Hi all,

After years of following rotaries and dreaming about having an RX-8, I finally found one locally that seems very clean. 2009 Grand Touring, Velocity Red w/ 81,000 miles. Engine has 140psi and interior looks great...some wear, not tears.

Two things:

1. Clutch is very "chattery" and shifting between gears can be rough at times. I've taken to slipping the clutch out at 3k rpm to launch smoothly. Only mod is a short shifter which I think I'm going to return to stock. Do I have a terminal clutch issue that warrants replacement?
2. Passenger side dash has lots of cracks....I've seen this a lot on other RX-8s as well. What's the fix? Doesn't bother me all that much, mainly cosmetic.

Terry Wyse
-----------------------
Waxhaw NC
2019 Mazda MX-5 Club
2018 Mazda 3 Grand Touring.

 

Welcome to the club Terry! Definitely post some pics. Is the clutch issue the only problem? As for your questions:

1. The short shifter mod is usually really good and probably not the source of your issues. Your best bet if you are not used to working on manual transmissions is to get it into a shop for a diagnosis. It sounds like it's either an issue with the clutch/pressure plate or the shift fork. It would require dropping the transmission to know for sure.

2. Yes, those are cracked on almost every RX8 I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot!). The best solution is a wrap, but making sure to leave weak points around the "H" shaped airbag area. I've also seen people do a leather wrap. To buy a new one from Mazda is $300 and it will probably crack again anyways.

 

Had my brother drive it last evening and he’s thinking it could be clutch hydraulics. I think I’ll replace that first since it’s inexpensive before going deeper.

here’s a photo of it at work yesterday.

 

A warped or scored flywheel surface will cause clutch chatter on take off. Likely the clutch was replaced and the flywheel was not resurfaced.

As for your 140psi of compression, I feel as though you were misled. That's just a stratospheric number I'm afraid. You will want to have a proper compression test performed with a rotary compression tester. This will verify each rotor face's compression.

The passenger side air bag cover can be replaced as a unit and the air bag and inflator transferred to the new unit. As mentioned above, this is all too common but it can be replaced or wrapped. Mazda likely never issued a recall qon the cracking dash as it is not safety related, just cosmetic.

 

Is the clutch pedal sinking and not coming back up? That could indicate an issue with the clutch master/slave cylinders.

 

I second that the 140psi compression number you were told is way too high. Any idea where that number came from? I've been searching for my 3rd rx8 and many sellers report similar astronomical numbers, most of the time from mazda dealers.

If you plan on keeping the rx8 long term getting a compression tester from rotarycompressiontester.com is a good buy. Sometimes they do deals which may be found on this forum from time to time. With this tester generally a 70-80Psi engine is nearing rebuild with a 120+psi being an all new engine.

 

The best RX8 I ever tested was 8.8 bar to 9.3 bar on all rotor faces. Happily, I own it. Still shy of 140 psi so I doubt that engine is making it; but it’s not impossible. For reference, 140 psi = 9.6-9.7 bar. Possible in an RX8 I contend.

 

I agree, I would still like to think this case is very unlikely, but man I wish I had 8.8 bar on my rx8, I only have half of that according to the tester!

 

Clutch “failed” last weekend. Won’t fully disengage and goes to the floor. Immediately assumed it was clutch master/slave cylinder. Son and I vacuum bled the system but there was no air and the hydraulics seem OK. Got it the shop as we speak. Hope to have a diagnosis tomorrow

terry

 

Keep us updated on what the shop finds!