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My Foray into a Cheap RX8 S2....and it was an easy fix!!
I’m a glutton for punishment, but I am the new owner of a 2009 S2 that needs work. Car was on a consignment lot where I was told it would turn over but not run. Intrigued, I ran a Carfax report and discovered the car was a 1 owner, accident free, and dealer serviced since new. I called the MAZDA dealership and spoke with the service manager where I learned it had a new air pump and turn signal relay within the last year. It was traded to a Ford dealership in November, and sent to auction 3 weeks later. My hunch was that moving it around the lot resulted in flooding. Car has 77k miles and not modded. I took a leap of faith and drove 2hrs to buy this car. For $1500 I am very pleased....though I hope to get the starting issue resolved ASAP.
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 01-09-2020 at 07:16 AM.
I got the car home and removed the 3yo battery. Placed it on charge overnight..it was reading 0V, so I thought my first purchase would be a new one.
This morning, battery fully charged and ready for action. I went through the deflood process. Sure enough, you could see the white smoke and smell the raw fuel. (I should add that the coolant is blue and the oil is clear)
About 6 cycles in, I put the fuel pump fuse back and she fired up! I managed to keep the idle up and warmed the car to operating temp. I let the idle down, but it sounds/feels rough. A few minutes later, son asked my “what’s that burning smell?” It was a burning smell for sure, not gas, oil, coolant....so I immediately shut car off thinking the cat could be overheating from raw fuel in the rotor not firing (I read the post about the Shinka that burned up from this). Car has no CEL...but the “DSC”, rpms, and traction control lights are on. Will try the steering wheel,lock-2-lock to see if those clear. Tires aren’t at proper pressures either at the moment.
otherwise, besides a few broken teeth in the window motors (ordered new gears for that), the lights, nav, AC, Bose audio works perfectly.
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 12-29-2019 at 09:18 PM.
Looking through the glove box, I found a handful of dealer receipts. Car was deflooded back in 2015 at 50k miles. Engine was decarboned, fuel system was checked, and new plugs were installed. Unless the dealer can give me more info, my hunch is that the car has the original coils/wires. With this in mind, I am going to replaced those components first and check/clean off the ESS while under there.
Tonight, after the car had been sitting 5-6 hours, I went out and turned key with no other inputs. Car immediately started, rev’d Up smoothly to 2000-2500 RPM, then a few seconds later it starts running rough again like it’s down a rotor then stalls out. You can hear/feel it. Again, no CEL for my scangauge to read.
Sounds like you got a good deal on the car. I would definitely replace the coils and wires and then I would drive the car. If the battery has been dead for some time, the car will need to be driven for the ecu to set all readiness monitors. The engine will likely run much better after the new coils and wires and a drive. The DSC and a traction lights will go out once the car is driven for a bit so don't worry about those for now.
Actually I am not sure how necessary it is to clean the ESS(as in take it out and clean it). On 06+ models they added a sleeve around the ESS to counter the contamination issue. 04 and 05 had a more exposed ESS that's vulnerable to contamination.
IMO you just need to wipe the exposed side of the ESS and that's it.
Car needs a good hard rip around the block. Sounds like it's clogged up and needs what it loves to do, rev high and hard. Take off the cat and see if it's clogged. Start her up with the cat off and see if she runs rough still. If it goes away, there's your problem. It's choking itself. Put in new plugs, coils, wires, OEM will do just fine, and go for a drive. Let her fully warm up, and go through a few gears under full load to redline, and back down again. Interstate on and off ramps are great for this. Do a loop of a couple exits a few times. Let the engine run normal on the stretches between exits, do lots of engine braking and acceleration redline runs on the off and on ramps.
put in fresh fuel with premix, I'd do a 1 ounce to a gallon of fuel, to give extra lubrication.
I might suggest a compression check before putting any further money into the peripheral parts. Maybe someone with a rotary in your area might have a tester they can loan you. Not that you won’t need new coils etc., but if the engine needs replacement you’ll need that big chunk of cash first.
