparts store, a swivel joint and extension or several smaller extensions (they allow some flex, ~3-5 sections is enough flex to work with), and you can access them through the driver's front wheel well. Just remove one wire boot from a plug, remove the plug, check the new plugs to make sure you are putting the T plugs in the Top plug holes, and the L plugs in the Lower plug holes (Leading and Trailing, but Top and Lower work accurately as well, easier to remember). Don't torque down the plugs hard, just some gentle wrist torque enough to be snug. Reconnect the plug wire. Repeat one by one for the remaining 4.

Coils require a bit more to get to, but it's hard to replace them one at a time, easiest to remove all 4, but then you have all 4 plug wire ends laying there and if you aren't paying attention you can get confused. I use this picture quite a bit to make the wiring order clear:


If you are doing plug wires too, then just remove everything, install the plugs, install the coils, and then connect the wires one by one in that order. Really simple stuff

 

I'm down in Midlothian every couple of months at the very least, I can hit you up next time I'm down that way, probably end of the month beginning of next.

 

looks like your about 2 hrs away which isnt bad at all

 

im about half an hour from nyc :/ Everything takes a massively long time the first time i do something on my car, i quadruple check everything and go slowly. Just installed my clear corners and it took about 45 minutes, 30 of which was just figuring out how to remove the first marker and remove the light plug.

 

hollar if you want some help, or even just someone else there :

 

dont even want to tell you how long the exhaust took... okay ill tell, i started at 7pm with 2 friends and ended at 2am, though from 7-8 i was waiting on a third friend with wd40 for the hangers, 8-9 was getting the oem off, 10-11 was food break at popeyes, 12-1:30 was waiting for a fifth and sixth friend who could cut my spring bolts 2am they all left.

woke up the next morning with half the new exhaust hanging from the car without any jacks or anything, had to jack the car up with a scissor jack and reach as much as i could(face was just about touching the diff cover) and took 45minutes to get 1 hanger off.

Drove to my mechanic (with my exhaust ending at my cat, sounded like a wild mythical beast that just screams terror into your mind, as soon as i started it up the AWS kicked in and scared me shitless) to cut my spring bolts to size



HMM.... took me 6 hours to take my radio out and install the Grom.... took literally 4 hours figuring out how those plugs disconnect, encountered them when taking the corners out and cursed at them.

(all of this was done this winter btw... set up 2 heaters in my garage, managed to lose sensation in my feet twice during the grom install)

I have no problem taking my time, its a quality i guess, though i lack the innate quality to know exactly what to do even when reading a guide. And im getting a fd this summer or next go figure.

 

I still owe you popeyes for that fail of a night, sorry bro!

 

See that's the thing. I know how to change spark plugs on a regular car no problem....it's the T n L plugs that I DO NOT want to screw up lol
I know it's prob easy peasy but the first time you do something is always the hardest. When I installed my clear corners it took 10 mins to do the first and like 2 mins to do the second lol

 

Sounds good, just shoot me a PM and I'll give you my number when you're in the area.

 

sway the plugs are marked l and t and so are the plug holes on the rotor housing

 

Fixed so he doesn't think you meant I and T

 

HEY GUY! I'm a chick btw....lol
Check out my pics....



Maybe I'll find some courage to check them out this weekend. Thanks for the info!

 

My bad

I have avatars and sigs turned off, and don't automatically go hunting through people's pictures


You have surprisingly few leghumpers following you around for a rotorchick

 

I know...I don't post much at all.
I don't really scream out that I need attention either like a lot of girls....

Just trying to find some cool *** people with cool *** cars like me to chill with and work on my car with. You think it would be easy too.

Like I said I've seen like 6 8's in my area and I'm the only one with mods going on, as few as I have. Wish I had an unlimited budget bc she would be tricked out. I'm doing an intensive search for tsunami side skirts with no luck due to them not making them anymore. :-(

 

hit me up next time you have some work to do on it and I can prob help out.. Im more northern va, but Im down towards richmond pretty regularly. Fredricksburg pretty often too