Tac12345

Hey I found a 2009 RX-8 with 78K miles and a clean no accident carfax. But knowing 8s require good care, I wanted to get some advice on how to approach this. I've read all about maintience for an RX-8.

carid

Welcome aboard and congratulations on your purchase, sounds like a great find. This forum is a treasure trove of advice for anyone getting into the RX8 game! Feel free to ask away all the questions you have in mind.

slipz1622

id start with this

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...2/#post4533732

at the very least get a compression test, that thread (next post after the link) starts talking about compression tests

hoosier1104

iTrader: (2)

Compression test Compression test Compression test Compression test Compression test

Khurram

Did anyone mention "Compression Test"? lol

Welcome to the forum!

Read the new/potential owner thread to get a better insight of what kind of demon this car is.

Get a compression test, and maintenance history if possible.
09 with 78K sounds decent depending on the price tag.

All the best!

deadlyfishes

Yes, compression test would be great, feel free to post it up on the forum for us to nitpick at it lol

elford_tim

Maybe a compression test?

Seriously, take it to a Mazda dealer - unless you're fortunate enough to have a reputable rotary specialist close to you or the car, only the dealer has the equipment to perform the correct rotary compression test. Anybody who objects to having a compression test done either has something to hide or doesn't know enough about them to grok why you want one, so you probably don't want to buy an RX8 from them either.

IMHO there are only two ways to buy any car with a rotary engine, either with verified good compression or cheap enough that the engine rebuild is worth doing.

MazdaRX8Lover

But did you get compression test?

Neil B

Is a Mazda dealership the best place to get the compression test? How much should I expect to pay?

elford_tim

I just had one done on the RX8 I just bought, they charged me an hour of labour which was $145 for the compression test and they also checked over the rest of the car at the same time.

Unless you have a rotary specialist near you, a Mazda dealer is the only place that can do a real compression test on these engines. You need a special tester to make the test meaningful - while a modified tester for a "normal" engine can give you an indication, it's pretty much reading tea leaves whereas the Mazda tester will give you a precise reading per chamber.

slipz1622

a rotary specialist would be probably the "best" but not all places have them around, a mazda dealer is a the best alternative. as for the price, every dealer / specialist is different, the dealer closest to me charged $160, but I've seen people say $100.... honestly though if you are buying a car from a dealer you can probably get them to front at least half the bill... if not all of it.

iTs Ghastly

Also, it may be worth noting that when you get your compression test it should have 3 numbers per rotor, as well as the rpm it was tested at. If your compression test results look anything like
Rotor 1: 80psi
Rotor2: 86psi

or
Rotor 1: healthy
Rotor 2: healthy

or anything with just one number per rotor or no numbers at all, you did not get anything meaningful from your test.
ideally you should get something that looks like

Rotor 1: 110psi, 108psi, 110psi
Rotor 2: 110psi, 110psi, 108psi
RPM: 250
then adjusted to your altitude at area of testing.

measurements can be in other units but you want 3 numbers per rotor and your RPM with your results

with your results after normalization you can verify good compression via this chart
http://www.rx8help.com/img/compression_chart.png

Do Not purchase any used Rx8 , regardless of mileage, who the seller is, anything of the sort, without a proper compression test.

John Hammer

When I was in the market to buy a used RX-8, I wished I had known about this forum. My first used car purchase from a private party turned out to be a lemon for sure. I’ve learned a lot since this time and haven’t made the same mistake again.