Thanks for the replies! The cat looks to be original, and after tat burning metallic smell from underneath, it certainly is on the list to check (and perhaps gut if clogged). Appreciate the tip on the ESS...still learning particular issues for the two series cars. I have new leading/trailing plugs, waiting on wires and coils to arrive by Friday.
Tonight, my wife asked me if I had tried starting the car again. I told her “no” and that it probable wouldn’t start. I thought for a second and said “what the heck”. Get in car, turn key, comes to life right up to a very smooth 2000rpm. It ran like that for about 30 seconds then stumbled like it was missing, then died. You could smell the raw fuel from the exhaust.
when the parts come in, I’ll turn the engine with the plugs out to evacuate any fuel before putting in new plugs. Car was decarboned and deflooded in Apr 2018 at 50k miles...owner elected to only put in new plugs, so I bet car has original wires/coils that allowed car to flood.
The headlights had a very thick/runny coating of spray clear on them when I picked it up... I’ve already sanded & polished them back to proper clarity.
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 01-05-2020 at 12:57 PM.
Thanks for the replies! The cat looks to be original, and after tat burning metallic smell from underneath, it certainly is on the list to check (and perhaps gut if clogged). Appreciate the tip on the ESS...still learning particular issues for the two series cars. I have new leading/trailing plugs, waiting on wires and coils to arrive by Friday.
Tonight, my wife asked me if I had tried starting the car again. I told her “no” and that it probable wouldn’t start. I thought for a second and said “what the heck”. Get in car, turn key, comes to life right up to a very smooth 2000rpm. It ran like that for about 30 seconds then stumbled like it was missing, then died. You could smell the raw fuel from the exhaust.
when the parts come in, I’ll turn the engine with the plugs out to evacuate any fuel before putting in new plugs. Car was decarboned and deflooded in Apr 2018 at 50k miles...owner elected to only put in new plugs, so I bet car has original wires/coils that allowed car to flood.
even healthy rotaries have a super strong smell. Especially if the cat is gone. Add premix and you can smell one 5 miles away lol. It could also just be that you need to do the "brake stomp" since it runs good on startup, but rough on idle. I've never had to do it, but search the procedure. It's something like 20 brake presses in X time to reset the sensor.
With a cat there will still be some smell at a cold start.
To reset the ESS, 20 brake stomps apply to S1 only. On an S2, you unplug the battery, wait for a few minutes(10 should definitely do), and then press the brake pedal once.
Well, it starts right up...then died after about 30sec at 2000rpm...it was a sudden change akin to a light switch being turned off. Also,exhaust smell was of unburned fuel. I can find nowhere in the service history of the coils/wires ever being changed. I’ll reset the battery and step on the brake once the ignition components are replaced.
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 12-31-2019 at 04:05 PM.
It sure can't hurt to replace the coils and spark plug wires. I'm sure it will help. Odd that it turns off so quickly. Would be great tonget a fuel pressure gauge on it and see if its losing fuel.
You can't rule out low compression until you do a proper compression test with a rotary compression tester. However, I have an 04 that will run until normal operating temperature and then the idle will get low and the engine will lose power and stall. It will not restart for several hours. This is very indicative of a very low compression engine and yours does not sound like low compression is the root cause of the stalling. But it would be good to know where the engine stands.
I only put forth the suggestion because it should be the first thing anyone buying a Renesis engine unaware needs to know about what they’re dealing with. Realizing you’re new here, you need to understand that there won’t be any shortage of trigger-eager muffinheads with little or no idea piping up.
Of course my suggestion is only that. It doesn’t mean the engine compression isn’t fine, but without employing logical methodology you’re more likely to end up chasing your tail in circles like so many other threads on here. Maybe you did get lucky, or maybe it sold cheap because someone else knew repairing it wouldn’t be.
A wise man is going to use his head to think clearly about the correct path to follow rather than pursue wishful ideas.
As suggested you may have to operate the car through a few cold-to-warm (at operating temperature) cycles until the ECU relearns all of the settings. The car is fully warmed up when the S2 lights around the tach look like this (only 1 red light)
Oh I understand and appreciate the advice. I feel the same way about being methodical and deliberate with my work. Based upon a history of very routine maintenance and repair at the dealer by the PO, I do hope I got lucky, but at this price I can get a quality rebuild if needed and not be way upside down in the car.
