I've been looking into getting an 8 for a while, and have recently found a 2009 model with a salvage title. The car was impacted in the rear hard enough to have some minor repairable frame damage, all of which I am willing to fix if the price is right. I visited the car today and it runs fine, no check engine light (67k miles), however did have the power steering light lit.

Now I know about the issues common with the RX-8 power steering, and will lengthen the coolant overflow line upon purchase, but this car displays some atypical symptoms. The power steering works absolutely fine despite the light being lit, however while under load (turning while not moving in the parking lot) I hear a pretty loud electrical noise coming through the stereo. And I mean it's unusually loud, like 50% stereo volume loud. The noise is not affected by the stereo settings, even at zero volume the noise is just as loud. Is this a common issue? Is it indicative of a serious problem, or one that can be solved by just cleaning the power steering terminals?

Thanks for any help.

Also if anybody can direct me to finding a rear bumper assembly (reinforcement and all) that would be very helpful.