My RX8, should I sell....
 

Hey all

I have just had a rather bad turn in my RX8. current spend is reaching $3K in repairs and I have a neighbour in my street with the same model who continually has his bonnet up fixing his.

I bought my 8 in 2009 with 29000 kms on the clock and have only done 10000 more k's in it since. It's a 2005 model which has had the hard to start upgrade done and also has had a new motor put in in 2008 at 21000k's

The car has for the little driving I do on the weekends in it (I have a 4x4 for work) been great to-date. Then suddenly bang a whole heap of parts needed changing. I have read the new owners stickie in depth and I was always aware of the cost of maintenance. Mine seem to all have happened at once though. I don't have access to anywhere I can do the work myself to save $$$ so hence the dealership service costs are high. They see you coming and smile!!!

bottom line............I love the car,that's why I bought it. As I am changing jobs and will need to start using it as a daily driver, should I be concerned with possible on going mechanical issues? The recent spate of costs have made me stand back and re-evaluate if I should keep this car or not. Maybe mine is a good one? Maybe it's not, who knows until I start to put some k's on the clock.

It's a really hard decision and I am making and I am looking at all options before deciding what to do. If I was only using it now and then, I would prob just keep it no problem. But, if I have to keep taking it to the dealership every other month for more work, it's going to become a real heartache.

Anyone else use their RX8 as a daily driver, work and back, kids to school etc and have found they perform better when actually regularly used? I have heard this and so am hopeful that actually using it will help avoid problems.

Anyways, apologies for the long post......just feeling a bit flat about my 8 at the moment although deep down in side something is saying don't sell!

Appreciate any positive feedback thx

Hi, I DD my '04 except for snow days. I've had it 16 months. I had a bad converter when I bought it with 18k miles, & had it laid up for a couple of months at the beginning of the year.
I put a midpipe & new ignition in March.
Just flipped 30 k.
I drive it 40 miles round trip 5 days a week, with errands & the occasional joyride on weekends. So far it's been great, knock on wood.
I let it warm up a bit, granny drive for a few miles, then
let fly. I drive it aggressively with plenty of redlines.
I worry about reliability also, but I'll just wait & see.
I have an old pickup for backup.
Don't know if this helps.
Good luck!

HiYes the cat concerns me greatly. Firstly i am in australia where mazda parts are expensive as hell from mazda. Secondly i dont understandthe midpipe. Is the midpipe an altetnative to the cat or a peice of pipe with the cat included?

I have heard of metalcat as a good after market cat replacement. The fact a cat can go at any time makes me nervous especially if it can damage the engine.

And i have heard of ppl going 100000k on the same cat.

Like i said too many alarm bells going off at the moment. Maybe i just drive it and see how it goes as a daily driver.

Considering I have more into my 8 than what the sticker price on it was I may not be the best advocate for this :rofl:

In all honesty, you would have only spent about 400-500 if you would read some DIY and venture forth yourself instead of getting ripped of at the dealer for the ignition like I stated in your other thread.

Did not have the luxery of time when it happened. Car was a long way from home, had toget it fixed asap. If i had the time and could have got it rowed cheaply i would have given it a go myself your right.

This time the dealer made some cash. Next time i hope to avoid using them if possible

There are midpipes with cats, but generally the term is used for catless pipes.
Some claim the aftermarket cats won't pass the stringent California emissions test.
I don't know how tough your emissions test is.
You'll have to read up on that.
My converter was bad, so I installed a BHR resonated midpipe.
I will gut my old cat, and re-install it when it's time for inspection.
If it doesn't pass, I'll probably invest in an OEM one, but then take it right off again.
If you keep your ignition in good shape, like replace every 30k, that will help in cat longevity.
If you already had misfires, you may have already damaged the cat.

This is the part the really concerned me. Why would mazda build an engine that caused cat damage the minute the engine misfired? I mean its just bad engineering and mazda in my opinion are not bad engineers.

When the engine decides to drop a coil pack, it may happen without warning as mine did. My car misfired on anf off for about 15 minutes until i limped into a dealership. I was told by dealership the cat was ok as it did worry me i may have damaged it. Only time will tell i guess.

Most rx8 owners do not, ie people who dont read up on the cars requirements for maintenance know about possible ignition, cat issues, so maybe there are heaps of potential issues out there waiting to happen?

You have cause and effect all out of sorts on that assumption.

The cats fail because of excess fuel being burnt in the cat. This is not something that is unique to rotaries. It's far less common in piston engines, but still entirely possible. For example, there is a range of Saturns which develop heat stress cracks in the exhaust manifold which leads to overly rich conditions, misfires, and cat failure.

Our cats don't fail because of the engine, our cats fail because when other parts of the drivetrain fail, it develops an environment that they were not designed for living in. It's like your front bumper. It wasn't designed to live in a tree trunk, but if you have another parts failure, like a brake line, suddenly the bumper is going to be in an environment that it wasn't designed to live in, and it's going to fail pretty quickly at that point.


Yes, I don't think you will find anyone here that disagrees with your last point. I personally think that MOST of the RX-8s out there are unhealthy because the owner doesn't know any better. We try to inform them with the only means we can, but it still depends on them deciding to look up information on the web, then finding this site, then reading through the information available. Plenty of new members even get the first two steps, then skip the 3rd.

^Step three is profit.... right?

step four is profit....step three is ?????

Does Missouri just do a visual inspection for parts, and not read the OBD or stick a sniffer up the tailpipe?

Ken

My last was visual, but I have optional 2 year tags, & I don't know if it will be the same when I get it done again.

all cats die with a misfire, the extra fuel = extra heat = dead kitty. the Rx8 is harder on the cat than some cars, but some are worse. all the cats are expensive….

in CA there is an Exemption number on the cat, and the only cat with a number is the stock one, so there are no after market cats that would pass the visual part of our emissions test.