Hello all!

After a lot of reading (and lurking), I think it's time to introduce myself to the forum!

A couple of months ago I got my 2005 RX8 from a guy at work. He needed a larger car, and I needed a commuter car so I said: WHAT THE HELL, and bought possibly the worst car for commuting I could find.

It's red, revs high (manual), it doesn't have any major problems (other than being 12+ years old), it passed* a rotary compression test and I could trace its lineage to the original owner, so here we are!

I say "passed*" because the car is still running on the original engine, with +69k miles on it, so I'm guessing an engine failure is a very real possibility, and soon(ish). I'm saving up for a potential rebuild, but depending on how well I scratched my RX8 itch I may get another model... We'll see.

In the meantime, here's the list of things I want to do:

• Top off oil (finally completed today, I know this is an ongoing procedure. I needed to buy a friggin' strap wrench to open the oil cap, thanks to a suggestion by somebody in the forum!)
• Take it to a Mazda dealer, and have them perform one of their "big" 30k services. Ask them to replace the coolant fluid too. I know I could do this myself, and much cheaper, but I literally don't have *any* good spot to work on my car. Working on that too.
• Fix second key. Not sure if it's a dead battery or the whole key is dead, but it needs some love.
• Fix/replace rear tail light gaskets. They're fogging up hard. I've seen some service reports where the prior owner asked the shop to do something about it, but I think they ignored the issue.
• Fix broken fog light. $200 for an OEM replacement. Breaks my heart; will try to find something in a scrapyard but I'm not holding my breath.
• Fix "blinking tire pressure light". It's probably one of the pressure sensors, and I won't be able to fix it myself. Can live with it.
• Replace the head unit. I can't believe 2005 was so long ago. I just need to figure out if my car has the Bose sound system or not to buy the correct harness.
  • At the same time, replace the "leather" shift boot. It has a small cut that I hadn't noticed, but my wife noticed right away :/
• Attempt to fix the chrome part of the shifter ****, it's super scratched. I know what I need to do, I just need to figure out a way of getting a good chrome (shiny) finish.
• Replace license plate screws. The previous owner had different screws in the front and the back. I have the screws, I just need to remember to bring them with me.

So yeah, hello all!