2009rx8

I'm not sure if I'm in right forum but I'm new to the rotary club and car. I love the car and have no clue how to do the upkeep. I bought the car at 101000 miles and put 3000 miles on it already so about to do oil change with royal purple 5w 20 and a k and n oil filter. I checked the coolant and its bright green so dont think any issues there and it seem to show the needle on gauge at normal temp. I also watched over hundreds of videos on youtube about this car but shows only a few on series 2 engines. The only issues I seem to have with it I'm alittle worried about is when it's in idle it slightly hesitates but doesn't effect driving. I also have an automatic and heard biggest issue is carb buildup and I'm living up to the motto a redline a day keeps carbs away. I have no clue about who owned it before cause bought it from used car dealership for 3800.00. I was told one of the first things to do is get a compression test but cant find any mechanic around my area(northeast Arkansas) that have a rotary compression tester. My question is since I have no hard startups and does seem to rev up like it should will i still need test. Also was told about coolant seals but have no white smoke coming from exhaust unless it's cold starting which i was told was normal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated cause i love this car and trying to keep it as long as possible.

wannawankel

Listed in several places on the site is a rough guide:RX8 Club’s recommended maintenance schedule, more comprehensive and proactive than Mazda’s schedule.

30,000 miles:

- Replace Ignition coils

- Replace Plug wires

- Replace Spark plugs

- Clean MAF (mass air flow sensor)

- Clean ESS (e-shaft sensor)

- Reset ESS profile

- Clean power steering connections

- Clean battery terminals and clamps

- Replace transmission fluid

- Replace coolant (Mazda FL-22 is highly recommended)

- Replace air filter

- Replace brake fluid (fluid in the brake lines AND the clutch line)

~$300 USD in parts if you shop smartly.





every 60,000:

...all 30,000, plus...

- Clean all chassis electrical grounding points

- Replace accessory belts

- Clean OMP lines

- Replace rear differential fluid

- Replace thermostat

- Clean / Straighten AC condenser fins

- Clean / Straighten oil cooler fins

- Inspect catalytic converter

- Clean / Inspect intake valving

- Consider / inspect all points in 90,000+ as well, many items fail early

~$130 USD in parts if you shop smartly.



90,000:

...all 30,000, plus any 60,000 not yet done, plus...

- Replace coolant bottle

- Replace radiator hoses

- Replace radiator

- Replace front O2 sensor

- Replace motor mounts

- Inspect clutch pedal assembly for flex / weld breaks

~$900 USD in parts if you shop smartly.

At 100k, anything original in the cooling system is really suspect and failure prone. It represents the biggest threat to your engine.

wannawankel

also see here:

rx8club.com/new-member-forum-197/congratulations-you-got-8-a-202548/

wannawankel

You should be able to find a Mazda dealership that will do the compression test using a rotary-specific tester for $60-150 - negotiate it. The RX8 delivers fuel using fuel injectors so there is no carburation involved - not since the RX-7 FB.

wannawankel

The maintenance schedule direct from Mazda that's in your owners manual is here - although the maintenance schedule I posted above at the 30s K miles is more stringent to get a better life out of the amazing rotary engine. Coolant, coils, plugs, wires, 91 octane gas, and a few other sundries will keep your car in top shape.

Again a rotary specific compression test will blueprint the current state of engine compression health - do it soon so that if the car is failing - you can return it under your current state lemon laws.

nmoffatt

I've also seen compression tester rentals on E-Bay. Might be worth looking into. Mazda will want to charge you 2 hours unless you can talk them down.

UnknownJinX

The coolant change interval is something I think that's overkill with the 30k-mile interval.

Follow the Owner's Manual on that one if you are using Mazda FL-22. Modern coolant lasts a long time.

As for transmission fluid, it depends on what you use and how you drive. I personally go by feels. If the shifting feels unpleasant it's fluid time.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

the first thing you need to understand is that there’s a bunch of inexperienced wannabe experts on here who are going to steer you into the ditch with their more is better ignorance:

UnknownJinX

To be fair, I wouldn't want to run conventional oil in an RX-8 for 5k miles or 8k km before changing it with stock OMP, which pretty much all S2 run on since we don't get a Sohn adapter. Most people on the forum also tend to drive harder than what the Owner's Manual anticipate, I'd imagine.

Too bad Mazda doesn't have a variable oil life monitoring system like Honda or GM.

Keep an eye out for ignition components as well for sure. I dunno how well OEM Revision C coils do.

But yeah most of the other stuff, I would say it's fairly reasonable to just follow Owner's Manual.

As for RIWWP's suggestions, I still maintain that some of them need a review since things have changed from back then.

wannawankel

Given the cooling needs on the 8, I've chosen to change the FL22 coolant every 2 years or 30K miles. It ends up every 2 years. The worst thing to let happen is to foul the heat transfer surface (the wet/coolant side) that results in a huge loss in heat transfer rate. Heat Transfer = UA (T1-T2) and the area and temperature aren't changing but your U term (heat transfer coefficient) decreases greatly as the surface gets fouled. A couple of jugs of FL22 is cheap compared that that one runaway overheat incident.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

No, being both fair and truthful is admitting none of that is proven, especially the value of a Sohn adapter. It’s just conjecture, hypothesis, guessing even. We’ve had a lot of people come and go over the years with their grandiose ideas, potions and magic elixers, and so on. Plenty of people did all that and weren’t any more successful than people who didn’t. Some people didn’t have any problems and got very high mileage not doing anything special. Everybody wants a simple answer, but sometimes there isn’t really one to offer.

UnknownJinX

You shouldn't worry about that in 2 years, though. FL-22 is premixed so there is no need to worry about scaling, while rust is also not an issue because the ingredients in the FL-22 will stay active for more than 2 years.

I mean, it's your money and time. Personally I'd save it for something else and just wait for 5 years, knowing that I don't drive a Chevy Cavalier from the 90s where the 2-year coolant change is actually required.

It's true that a lot of it is just theories, but at the end of the day, someone needs to put something together so a newbie understands based some generally agreed ideas, and then the said newbie can start to do more research as they see fit and develop their own version they can use.

Otherwise, you just have... oil threads. Everyone has their own opinions/ideas that may or may not be based on facts, and you just have an endless discussion that doesn't get much of anywhere and will just confuse newcomers.

I guess if someone really wants to, they can prove that conventional oil does/doesn't last 5k miles in a rotary engine by the means of UOA. Start at 3k miles, and then add 500 miles in subsequent oil changes to see how close you are to what's generally acceptable. But even then, that will be affected by their driving conditions, climate, etc. so even that has its limitations and it won't convince everyone.

And yes I know Sohn isn't the fix-all, I have seen glimpses of discussions about it. It doesn't matter here though, S2's oil metering system prohibits such a system to be developed anyway.

Hi Flying 8

iTrader: (2)

Ash 8, a former Mazda dealership employee and a fairly knowledgeable owner of a Series II has stated that only the stock Mazda Oil filter should be used on the Series II as the pressure has been increased and aftermarket filters relief valves will open too early. I wouldn't chance it and would stick with the OEM oil filter.