How did you spend your first couple months with your car? (Brain has exploded...)
 

So I got my 2005 RX8 GT and am in information overload. I love the car, love driving it, and am in love with just being with the car. I've read so much on premix, what oils to use, the science of oils and almost irrelevance of choosing past weather and conditions, maintaining the look and leather and stuff like that, cat or no cat, upgrading the ignitions to BHR, how the hell a rotary works to begin with. I feel like I know a lot about the car, but now that I'm in it, I'm just sitting here looking at my hands thinking "what first".

I'm not trying to be a total noob here, but what did you do with your car first? Did you start with performance? A body kit (which I know is useless, but lets face it it's cool)? Just start with playing with premixes and octain and oils for a while to get an idea of what your engine likes? I'm seriously just on info overload. I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do, but once I got in the car, everything went out the window with a pleasant grin lol.

Anyway, what did you do first? How did you spend your first couple months with your car to make her yours?

I forgot the ipod/android player lol, wouldn't mind one of those, man every time I turn around I think of something else that would be nice. And btw, is the RX8 always so hard to shift into Reverse? I sat in a parking lot thinking I was just stupid for a bit because I couldn't get the damn thing to shift. I think I have the hang of it, but it seems like it's a lot harder than my Honda, or is that just a "sports car" thing?

It's tricky to get in reverse when you're new to the car, but in time it'll be a non-thought.

Enjoy! Welcome to the obsession :)

There was a couple of times I was going 70+ down the freeway and went to put it back in 6th I pushed it a bit to hard and you can hear the gears scratching, not good. luckily I've gotten used to it now and don't do that.

Premix, choose your poison. IMO the only thing I could really notice was a smoother idle. Nothing the butt-o-meter could feel. I trust the guys that have been driving and racing rotaries way longer than I have that it's beneficial to the long term health of the car. If you know all the maintenance is up to date coils, plugs, wires etc, then go for aesthetics. Welcome to the addiction! Enjoy your car!

Fog light rewire
Clear corners
mp3 player
Drilled/slotted rotors
Access Port (would get mep now)
BHR ignition
Eyelids
Turbo
Rear fog light
Coilovers
Subwoofer
Wheels

That should hold you over for a while :)

Well, I tend to believe that engineering-focused companies like Mazda know what they're doing, so I didn't attempt to plus the car's performance. I had read that Mazda pretty much got everything out of the little engine that anyone would want, and trying to go beyond that was not a very good idea, as I didn't want to risk increasing unreliability, noise levels, etc.

Premix? Not using 5W-20? Again, I go with the manufacturer's suggestions on stuff like that, unless I have a very good reason not to (and I tend not to believe conspiracy theories, like JFK was shot by the government, men never landed on the moon, the Bush administration brought down the WTC - and Mazda recommends the wrong grade of oil. And old RX-7 owners swearing to the benefits of premix don't cut it with me, either.) I researched the 8 heavily before purchasing the car, and came to the conclusion that the small number of cars with engine problems had them as a result of owner neglect/abuse (i.e. not checking the oil every fill-up, not letting the engine warm before pulling away, not revving the hell out of the engine like Mazda recommends, not using non-synthetic oil, etc.). So seven years ownership now and not a problem to speak of (unless you count a squeaky sunroof, look since fixed).

I feel Mazda did a real good job on the 8. Basically I just maintain it according to the book – and enjoy it. I don't say that's what you should do; it's a personal call, but that's what works for me.

oh, somewhere between EMS and Turbo be sure to add mid pipe ;)

i just had my car a month now and i was in the same boat. Im concentrating on getting it mechanical sound. Iv purchased idemitsu premix and idemitsu motor oil, racing beat oil cooler covers (they can take a beating), and i replaced my problematic K&N intake with a better aem one. You also should look into a sohn omp adapte. Its not neceessary but would be good for the motor.

As far as modding i wouldnt do anything until u have read the sticky below\/
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...rx-8-a-233937/

I gave the dealer a fistful of money. That made Zoomy mine. :)

Such a cool car, it just did not need very much. Put in a light-in-sight so I could see traffic lights without hunching over. Covered my EZ-pass with a black sheath because the white just clashed with the gray interior. Got a custom license plate (ZOOM-X8).

But mostly it's just been drive and enjoy.

Ken

LOL, yeah, just for a bit lol. When you say mep for access port, are you talking maps? I found the maps for the 2005 RX-8 MT, the thing is though, when i did a search for COBB Accessport Mazda, I only pull up Speeds Mazda3 and 6, and Miata. For some reason when I do a search I can't find rx-8. Even when I search for Cobb Accessport RX-8?

For the Rotors, I've done some searching on the forums, and looking at the braking forum and racing brake, my guess if I'm going to replace the rotor I'm replacing the entire assembly right? I get that a bunch of holes and slots drop the integrity of the metal, so going with just slots is better than cross drilled rotors, but when I was looking on racingbrake.com, I'd be looking to spend almost 1500 just on 4 rotors? (which is fine if that's right, this is my first sports car so I'm not sure what to expect and what is overkill).

