justgr8t

Apparently one of my coils went bad while driving on the baltimore beltway, dumping gasoline into my cat. I was in a four mile stretch under construction and the engine was running rough/bogging down but I couldn't pull off because there was no shoulder.

I began to smell somthing burning and pulled off as soon as I could from the road to a shoulder. White smoke began coming from under the car and engine.

I now understand that when a coil goes you have a very few miles to drive before your cat fries your car. The dealer has told me that the cat should be warranteed for 8 years or 80k miles, but i have all of this othre affiliated damage now, including that the cat got hot enough to melt my carpet!

Not only that but I'm told if the cat fails because of the coil which is entirely likely to be the case, the cat will not be covered either. Anyone else but me end up in this situation. I had read posts on this site many times before i bought but did not understand the nature of this problem. There is no scheduled replacement of coils, you replace them when they go and I don't remember anyone telling me that, oh and by the way if your engine lite comes on you may only have a few miles before you car could catch fire!!!

So anyone had to fight with mazda over this one but me? anyone with infor that might help is deeply appreciated.

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

1. Re-title your thread. Read the forum rules
2. When was the last time you changed out your plugs and coils? If you have read anything in this forum about regular maintenance, it is usually recommended to change those at the same time after ~25-30k miles.
3. If you kept up with maintenance, you'll be covererd under waranty (provided you are in the 8yr/100k mile for engine and 8yr/80k mile for emissions ie CAT).

ken-x8

My cat and O2 sensor were taken out by failed coils - same spectacular event as you had.

Cat was replaced under warranty. Dealer charged me for the O2 sensor and other stuff.

FWIW, this happened at just over 40k miles, so I now believe the 25k-30k coil change interval. Or go BHR, which is what I'll do when I hit that mileage.

Ken

kjb

Mine just failed a few days ago at 35k miles. The failure wasn't nearly as catastrophic. It stumbled along while going through a construction zone. I turned around and headed home and it started running almost normally. I ordered the BHR ignition, so hopefully this will be the last time I see this.

After I got home, one spark plug wire felt loose so I reseated it. Afterward, the car ran fine...for about a half mile. That's when I placed the order.

livestrong13

when i was driving home i even notice my car start getting hot so it manually turn of on me so i just pull of the road, the engine was very hot, water was pulling out the radiator so that mean car got over heated. When i took my car to rotary shop they said ill need to replace my motor. which i did it was for $ 2,300 with 10k. when my car was done the mechanic told me my car got over heated because my catalytic converter, it was blocking the hot exhaust to come out. that was a hassle and it suk. Eventually when i got home i purchase a straight because of the stupid catalytic converter. that my story....

kjb

Installed the BHR Ignition System today, and the 8 is fixed. No more CEL codes. It's probably psychological, but it seemed like it had more power. After driving it around the neighborhood to warm it up and make sure everything was okay, I took it out on the highway and wound it up

Bladecutter

Well, it should have more power.

Before, your ignition system wasn't strong enough to ignite most of the fuel air mixture. Now it is strong enough. Hence more power.

BC.