ERicInCal

ok.. I dont get it..
I am out in Las vegas over the weekend, and while I am there, I let my dad borrow my car for the day. He valets the car at his hotel, and the next day I pick it up. It is running really rough and has a hard time starting. I figure its flooded or something, but it starts after a lot of cranking. Check Engine Light pops on.

Well, this goes on for the entire weekend, so I bring it in to the dealer. They tell me that everything is fine, they flash the car again and reset the computer. Next morning its the same thing, running very rough ( almost feels like a "cylinder" is not firing) after warming it up, it runs ok.. and I drive like normal. This goes on for a few day, so I bring it to the shop again. I get a call in the morning , and they tell me that they called the main number, described the problem to the main tech people, and they are going to have to replace my engine! HELLO? its only been 8500 miles over the course of 8 months!

The service departments analysis? they say that coolant is getting into my engine and its not fixable, so they are just going to replace the whole thing. Going to take about 2-3 weeks. Im not too happy about this obviously. Not that my car is out of my hands for 2 weeks, but the fact that its going to have its entire engine out of the car, and a new one is going to be put into it. I hope that its going to run as well or better than the old one.

Has any one heard of this before? I didnt blow the engine up. I mean it still runs fine once its been running... hmmmm.maybe I should have gotten the G35.. or stuck with my old NSX or S2000. I hope the tech guys fix it right.

here are my photos of my car

brothervoodoo

Do I search on coolant leak and you'll find that it has happened to a few folks on here. It's not a rampant problem but it has happened before.

RXE16T

There has been a few reports of coolant related issues on this forum, so you are not alone.

Gomez

I think the consensus is that this problem is predominantly caused by fanging the car before it's completely warmed up. As the engine is made of two different metals that expand at different rates, sinking the boot before the engine has reached normal operating temperature may cause the rotor housings to warp and allow coolant to leak into the combustion chamber.

Look at it this way, you have wound the clock on your car back to zero. It's a good thing that it has occurred whilst the car is under warranty.....take it easy running your new motor in.....

Gomez.

ERicInCal

argh.... I just read about the whole coolant thing.. I can guarentee its not from me thrashing on the car when the car is cold. I keep the car in the garage, its driven very gently untill its warmed up, I live in S.California where its not that cold. It was broken in very lightly, never have seen over 5000 rpm in the first 1500 mile. I hope that this is just a manufacturing error or a bad part error, becuase if they determine that this is a problem due to the driver, then there are going to be a LOT of people with this engine problem.

With the Lemon Law, I read on here that the car has to be in the shop for a total of 30 days in fhe first 2 year. does the time in the shop for repair count?

brothervoodoo

Your explanation makes complete sense but I have to disagree. I know of two people who had this happen and they both were meticulous in taking care of the car including warm-up, etc. I just think there are a couple bum motors out there, you just happened to get one. Look forward to a new engine and breaking it in all over again.

Mr M

Gomez, I agree with you , but not on a new engine. Mazda had some quality problems on a few engines, and I think Eric was one of the unlucky ones.

Eric, as stated above, I don't think anything you or your father have done caused this. Your new engine will be the latest version and I'm sure you will get many thousands of miles of enjoyment out of it. Three weeks seems a bit long for the replacement work though, it should only take a couple of days for the engine to get there. Push the dealer to get it done quicker...

rx8wannahave

This type of stuff scares me!!!

I think getting the extended warranty on the 8 will be a necessity just in case. I hate to make my purchase of one more expensive but stuff like this worries me.

Good luck with the new engine and I hope the best. No one should have to go through something like this...not in a car that is so new.

cgrx

you are tall

G8rboy

These problems happen with every new car line... it's a very small precentage, but it's why we have warrantees. Get an extended warranty if you want, but a manufacturing defect like this would normally have made itself known early in life... no way something like this goes undetected for 50k miles.

czr

iTrader: (3)

Most of the time we only hear of the bad/extreme things that happen to the car from the people who actually do go online on this site.

EricInCal, let us know how it goes and good luck.

ERicInCal

I dont think the valet could have trashed it. I mean, even if they reved it to the limiter and kept it there, till the engine cut off stopped them, that would still be somewhat exceptable and an engine shouldnt have to be replaced. Even if the engine is cold, and they did rev it hard, I still dont think that that is an acceptable justification for engine failure.

When I had my NSX, my "practical" car was a 1975 VW Bus. I had to warm that car up before I drove it, but a 2004 Japanese car? I cant see that being the reason.

rx8wannahave

Thanks both of you for calming me down! I know, most of the time we just focus on the few stories of things that go wrong with the car.

StewC625

**** happens. Out of 100,000 cars sold, there's bound to be a few bad ones out there ... as someone else said, look at it this way - you get a brand new engine that has had the benefit of another year of development on it.

mtnpass

Sorry for the engine mishap, but at least you will have the joy of braking in a new one again..just like new without the new car smell. Are most of you aware that each rotary motor is hand assembled? That's right, people are prone to mistakes, take pride in the fact that your car has a personal touch. Just one more thing to set us apart from the crowd