The car was a one owner, medical professional type judging by the info I scrubbed from the interwebs. I even sent a PM in hopes of some addl info...but I’m mechanically inclined enough to figure this out without his response. Been around cars all my life (I’m closer to being 50 than being 40 nowadays), so I tend to learn what I can before just throwing $$$ at a car. That said...
i just went out to the car and got it running again. It went up to 2000rpm but wasnt super smooth like the other day. I held it there with a little assistance. After a few minutes I backed off the throttle to bring it down to 1500rpm. Car was kinda rattly with vibrations being felt/heard. All of a suddent, the vibrations stopped and the car rev’d up nicely. Engine temp slowly climbed to 180 according to my bluetooth scanner, so I gave it some revs. It was nice and the car seemed happy. Then, as soon as it went smooth, it started with the vibration feeling again. I noticed the same smoke from the other day, so I shut it off and opened the hood. I could hear crackling from underneath, and when I looked under the passenger side of the car...the cat was already glowing red hot! The car had run for less than 10 min, so I am going to take that pipe down and get rid of that obstruction/fire hazard this weekend. The coils/wires will be here Friday. If Car runs good...great! If it runs ok....I’ll look into that compression test.
i have two pics of the cat below....Cheers!
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 01-01-2020 at 04:38 PM.
The Mazda dealer knew this car very well, and I even asked them about compression tests and was told it never came in for running poorly except one flooding incident in 2018 at 50k mi....his bill was $1200 that day! The PO may have never known and unloaded it after 10 years when it died the last time for him, or he knew and didnt want to put any more money into it. I saw a social media post where he simply described his car as fun and zippy for his drive to work.
Here’s the cat after only a few minutes of running...even the aft portion of the resonator is glowing!!!
Last edited by Bayou_Flyer; 01-01-2020 at 04:42 PM.
So there is a lot of unburnt fuel entering the exhaust, that's for sure.
Have you checked the cat to see if it's melted? This is pretty dangerous as you can start a fire this way.
Mine has a very faint glow after driving very spiritedly(holding at 5~6k RPM). I inspected the cat and it was fine. It was not nearly this bright, though, and if I am driving around normally it wouldn't glow at all.
No, on the to do list this weekend...rain over the next two days. I agree with the large amount of unburied fuel...which isn’t surprising to me considering the ignition has to be tired. Even if all 12 ignition components were replaced, they would have 25k miles or more. I won’t start it again until the Midpipe is lowered....the fire hazard is too real to tempt that again.
Again, this was only a few minutes at mostly 1500-2000 rpm....certainly no spirited! 😜
Your cat is clogged. Get rid of it. Car will run much happier with an open header until you get the Racing Beat dual resonated midpipe or the midpipe from BHR. The rest is raspy ****.
Yeah, I’ve been listening to clips of some of those pipes. I think you’re correct....and since the cat is toast, I won’t feel guilty about what’s about to happen to it! 😄 I’m surprised the O2 sensor hasn’t triggered a code...perhaps it’s just toasty enough to not throw a CEL when the cat is “fixed”...
I gotta say I've never seen cat glowed like this. You can punch out the cat substrates in the mean time. I wonder if there are any broken chunks along the catback as well.
Be sure to inspect for chunks in front of the cat as well. Some pieces can lodge near where the header ends. For $1500 looks like you got quite a deal. Once you clear the cat and replace ignition system components you should be good to go. Your symptoms dont sound like low compression but definitely get it tested so you know. Also check you cooling system and do a block test to make sure your coolant seals are still intact. Those would be the only major things I would do in your situation.
Everything else you can check like a regular car. Brakes, water pump, alternator, suspension bushings ect. Really go through the whole car and make sure everything looks right and works as it should.
Last edited by CaymanRotary; 01-02-2020 at 09:50 AM.
12-29-2019, 08:54 PM
