06 RX8 w/ 60K miles needing engine replacement
 

So was driving the other day and my car just bogged down and stalled.

Towed to the dealer. Said cat is gone due to bad coils. Asked them to do the needful and also do a compression test.

Comp test results come back as Fail. Now waiting for a replacement :(

Very sad day. Wife asked if I want to get rid of the car and I said no. I do love the car. Hopefully the reman will be better.

Any thoughts?

Also is it advisable to change the clutch during the engine replacement?

BTW comp test was around 6 or something. I really wouldn't have guessed the engine was bad.

You could have them change the clutch if you want, it probably has a good bit of life left but it really depends on how you drive it. It should only cost you parts(which you should provide to them) and nothing else.

You guys get engine rebuilds/replacements free dont you? My 2006 did 61,000 miles. Compression was 5.1/5.1/5.3 and 5.2/5.3/5.2. £2250/$3515.18 for an engine rebuild out of our own pocket. Mazda refuse to do a single thing about compression issues. Then again, we can buy an RX8 now for £800/$1249.84 and pay for a rebuild ourselves so have almost a brand new car and engine for £3k/$5k. Swings and round abouts.

Take the rebuild as a chance to put a lightweight flywheel and clutch in ;D

Yes my engine is under that 8/100k mile warranty. I still have a year left of it.

I don't trust the dealership with installing a light weight flywheel since did said they installed it in the past and the cars with them had issues.

Not sure if flywheel itself was of bad quality or did they install it incorrectly.

Hmm, quite strange!

Spend the money for a clutch disk 100 dollars now vs 800 in another 20K.

Got a quote for $100 labor OEM Clutch from Mazmart is $350. So not bad for $450. Going to go ahead with it.

As per the Flywheel from what I understand the OEM FlyWheel has the counterweight attached to it whereas aftermarket ones you have to buy it separately. That might be the issue?

Correct, the OEM flywheel has an integrated counterweight. Aftermarket ones very nearly always need an independent counterweight. If the dealer installed an aftermarket flywheel without the counterweight, or improperly counterweighted it, then of course they ran into issues with it.

Strangely they said the new/reman engine will not be coming with a new flywheel or pilot bearing.

New Flywheels on the remans has been pretty consistent from people that buy remans, resell remans, and from the guy that worked in the reman facility.

Granted, it's all hear-say, but I generally discount the dealer's knowledge of the technical details. Many dealers say "new engine" for example, when we know it isn't.

The pilot bearing would simply be logical, since it's located within the flywheel. I don't see them working to extract the $10 bearing from the old flywheel to re-use in the new flywheel, when the risk of a dealer tech not remembering to do this would be noticeable, and the damage significant.

100 bucks for labor to install a clutch on a car that is getting the engine replaced is free money for that dealer :lol:, the tech literally has no extra work involved.

Instead of grabbing the old clutch to put on, he grabs the new one. And gets 100 bucks for it


Was not aware you could mess up a counter weight install, its keyed to only go on one way.

I imagine there are quite a few things that the dealers mess up that shouldn't be possible :lol:

So should I question/fight the $100 or should I let it be?

I think I am going to stick with the original flywheel. Reason one being the cost and two not confident with the dealership.

You should fight it. They are trying to charge you extra money for something that is already included with your engine install.

I wouldn't bother to fight it. Having pulled the transmission of the 8 3 times on my back with the 8 on jack stands, I would pay someone $100 in a heartbeat to avoid me having to do it again.

So let me understand this correctly and pardon my ignorance. The clutch has to be removed for an engine replacement? Also is the pilot bearing also replaced during the clutch replacement?

The flywheel is attached to the engine "block", so it will come out with the engine. The clutch disc is wedged between the flywheel and the pressure plate. The pressure plate is bolted to the flywheel. Yes, the clutch comes out with the engine, and is removed from one flywheel and bolted to the other flywheel on the replacement engine, and then the engine goes back in.

The pilot bearing replacement isn't mandatory from a physical positioning perspective, but it's a $10 part that might fail before your clutch does, and if it does fail, there is significant and serious damage that can occur to your transmission. So yeah, it should get replaced at the same time.

Well they must remove the pressure plate to get to the clutch, if your remain came with a new flywheel they would transfer over your old clutch and pressure plate.

If your remain did not come with a flywheel they would remove and transfer all components to the new engine.

Regardless the tech must remove the pressure plate and clutch and reinstall it anyways.

Only now they charge you 100 bucks.


I agree with RIWWP, if you have to do it yourself and do not have a lift. 100 bucks is a godsend, to me I find it amusing how much the dealer will try to charge you for doing even tho the existing job requires no more extra work to perform the said "extra" labor.

Cool posed him the question. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Well got my car back and it drives very very nicely. So finally tally

1) Engine replaced
2) Clutch replaced
3) Cat replaced
4) Coils replaced
5) Plug wires replaced
6) Oil Nozzles replaced
7) Spark plugs replaced
8) Clutch Pedal replaced

Dam car feels like new. Question would they have had to replace the trans fluid while replacing the engine and clutch?

No, the transmission likely stayed in the car, and remained sealed. Even if you pull the transmission, you only have to drain the fluid if you can't keep it level, which is easy if you have the car on a lift, nearly impossible if you have the car on jackstands.