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As the title says I purchased a new (to me) RX-8 around a month ago. I got it for a good price do to some minor flaws. This will be my second 8 that I've had and I'll be using this thread to keep track of all I've done to bring it back to life and to get my account out of the new member forum.
If you want to read along that's great! If not have a nice day! I'm always open to suggestions and comments.
So first things first, this car was previously owned by a little old lady. Some very questionable at best repairs have been done to it, including riveting 2 front bumpers together to form one. Luckily for me I have a parts car on hand.
Issue number 1 was a consistent misfire around 5k rpm only when full throttle. I went ahead and did a decarb (thankfully the fire department wasn't called) and pulled the wires and plugs. Found heavy corrosion and swapped out the plugs and wires.
Issue 2, after test driving again, found that when the car got really warmed up it hit a hard wall at 7500 rpm. I had assumed the plugs or coils were causing an issue with high rpm falters, but after this I went to check it over for any vacuum leaks. After finding none I swapped out my fuel pump and have not had the issue since. I'm guessing the PO often ran it low and burned it out.
Now onto the weird things. The car did not have a working radio, or ac, or power steering. Cleaning the connectors for the PS solved the issue for a bit, and I noting the radio face plate was not properly attached to the unit. After reattaching everything I had a radio but no ac. Knowing the HVAC controls can have some iffy solders I replaced the unit the one from the parts car and charged the system. Luckily there are no leaks, and the ac is working as properly as it can on an 8 so I'm happy for now.
After having most of the big issues fixed, besides a CEL for a gutted cat that likes to randomly appear, I decided to take it for a nice spirited drive hoping I might be able to clear it out a bit. Guys it was amazing being able to rip through the full rpm range again. I even get a bit of a fireball! After parking it however, PS was gone again and I quickly found out the coolant overflowed on the connectors. I cleaned them up again ran a much longer hose to the middle of the car so it won't happen again.
Sounds amazing..
some of the valves can stick...the secondary shutter valve..
or the solenoid that controls above..
that make it feel like its ","limited
Welcome and good to read about another person making the effort to keep these cars on the road. When you did changed plugs & wires did you replace the coils? As you’ve probably “heard” here coils are a consumable. Don’t go budget minded into this purchase - Mazda revision C, BHR, Sakebomb have good reviews
Haven't replaced the coils as of yet. It doesn't get much drive time so I'm probably going to save up for the BHR kit. It was throwing a code for the ssv stuck open, but a good long trip sorted it out.
I went ahead and changed the oil, swapped on some new wheels and tires, and added a catch can before the trip. After the ~150 mile round trip the ssv code cleared up, I figured it was just sticking from a granny driving it like a 4 cylinder. I'll be posting more updates in a bit when I go on lunch.
If you’re going to retain the gutted cat or go cat-less mid pipe later the air pump is doing nothing for you. You can get or make a block off plate for the air tube and remove the air pump when you clean the SSV. The pipe gets in the way of access to the SSV when you remove/install. Good idea to do the cleaning and there’s an informative DIY here somewhere on the process.
The air pump delete will be one of the next things done to the car. I'm not planning on putting a cat back on.
I've also been looking into the ssv cleaning procedure, it doesn't look too bad, just tedious. It doesn't feel like the ssv is sticking, so I'm thinking the micro switch got stuck, but I won't know until I dig into the engine bay.
So I took a trip to a junkyard near my house as they had an rx8 listed with the same paint code as mine in hopes of finding a new bumper. However, the car was stripped pretty bare by the time I arrived. I did however do some digging and found a relic from the early 2000's- a hard wired FM aux adapter. I decided with my hopes of having a nice bumper gone for the moment to do a band aid repair.
I really wish I knew what this bumper looked like before. I can only imagine that it was extremely bad for someone to look at this and be like, yeah that looks way better. It's missing the tabs by the side markers, and they cut the top and riveted a second bumper over it to get it to attach by the hood latch.
I opted for some quick release buttons by the side markers to get it secure, and zip ties the front up so it's at least sitting better. It's not any prettier, but at least I don't have to worry about it ripping off while driving. Also went digging through my spare parts to find a set of side markers to replace the duct tape that they had in place and polished up the headlights while at it.
I realize now I haven't said much about the car itself besides all the issues I've tackled thus far.
The car is a 2004 with the manual. Whoever originally purchased this car was really excited for it, as it has every option but the navigation. I was really surprised to find a spare wheel in the trunk!
I've been hunting for one with the brown interior and was pretty excited it had the spoiler and all with the oh so special rotary appearance package. Aside from the front bumper, this car does not have a scratch.
Apologies if the images are too big, I'm doing all this from my phone while on my lunch break.
Now that the car is running more reliably, and only throwing a code for the cat, I'll get into my plans for the car.
Unless I can get the bumper sitting in a way that eliminates that hood gap, I'll be trashing it asap. Until then, I might just sticker bomb it because it can't look any worse than what it is now. If anyone has a spare bumper in the southeast let me know!
The goal is to set this up to be ready for autocross and the occasional track day, while leaving it relatively stock. So far the best mod I've done is my daughter's car seat!
Suspension will be my top priority. I'm still debating with myself about springs and struts and am open to suggestions.
Of course I will be looking into cooling upgrades as well. I'm probably going wire in the fans to a switch until I get a better radiator and fans. Ideally, I would like to keep the ac.
A Sohn adapter would be nice, but I'm pretty diligent about my oil and premix so I'm going to take my time and plan it out as I'm not sure if I want to delete the washer fluid.
After that I'll probably be looking into a a proper exhaust. I'm not going to be going after any big power gains as I know it's not there unless I'm looking at forced induction. I do have a good spare Renesis and transmission, so the plan will be to rebuild one while driving the other.
