Forgot to mention something, and he brought up a good point. Dealers bank on your backing down and not calling them on their bullshit. They should fix it at their cost since they more than likely tried to cover it up. That is the dealer process. You pay another 20% of the cost, so they accept liability. Do not let them tell you otherwise.

 

badinfluence, much of your advice, while good, isn't applicable to his problem. The Air injection pump doesn't have anything to do with the engine. "CEL" traditionally stands for "Check Engine Light", however, it is more accurate to refer to it as the "Check Emissions Light". In this case, the air pump just injects air into the exhaust after the engine to help heat the cat faster, reducing warmup emissions. It only runs when the cat is under a certain temp, which only happens at a cold startup.

The engine warranty and engine electrical have nothing to do with this function or this code.


aussie_nate, you just need to have the solenoid replaced. It's fairly simple, not all that expensive, and ignoring it will only slightly reduce how long your cat can last before failing. If you are running catless, then there is no benefit to even having the pump at all, much less trying to fix it.


HOWEVER, nearly every state in the US has a law against dealers selling cars that are unable to pass that state's inspection, and refer to the emissions and/or safety inspection. Do some research to determine if this applies to you, and you should be able to force the dealer to repair it on their dime.

 

Sorry, I mistook it for the solenoid attached to in the stock intake box.

 

Duh time again. Do all Series I 8s use the same size brake pads? Just ordered new pads from Rock Auto. After I placed the order, it dawned on me that none of their pad listings specified sport vs non-sport. Rotor listings did (obviously) but pad listings didn't.

Ken

 

Hmm, I'd expect so, but even Mazmart doesn't have a sport vs non difference: http://www.partswebsite.com/mazmart/...20022&fl_id=38

 

Agree with this. Checked out two other websites to confirm. AT and MT use different rotors but the same pads it looks like.

 

Same basic calipers...different rotors..different mounts

Same pads

 

Hey everyone. 2007 with 30,000 miles. Plugs coils and wires changed 200 miles ago. Oil changed 600 miles ago.

One of the rubber grommets dropped in, jammed a fan and caused my car to overheat. The temp gauge went up to 3/4. I have got the grommet out and both fans work fine now. Lost a bit of coolant. Topped it off now. All is good.

I don't drive the car often.

So I started my car after a week of not driving and a bit of smoke came out of the pipes for 10 seconds and stopped, and then it happened again after a minute. Stopped again. And again started smoking after a minute. They weren't noticeable on camera. But the video I've attached is the first time it happened and it was noticeable on camera.

Is this normal? Could it be because I blew an oil seal when I overheated?

I must mention that I've gutted my cat.

Thanks a lot.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0jq4l75wy1dzkx/Video%20Jun%2006%2C%2010%2032%2037%20AM.mov

 

Looks more blue than white, so that is definitely burning oil. Possible causes.

oil control ring failure
vacuum leak
e-shaft seal leak
oil pan leak

 

Ok but doesn't it smoke like that with a gutted cat?

I had to remove some vacume lines to get the rubber grommet out. But I did reconnect them. They were tight.

Can I drive my car like this? Would it hurt the engine? You mentioned oil ring failure. Do I need a rebuild?

 

Dumb question about fuel: i would never put 91 in my car, I have always used 95. I have found out that 98 is available near my work - would it be better to get this rather than 95? Also, would it be best to get 98 with 10% ethanol or 98 with no ethanol (both are available nearby). I am thinking performance and engine care not economy! Tis a Spirit-R so Renesis, has 7,800 km on it.

 

Pretty sure your Anzac fuel is measured on the RON scale, unlike US fuel, so no, 91 on that scale is wee-wee.

Your '98' would be roughly equivalent to US Premium which weighs in at 94 on our RON+MON/2 scale. That is exactly the fuel you should use.

Less power in a liter of ethanol-ed gas, but if you buy into the greeny theories, it won't hurt either.

S

 

Thanks StealtTL. I'll change to the 98 then.

 

how do i increase ground clearance?

 

Gas lesson for today:

The higher octane is supposed to prevent pre-ignition ("detonation" or "knocking"). Anti-logic: the lower the octane, the easier the gas is to burn (ignite) quickly. Also, the octane rating DOES NOT indicate how much POWER the fuel delivers - all grades of gasoline contain roughly the same amount of heat energy.

The octane rating shown in Canada and the United States is 4 to 5 points lower than the rating shown elsewhere in the world [because we use the AKI - average of Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number (MON), and the rest of the world just uses RON]*, so 95 in New Zealand is roughly 90-91 in the USA.

