First trip to the dealership.....Service and warranty questions....
 

The wife and I bought us an '05 RX8 on new years day. It came with all the service records since new from the local Mazda dealership. I want to continue this trend as the new owner of the car, and I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9am for the cars first oil change in our possession. It's now sitting around 59,750 miles on it.

My question is if I should ask for any special services at the 60k mark? Is there a 60k service that the car really needs?

If so, should I let them do it, or should I consider getting the parts and doing it myself. I'm more than handy and have all the tools I would need. I've done engine and transmission swaps and rebuilds in the past. This is also my 3rd rotary powered car, so I'm no stranger to the beast so to speak. My concern is mostly maintaining the 8yr/100k warranty on the engine, and how doing my own maintenance will effect that warranty. Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with that?

make an account at MyMazda.com and you can get the maintenance schedule plus see all the maintenance done to the car at the dealer ( dont know if it iwll show the past stuff)

Looks like they just inspect everything as needed and replace fluids.

http://www.mymazda.com/MusaWeb/pdf/m.../06_RX8_MS.pdf

Long as you keep good records of your maintenance you should not have an issue with the 8yr/100,000. Though it seems like they are getting picky lately on this.

I know lots of people do thier own maintenance but I have been taking mine to the dealer just so they keep the records for me and I hope that really helps when/if the time comes that I need a new engine.

It might be time for a second changing of the spark plugs, if the first set were changed at 30k. You might also want to check the brakes to make sure they are not wearing low, possibly change the brake fluid as well. Other than that, I can't think of much more you would need to do. All of those tasks you could do on your own and save a lot of money. Just keep your receipts.

Thinking that the OP's question has been answered, I'll ask a related follow-on. If I purchase a used RX8 from a 3rd owner who has no service records, and Carfax shows no Dealer-performed maintenance done since 2007, am I likely to have problems getting an engine replacement if needed? Car seems to be mint, but at 90K miles, I was imagining I had at least 10k of "insurance" for the engine.

Have them change plugs, coils, oil, all fluids, and do a compression check.

Well, here's the scoop. I'm currently sitting in the Mazda dealership for the second time today :(

Brought it in for the oil change this morning. Everything seemed good to go. Took about an hour overall, and they even threw in a discount for me being in here for my first time. Great!

Took off and drove to pickup a buddy, went to a local bike shop, and then to meet the wife for lunch ~50mi total driving from the dealership. About 45mi in, check engine light comes on, and car loses a bit of power up to ~6,500 rpm. At 6,500 it picks back up as normal to redline. Autozone shows me a code P0171 (System Lean). I call the dealership, and they tell me to bring it right back.

SO, now it's back being "checked out" after I signed the form for a $95 diagnostic fee. The service manager here tells me that 60k miles is a typical failure point for these motors, and they suspect the rear rotor has "gone out". They are doing a full checkup on it at this time, although it's kind of odd that it does this immediately after coming in for a routine oil change. He did say that if it was the motor, it would be 100% covered under warranty.

So I sit and wait. I'll let everyone know what turns out of it. Needless to say though, I'm not overly enthused with the entire situation at this time. Especially considering I've owner the car for less than 45 days at this point :(

What's that supposed to mean? Did they do a compression test?

It does seem suspicious that this would happen right after they changed the oil. But who knows, maybe a seal just happened to give up the ghost right then or something.

Actually, if they end up replacing the engine under warranty that would be a good outcome for you in a way.

It does seem suspicious that it would happen right after someone was poking/prodding around in there. I'm trying to walk the line of not laying blame, but not being walked on either.

I suppose a new motor would,kt be the worst thing, but in my experience a car is never the same once it's had a mjor repair like that.

Still sitting here in the lobby. Posting from the phone this time :(

May as well be nice about it, blaming them can only hurt you at this point. Even if it's their fault, if they replace the engine under warranty you will kind of come out ahead. Your car may not be the same after, but it will likely be better. It will be a strong, brand-new engine with no miles on it. As long as they do it right, it shouldn't mess up anything else. The downside would be the wait.

I wasn't referring so much as to blame them for the new motor, as I would be blaming them for knocking a vacuum line loose or something along those lines. Something that could've been done while doing the normal course of work associated with the oil change. I'm reasonable, but at the same time if it was something they did, then I would have made sure it was fixed without charge.

I'm now home from the dealership. Took them about an hour and a half of troubleshooting to find the problem. The service manager explained it to me as some sort of "shutter valve" was stuck open. I'm not sure what this is, or exactly what it does. He explained it as a valve that helps increase performance at high RPM ranges. It had some carbon buildup on the device that opens the valve. The tech found the stuck valve, cleaned it, and then tested the car. The service manager was nice enough to not charge me for any of the work since it was possible that something was knocked loose during the oil change process and that could have caused the problem. I'm unsure if they checked the compression on the motor or not, of if the tech there just knew what to look for. I was able to speak to the tech briefly when I brought the car back in the second time. He seemed to be pretty knowledgable about the engine, and even recognized the car (by asking when I bought it from the guy that used to own it, and calling the previous owner by name).

Ultimately, while I didn't want to spend all day at the dealership, they handled it really well. I'm a happy customer, the car seems to be running great, and I'll be back for the next oil change. Kudos to Jeff at Oxmoor Mazda here in Louisville, he did a fine job with a potentially bad situation.

If you'd like to see what the dealership supposedly did with the SSV, then see Jon's thread at https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=SSV

This secondary valve opens up ay just about the RPM's you noted.

Interesting that others also noted that this happens just after an oil change. Might be something I should become familiar with. Thanks for the link!!

Yep.......I would also look into installing a catch can.
You will see references to catch cans in that thread and you can always do an advanced search on that....."catch can" as well.

My reman motor has been flawless and runs great. Don't sweat it.

I'll definitely have to consider a catch can. Anyone have any good links on it? The search is only being somewhat helpful, and advanced search just poses more options that don't lead me anywhere. I've put catch cans on other cars before so I would suppose it to work the same way, but I'd like to see some installs into this platform.

Take a look at Vyndictive's Catch Can DIY: https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ighlight=Catch

Since you are an 05 and have done it on other cars, it would be a breeze.
Above link is a good one and another thread to see the different types, options for mounting, etc, can be seen in https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...=catch+install

Basically you are just taking the hose between the oil filler neck and the intake accordian tube and placing a catch can in the middle. You run from the filler neck to the can, and then you either vent the other side of the can to the air and plug up where the hose originally went on the accordian tube, or........you run the catch can back to that location and don't plug it.

don't install a catch can.

buy a filter. put it on the oil spout hose. cap off air intake tube.

3.99 to 5.99 plus a rubber cap

^................yeah, you could that too! ;)

But..............if you do get oil backed up(let's assume some rookie service tech or someone overfills), it will go right to that filter and then proceed to drip everywhere.

Awesome links. Thanks for the info.

Just to make sure I'm on the same page here. If the oil is OVERfilled, then it runs directly back into the intake tract before the throttle body? Seems like kind of a wierd place to vent that to, but I suppose Mazda picked that spot for a reason.

Thanks again for the info!

Yes, it would be before the throttle body and is one of the ones on the side(if you will) of the accordian tube..
Issue is that it can run into the intake box and pool there, but it can also foul up the MAF and get into the throttle body as well...............and start to gum things up!