First off, im sorry for making quite a bit of post, yall just have so much information. I just recently got the car and absolutely love it, and am trying my hardest to keep it up to date so it can run long as possible! So my question... 69.2k miles, it has not had a coolant change/flush or transmission/diff fluid change/flush. Its an 08 automatic. Money is kind of tight, but I want to knock one of these out. Which one do yall prefer?

 

Good thing you posted this in the new member's forum, where rude scolding is prohibited.

If you're stuck only affording one, do the coolant. These cars are very intolerant of overheating. Replacing an engine costs lots more than replacing a transmission.

When you have the money, get the other stuff done. Also, read the new owner's sticky for a full list of recommendations. If that's overwhelming, at least look at the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual and catch up with that.

Ken

 

Yeah I had to, have no where NEAR the knowledge in cars, let alone the RX8 like majority of people here. Lately, I buy the supplies yall recommend and take it to a family friend mechanic to put eveything on and do. For this coolant flush, my understanding, is go ahead and buy 2 gallons of FL-22 from Mazda and some distilled water to bring to the mechanic?

 

If your rad cap states fl-22 use fl-22 only no water if not then use normal anti freeze. Google it first but I'm almost positive you don't mix fl-22 unless some of the older members can chime in.

 

Oh okay , yeah it says fl-22, but i was a bit confused on the materials "5 gallons of distilled water", because once you drain it, dont you want to run some water through it to clear it up first, then top it off with only the fl-22 in the reservoir?

 

Yea flush it out with diswater is fine but drain it as much as you can as I said I'm not 100% but I think you use straight fl-22 only when filling coolant back up for running.

 

Okay! Thanks a lot for replies! Yeah im wanting to go ahead and flush out all the old, and put completely new fl-22 in there. Going to take care of it monday i suppose! Appreciate it

 

Just found this it's already premixed do don't water it down any more than it is.
http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/01-033-07-1830b.pdf