My car is an 06 MT with 15K miles and dynoes at 150WHP. The plugs have been replaced to no effect. The dyno does not show the usual coil problems. The cat is fine.

I called the dealer and I've been pushing for a compression test. They have as of 5 minutes ago REFUSED TO GIVE IT TO ME without charging me $400 because "they don't believe anything is wrong."

They say "every car dynoes differently...even if you take two new ones off the floor they will dyno different."

Not to THIS degree.

These slimballs are trying to cheat me! What do I do? I can't pay $400 right now!

They say that they can't do ANY checks for free unless the car throws a CEL which is HORSESHIT!

What do I do?

 

find a different dealer

 

yeah seriously. find a different dealer. some dealers aren't that bad... most are though.

 

Drive around without the gas cap on.

That will make your CEL come on

 

you more then likely should be paying for a test your requesting... however is shouldn't cost more then about an hour of labor and if your car flunks you should be refunded

keep in mind, mazda is now using engine vacuum as the pass/fail criteria... and there is an MSP out there to check that for lack of power concerns

 

Sorry, engine vaccuum? I have an idea of what it is, but can you clarify?

 

see http://www.finishlineperformance.com...14-08-1924.pdf

 

they want a cel, then give them one

 

that's an excellent method. lol. i think r0tor's logic is reasonable. you didn't say you felt a lack of power or anything for them to check, just that your hp was low.

 

+1

think about it. if you were them, and a guy showed up at the shop asking for a free compression check 'cuz the car dyno'd low, would you willingly do it? alternatively, if you showed up w/ the service bulletin and described your symptoms, that'd be much more credible

 

Well I dunno, would you take a look at a car if the bumper fell off or is 90% of the body acceptable like 90% of the power?

 

i would shoot you down in a heart beat if you told me you dyno'd your car hope you dont take it the hard way but if want your car to be compression tested then flood your engine...lol then you get what you want

 

I can understand paying for the comp. test. however at my local stealership they quoted me $125 for it. I took t somewhere else, thank you RX-7 store, they charge me $40 and gave me the printout and reviewed it with me.

Take care,

Brian

 

Take the car to a local rotary shop that has a "real" rotary-engine compression tester. Charge should be less than $100, more like $60 or so. Post the detailed results (numbers for all rotor faces of both rotors, as well as engine cranking speed) here and someone will evaluate if you're not satisfied with the shop evaluation.

EDIT: Here are a few places to check out. Can't vouch for any of them myself.
A-Spec Tuning, 533 Lunt Ave, Schaumburg, IL 60193-4409, 630-825-0333
Protégé Garage, 755 N Milwaukee Ave, Libertyville IL 60048-1913, 847-247-5090
Martinez Motorsports, 1634 W. Farwell, Chicago, IL 60626-3602, 773-262-3977

Might want to post in the local forum section for additional leads or comments on these companies.

 

You are right I shouldn't ask for it for free, what I'm angry about is having to pay $400 for it, because

"oh, we have to go in a tear down the WHOLE ENGINE and it takes a lot of time and its just a big hassle you know"

When MM can stand there on a BUSY DYNO DAY when EVERYONE wants him to check out their car and offer me a FREE compression test in 20 minutes flat, I think maybe the dealer can cut the price down a bit.

I called the other dealer in my area and I got better results. He quoted me $140 for an hour of labor. Here's the problem. This is an excerpt from our phone conversation:

ME: Thank you very much for agreeing to this.
DEALER: Yeah. This happens all the time.
ME: So what will happen if the numbers are too low?
DEALER: Well we'll go in and check the compression on the pistons, and if it's too low than it's really not safe to drive and you will need to leave it here for an engine replacement.
ME: ...


I didn't even bother to press the matter. I just said "great, is Monday good?"
This is better than the last dealer I guess. Its early, people make mistakes...right??

Good to know about some great shops in my area, but I don't think they'll pay for a new engine if the numbers are low. Otherwise I wouldn't bother with the dealer at all, I would have gone straight back to the place where my car was dynoed.

 

Aren't you the guy that used a cheap dtno similar to Mustang?

There ain't nothing wrong with your car.

You don't even know if the Dyno machine was calibrated correctly.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=low

It's common to get that HP. people been getting that for years. All depends upon Dyno and shop.

 

......................

Escuoos me, but

1. This was a dyno DAY, meaning there were 5 or so other N/A RX-8s there to compare with. Yes, it was a mustang dyno. I wouldn't have cared if all of the other RX-8s scored similarly to mine, but they all scored in the 170s with a few in the 180s.

2. Yes, I know it WAS calibrated correctly, because after my first score closer to 154WHP I heard them all say "recalibrate it" at which point they calibrated at 5kRPM I think.

3. Its not common to get that HP, and I know because I scored around the same as the A/T with exhaust that was there.