I think what I'm going to do with the wheels is to buy some rims that that look slick for the spring/summer/fall time that has great tires for driving a bit more aggressively, and keep the stock rims to have my all-weather tires on for the winter months (I'm in Nashville, we usually don't get bad snow or anything, and since I'm originally from Chicago, driving on snow here is a joke).

Also, back to the Acessport, is there any data showing that hte Economy Mode saves any gas? I'm going to take a trip thats about 1200 mi round trip, I'm wondering if going ahead and getting it so I can run the car in Econ mod while driving would save me any money (I mean we are looking at 300 bucks round trip on gas after any running around I might do).

One thing I was thinking is not going crazy with premixes, just adding in 3.5 oz every fill up to help out a bit with lubrication, or is that much dilution just defeating the purpose in the first place?

Emissions tests EVERY year here :(

that's what the EMS is for. Emissions tests in PA too ;)

there are so many mods for our car. It's a never ending adventure. Check out GrilleGuy for nice oil cooler / air dam screens.

But wouldn't it still fail the sniffer?

TN has a sniffer? In PA only pre-OBD2 (1995 and older) have to do an actual sniff test.

But yeah I agree you're hosed if TN is like CA.

i came in to see brain explosion ... where is it? :lol:

what i did first? ... does put my key into the cylinder count?

ok, i dont really remember ... been years ... but after all these years, im starting to put it back to stock, well, except the ohlins and sways.

as for using 5w20, if u hate ur car, do it, premix thing ahhh, read some sae papers.

Paid the monthly payments on time...lol

not using premix? i think every legit rx8 performance shop in the world would probably disagree with you there. And 5w20 well its been discussed a million times so im not going to get into it but i disagree

Title was changed to more accurately reflect the content

I got a Mazdaspeed lightweight flywheel about a year after I got the car. The transmission had to come out and it was the perfect time to put it in.

Well to clarify, it's not all of TN, it's Williamson County, where I live. And thomthoms3 just pointed out to me that (he also lives in my county) they just use OBD2 test and check the CEL codes.

I absolutely plan on using a premix, just don't know how much or which one yet. Right now I'm logging miles, gas mileage, and just misc notes about the drive and going to do that for a few fill ups and play with some options to see what my motor likes and how she feels. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have a better feel for what I'm going to do.

On a side note, I just noticed that if you press down on the gearshift it very easily slides into reverse, so all my issues with trying to force it was just because there was a safety lock on it and you just have press down on the knob to go into reverse.

yea, tn says they use "second chance" sniffing, but the dont. also, its only counties that surround metro counties. for example, nashville is in davidson county, so all counties that touch davidson have testing the rest of middle tn doesnt.... kinda confusing...

Rotary Performance | Yes, it’s fast.
theres a link to the premix, its rotary specific and id also get a filtermag, there cheep, last a lifetime and do alot

I departed on a road trip the day after I bought the car.
Since then, seven years of constant mods, maintenance and repairs.
Still having fun

Mods are in my signature and are roughly in order.

I connected up with the local owners to learn and gain inspiration. it's been a great experience.

My first iPod adaptor was the Mazda OEM but
Recently I upgraded capability with Grom so I can use bluetooth and multiple inputs from iPhone and satellite radio

Reading/Researching all info in many, many threads and absorbing all that I could before even posting for the time. Noobs take note. ;)

Then.............smiling each and everytime I got in the car for a drive. :)

Will have to go list all I did to the car in the first couple of months, but it's relatively unimportant to me to do so.

Reading the following

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...t-here-202454/
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...rx-8-a-233937/

Thinking and coming up with conclusions about actualities on my own, and validating sources when I did seek advice.

Also note, most if not all common questions have been covered here!
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...llowed-208221/

I realize its long and there is no way of going through it all searching, but it is the best place to post any questions, no need to clutter up the forum creating threads for every question.

Good luck and welcome to the club, best advise is to learn how to be self sufficient. The answers are out there if your active enough to find them, also answers found will yield better comprehension than answers given. It would also behoove you to gather enough fundamental knowledge to be able to make your own calculated decisions about what you do and how you care for your care right or wrong you should do it your way and not how some random stranger says.

Trust But Verify!

Well this is what I was asking, I'm not really asking people to tell me what to do, I'm just interested in what other people did with their cars. I have some idea's and I have a list of stuff, I'm working on prioritizing it, but it's amazing how once you get in the car and own it, that list doesn't seem all that important because of how impressive the car is on it's own anyway. I know I'm going to put that MP3 player in soon just for the sake of tunes, but outside that I'm working on it.

So I guess people probably got the impression that this is a thread about "Please tell me what to do with my car!?!?!", but it's really just a "Go back to the good ol days when you got started, reminisce about your first date" sort of thing.

I do appreciate the advice though, and thank you Lvis for that link, I've been looking for that for almost a month! lol

BTW, here is a link to the photo album I just snapped this morning, I couldn't sleep and had to take her out on a drive lol.
http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/tethlah/library/RX-8