Yeah, you might want to get a list of what all is being done.

I'm dead serious when I say that someone with experience on these cars can change plugs, coils, and wires in 20 minutes.

 

Called them today after work, then drove home and this is the closest to the original call that I can remember:

*Phone picks up*
[Me]: "Hi this is [Me], I am calling about the RX-8 I had to bring back in for some work."
[Dealership Employee]: "Oh, let me go get [Salesperson]."
[Salesperson]: "Hi, this is [Salesperson], what was this about?"
[Me]: "I'm calling about my RX-8. I had to bring it in for some work."
[Salesperson]: "Oh yeah right. Well we changed the plugs, wires and coils and the light was still coming on."
[Me]: "Oh, okay..."
[Salesperson]: "Yeah, I had it sent to Mazda to see what else is going on. About what RPM did you see the light?"
[Me]: "Every time I got to about 7,000 RPMs..."
*He interrupts me*
[Salesperson]: "Yeah that's pretty high, it might just be 'the nature of the beast'."
[Me]: "I know that a lot of people who drive these, try to redline them once in a while to help prevent carbon build up and thats at 8,500."
[Salesperson]: "Well! I would never warranty a car if you do that."
*I interrupt him*
[Me]: "I haven't done that, but its what I've read."
[Salesperson]: "...So am waiting to hear back from Mazda, what is a number I can reach you at?"
*I give him my number and we exchange pleasantries and hang up*

 

Good luck. You could easily have a fight on your hands. They clearly don't know what they are doing.

 

Yeah I'm a little nervous, but they brought it to a Mazda dealership, so they'll probably know what the heck is going on.

 

Love hounds, Just because your at a Mazda dealership doesn't mean someone there know's what they are doing. This could really turn into a battle and i would prepare for such.

 

yeah, don't be so sure about that. Dealerships of any make tend to have techs that rotate between various brands as they get tired or fed up with personality conflicts or particular jobs, or pay or whatever. As such, most techs at any given dealership only know the basics about piston cars, and always turn to the dealer's service manuals for the specific "how to" information. In the case of the RX-8, much of the diagnosis for problems with the 8 are either lacking detail, missing steps, or downright wrong. Most of it is correct, but most of the correct diagnoistics documentation is for stuff that doesn't typically go wrong.

Couple that with a huge degree of misunderstanding about this car and it's engine, and well, it's more common that a dealership will just keep throwing parts and charges at the car until they don't want to deal with it any more, and don't even know how to replicate the problem, much less know what is needed to fix it.

A random misfire on an 8 is NOT something I would trust a dealership to be able to diagnose.

 

You could ask the sales dolt to look at the tach for the red line and call you back...

 

Should have spent the money on the BHR ignition. Could have saved yourself some time and a major headache by doing that. With plugs, the kits comes out to $580 shipped. Just saying.

 

No call from the dealer yet, damn it really sucks not having this car back. Also a few people have been stating I "should have spent my money on the BHR ignition" and so on. Just to reiterate, I've spent approximately 30 bucks on gas for this so I think I am doing alright.

 

From my understanding the Majority of the members were simply trying to help you avoid a headache. Many dealerships cause more problems than they solve.

 

Thought: if the non-Mazda dealer is willing to listen, maybe they'd like to replace your coils with a BHR kit under warranty. Mazda would never do that, but this other place? Who knows. Long shot, but sweet talk them

 

I'm pretty sure that they have already put new coils, plugs, and wires in but the issue persisted, which is why they brought it to Mazda. I actually had a similar thought but I decided I would see what they said first, then everything kinda just happened.

 

Called the dealership again. So from what the Salesperson said, the Mazda dealership couldn't find anything wrong with the car, so he sent it to another "Mazda mechanic". This new guy believes that the car was babied it entire life, which I bet is the case with a car that's 10 years old and only has ~30,000 on it, so his conclusion is that there is carbon buildup in the chambers and/or the intake valves that open at higher RPMs are stuck shut, thus choking the engine at 7k. The Salesperson said that this mechanic still wanted to test a few more things to be sure then they would address those issues. Progress?

 

That is a completely logical answer and a very easy thing for them to fix.
I would call that progress. Let them keep looking and if they find nothing else, have them sea foam / de carb the engine, pull and clean the SSV.

 

I still say upgrade to the BHR ignition as piece of mind. Eliminate a weak point/point of failure. Work smarter not harder.

 

sounds like progress.

did they change coils? if not, and since we already discussed white spots, my rule is "if you did not install the coil, it is bad". the newer ones seem better, but it is likely you have origional ones given your mileage..



Posted From RX8Club.com Android App

 

Got a call from the dealership just a minute ago. The other Mazda mechanic de carb the engine and clean/checked the valves and they are functioning properly but the car still reads a misfire any time it gets to 7k. As such the dealership wants to take the car back and give me back what I put down. I don't know what to do, ****! Any suggestions on handling this?

 

Depends on how badly you want to keep this car. If you REALLY want to keep it, I suggest you learn how to change coils, plugs & wires, buy new ones and do it yourself.
Blinking CEL is a misfire, period.
If all you had was a misfire code for certain, then the dealer is jerking you around by either not changing parts, using inferior parts, are not installing them correctly.
They may want to take the car back to eliminate fixing it properly,($), and unloading it as is on some other unsuspecting customer.
My 2¢.
Good luck.

 

Oh yeah, before you commit to keeping the car, get a rotary specific compression test on it before you sink any more money into it. Maybe you can get the dealer to get it checked under warranty since they don't seem to understand the rotary to begin with.

 

Have they reset the e-shaft profile ?

 

okie, so the car's redline is at 9K and he wouldn't warranty it because it went up to 8.5K ?

I wonder if that moron even knows what a rx8 is.

 

I'm gonna call the dealership back in a few minutes and ask what they have done so far and go from there.

 

Well I'm getting my money back, because according to them they have "run out of things to fix". Maybe I'll go for a Series II next time.

 

So they put the car back up for sale... Link to the car's page at the dealership follows:
Mazda RX-8 2004 in Waterbury Norwich Middletown | CT | National Auto Brokers, Inc. | 112289