If anyone has any suggestions on what should be done to this car to reach my goal, please feel free to reach out, I know there are plenty of people here that know much more than me. I'm excited to be part of the club again, and I'll be posting up more when I get some more work done!
So made a 10 hour round trip for this! Not in the best condition, but it's a million times better than what I started with. Here's the car so far, probably gonna reseal the tail lights next. Either that or get a fish to drop in there, don't know which will look more natural.
So you now have 3 RX8’s in your yard? Proof of an understanding spouse. The latest looks to be in better shape.
Not quite that understanding! I just finally found a bumper. I guess it does make it look like an entirely different car. She actually took the trip with me though!
Pancake Slap - A very interesting thread. I like the idea of having a thread to track the changes / repairs you're doing on your car. And holy cow does your car look better, like new, with the bumper you just put on. CONGRATS!
I had an FD, and sold it maybe 7 or 8 years ago. Recently, I bought an RX8 for my youngest son. His two older brothers, I bought them both G35 coupes. Which is what I wanted for my 3rd son. But since covid, the cost of the non-fast-n-furious-tokyo-drift in good shape mostly stock G35 Coupes has rocketed up. We found this '06 RX8 for $7,500. Which is what I got the other 2 G35's for. He and I have been spending time fixing little problems. We both love this car, and feel like the overall quality is as good as or better than the G35s. Not as much torque, but less heft. On a roadrace course, I think the RX8 may beat a G35 coupe. It would certainly keep up with it.
Like yours, the RX8 I bought was owned by a lady. She owned it for about 10 years, then sold it to her son. He drove from about 2016 to about 2021 or 2022. He then got married bought a CX-5 I think it was, and the RX8 more or less just sat.
He and her took good care of it. It's in very decent condition. But we've had to fix a few issues here and there. It's in really decent condition now. We had to fix the blinkers, right door handle broke, and I just vacuumed & recharged the A/C. It should be good to go for a while, and my son is reading and trying to do every little thing the website recommends, to keep an RX8 running as long as possible.
Looks like you're not too far from me! I hope your son is digging the car so far, I'm loving mine. It's been coming along great and so far I've only spent $120 on the bumper. Poor kid I bought it from had a nasty engine fire.
I recently wrapped my ac lines with some pipe insulation and it surprisingly made a noticable difference. This forum has a gold mine of info if you can search through it properly.
Last edited by Pancake Slap; 07-05-2023 at 10:49 AM.
Reason: Words are hard
We just did a complete evacuation and recharge, and it cools good now. But if that pipe insulation increases the cooling efficiency, I'm down with trying it. Do you have a link to a thread on that? Or can tell me which pipe it is? Low side? High side? Both?
We just did a complete evacuation and recharge, and it cools good now. But if that pipe insulation increases the cooling efficiency, I'm down with trying it. Do you have a link to a thread on that? Or can tell me which pipe it is? Low side? High side? Both?
The DIY can be found in the congrats you got an 8 sticky in the new member forum. I insulated just the top AC hard line.
Hey Pancake slap,
I also got the same RX8 GT model like you have there, same color too.
I bought mine in the beginning of June 2023.
Thanks for your photos, as the doofus who did the paint job and body work on mine before I got it; used sheet metal screws, deck screws and whatever else they could find laying around to attach the bumper and lower air dam. Amongst other things. Mine does not have the spoiler, but it does have the Navigation in dash with working motorized open and close. I have removed it for now as the Florida sun has cooked the LCD itself beyond being usable. The rest seemed to work. But until I can find an old laptop screen or something close to it, I wont put it back in.
I have been trying to un-stick my SSV. It has been stuck open since I got the car. Which I assume does not improve the already bad gas mileage. I did gut the cat, as the back half was clogged badly and making problems. It perked right up once that was done.
I followed the DIY video for SSV removal. (And no I could not turn it by hand, it was solid stuck).
I could get it half way out before it hit on, not the thermostat housing- as i had removed that along with half the pass side of the engine bay, the metal right beneath the housing. I cant tell if thats part of the block? or something that can be removed? In their video it just slides out above where mine hits. I tried to clean it a little with a soft wire brush, and its half cleaner, but still stuck.
Any ideas on how to get this out?
Oh yeah, I broke the Air pump pipe that goes into the exhaust when doing all this
I think this video will be helpful for you though, seems like the info you need starts at around 7:50. Sounds like you're stuck on the lower part of the thermostat housing.
Been a minute since I've posted so figured I'd give a bit of an update. Ac compressor started giving me some lovely sounds so I went ahead and replaced that. I thought the job was going to be a lot more difficult when looking at the placement, but after pulling the air box the compressor was surprising easy to access.
Noticed my car still did not have heat despite replacing the HVAC controls. Started with a heater core flush, but no improvement. Went about checking and replacing every fuse and relay, no change. After a bit of car yoga I realized the rod for the blend doors was missing.
Been a minute since I've posted so figured I'd give a bit of an update. Ac compressor started giving me some lovely sounds so I went ahead and replaced that. I thought the job was going to be a lot more difficult when looking at the placement, but after pulling the air box the compressor was surprising easy to access.
Noticed my car still did not have heat despite replacing the HVAC controls. Started with a heater core flush, but no improvement. Went about checking and replacing every fuse and relay, no change. After a bit of car yoga I realized the rod for the blend doors was missing.
Pretty successful 24 hours!
Originally Posted by Pancake Slap
I haven't had the code for my ssv pop up again, so I decided against pulling it for now.
I think this video will be helpful for you though, seems like the info you need starts at around 7:50. Sounds like you're stuck on the lower part of the thermostat housing.
If you need another video explain yourself, let me know and I'll give you one that I have. It's easy, but it's easy.
06-13-2023, 10:38 AM