The 8 can use lower octane, even 87 in the USA (about 91 where you are) and many use the lower octanes, especially with low compression engines (the lower the compression, especially found on a high mileage engines, the less chance of knock). However, my view is, in general, when in doubt, don't use lower octanes. Knocking is very, very bad, and ultimately fatal, for the Renisis engine.

Although, like other cars, the Renisis has a knock sensor that is supposed to tell the electronic management system to change the ignition timing (when the plugs fire) to eliminate any knock, there are different opinions about the sensor's performance, engine horsepower will suffer a bit (some people unbolt the sensor to gain 1-2 hp since sometimes it reports knock when there isn't any) and, more importantly, just one series of knocks and it's possible you will say goodbye to your engine's rotors apex and side seals, ruining the engine. Better to be safe than sorry and use your 95 octane if in doubt.

Ninety-five (95) octane in New Zealand should be completely adequate to prevent knocking even in an engine with high compression numbers, and is recommended by Mazda. That's usually around the highest octane we have in the USA, although we also can find higher octane at some petrol (gas) stations. I use our 91 octane (around your 95 octane) and have used 89 (about 93-94) octane and, being a risk taker, have used 87 (about your 91) octane in the past with absolutely no knocking on my good compression engine. I never use higher than 91 (about your 95) octane. I presume you have not had any knocking using 95 octane for 7,800 km. However, if you want to be more careful than the Mazda recommendation, or are otherwise paranoid about knocking, and don't care about any cost difference, have at it with 98 octane, remembering that there is no significant horsepower difference between 95 and 98 octane.

As far as ethanol is concerned, my information is that the Renisis does NOT like ethanol. For one thing, it dilutes and counteracts the oil injected into the engine. Gasoline is just refined oil, ethanol is not, being an alcohol. Check your owner's manual, Mazda says "no" to ethanol fuel for the Renisis in my '04 manual. Also, I have read that ethanol somewhat adversely affects horsepower. In the USA most of the gasoline now sold contains some ethanol, but the exact amount varies by region. In general, our ethanol content does not exceed 10%. Up to 10% ethanol is supposed to be OK for all cars according to our federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but I have a tendency not to take the government's word for granted, I know of no long term tests with ethanol in the Renisis, and who really knows? Further, even though I'm pro-environment, I'm not sure on balance whether ethanol helps the environment all that much. Regardless, if I have a choice, I choose NO ETHANOL.

*Wikipedia has an article "Octane rating" if you want to go deeper.

 

I personally don't know of a way to increase ground clearance with the stock suspension, so I think you're looking at changing the coils and shocks to an adjustable system. Maybe someone knows better and will chime in.

BTW, most want to decrease ground clearance. Why would you want to increase ground clearance on a sports car that is best known for its great handling characteristics?

 

Do spherical bearings need pre-loading? No thread talks about rear suspension pre-loading with the megan arms.

 

No.....what this forum seems to call "preloading" is making sure that the rubber bushings are in the proper range to work effectively without having them distorted past the orrect range.

This doesn't happen with spherical bearings......

 

Could you tell me what a lift kit is?

 

Maga that post is 3.5 years old and 146 pages back... This being the no flaming thread people probably won't say anything but for future refrence don't post about things that old on other threads. Some people on here are pretty mean about that.

To answer your question: it is a set of parts used to increase the ground clearence of a vehicle usually done to trucks.

 

So question about failing clutch...

I do receive a foul egg smell when I shift at high rpms, 7K plus, and want to try and figure out what it is. I know that a clutch going bad will put out a fouled egg smell. But will it only put out that smell at higher rpms, or will it put it out across all of the rev range? And if it's not the clutch, what else could it be?

 

Do you have a CAT blckninja?

 

Yea I do, don't think it's going bad though, haven't seen it glowing. Although maybe I should take it off to see if its clogged?

 

Usually the rotten egg smell though produced by a few other things, ends up being the CAT. I would check just to be sure. It only takes a few minutes to get it off and have a peek.

 

Dustin is completely correct all around. The only lift kits I know of are usually for ground clearance for trucks that go off road. I don't know of any that are made specifically for an Rx8, though maybe one could be made to fit. Really not to be mean - I'm just curious - why do you want to increase ground clearance on your 8 that Mazda spent significant engineering effort to make one of the best road-hugging sports cars?