New Owner with Maintenance Questions
 

Hi,

I can't believe I have had my 8 for over a year and just recently came cross to this forum. I have spent quite a few hours to go through this great post: new owner thread. And I wish I had done it earlier!

Having learned many important things from this post, I decided to do following at minimum:

1. keep up with changing oil more frequently. Since I didn't drive much, I had the tendency to replace oil every 5 month. Bad, bad...
2. Replace Coolant every two years
3. BHR Coil upgrade
4. keep this baby for the rest of my life

Obviously, my main goal is to maintain the car as well and as long as possible, rather than squeezing out more horsepower. So, in regards of the above expectations, I have the following questions:

1. How can I know if a mechanic is competent to do services on RX8? Dealer is obviously overpriced, and I am uncertain about my own ability to it myself. I managed to replace tail light myself, but not daring to work under the hood yet. Going forward, any recommendation on what is worthwhile to invest time to DIY, and what can trust local mechanics, and what must trust the dealership to do?
2. Regarding the BHR Coil Upgrade kit, are the additional $80 plugs genuine mazda plugs? I have read many places mentioning only the genuine mazda plugs are reliable. Also, for those of you who got the BHR Coil upgrade, how long the kit can last? When should I replace these BHR coils?
3. As I am close to the 60k mark, the dealer has been asking me to do a major service, including replacing brake fluid, replacing coolant, alternator output checks, starter draw test, rear differential service, manual transmission service, replacing plugs. This added up to $800. However, these seem to be basic stuff. If I am not able to do these myself, can I trust local mechanics to do them?

Thanks for your time, and I am sorry if some of my questions are already answered. I have searched answers for my questions, but most of the threads are leading to DIY guides. These are certainly great DIY instructions, but I am uncertain of my ability to work on the car and afraid to screw things up without knowing it. However, I do feel the love in the community, and I hope to learn more tips to maintain my 8 well.

Thanks in advance!

Kai

There's a really good DIY section on this site. Browse through it and see what feels comfortable.

The plugs BHR sells are the genuine NGK OEM plugs. You can trust BHR.

Finding a good mechanic is always a challenge. Ask friends and neighbors, check local review sites, etc. If you post your location someone here may be able to recommend someone.

Dealer service packages are usually overpriced. Any good shop can do the fluid changes. You can also do them yourself - there are DIYs on all of them. Personally I'd rather pay someone to do a brake fluid flush than handle that stuff myself, but I've done more than enough flushes with my wife as the pedal pumper while I work the bleed valves.

Come back for answers and encouragement as you start to do your own work.

Ken

Thank you, Ken. I will study the DIY section more closely and see if I can work any of them myself.

Welcome.
Like Ken said, explore the DIY section.
There are many things that are easy to do.
For instance, you can clean your ESS & MAF sensor, change your air filter & cabin air filter.
The air filter can be a PITA, but it requires more effort than skill.
There's some YouTube vids on it.
There are often many things on there.
Plenty of other things that take a little mechanical aptitude, but are not really difficult.

This is a great resource for anything you may encounter.
If you do some research first, can folow instruction, and take your time, lots of people here are willing to walk you through things.

I encourage you to try to tackle some of the things you want done.
You might be surprised at how easy some of it actually is.
Have fun!