the new one

I just ordered a new 07 (dark blue). Will be here by Friday. I am trading my 04 Armada in. I will be getting a At trans. The car will be driven by my wife most of the time, hauling around my 9 year old son. Just woundering what problems if any I might have with this car. I owned a 83 rx-7 with zero problems. The Armada is a great suv, to big to drive around town getting 10-12 mpg. I read about the rough idle, I hope this is not a problem.

Easy_E1

iTrader: (2)

Well, there are no problems with the car. You will have warranty. Mazda will fix anything that breaks. And the color is Stormy Blue Mica. Nice choice. Basically the car is a flawless engineering marvel.

Congratulations and enjoy the ride.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

There is a Search button on top.

but I'll be nice this time.

Auto Tranny huh ... well understandable cuz your wife is the driver so ....


What I will recommend :

- Do your first engine oil change at around 100 miles. next one at 1K, after that just follow what mazda saids.
- After 5K miles change your AT fluid out once, then just follow what Mazda saids.
- change oil regularly and use Synthetic oil only.
- Driver it hard sometimes.
- Try to get another oil cooler installed, cuz I think AT comes with only 1.
- 07 comes with a half assed A/C condenser screen I would suggest you to take that out, and get RB screen instead, oh also get the RB oil cooler screen.

thats about it. Congrats on your new ride ! Im sure your wife will love it.

machfive

Congrats on the new ride. Your stormy blue mica is a rare color and I have not seen a single one in southern California yet. So enjoy a little exclusivity. After it breaks in, redline it at least once a week to keep the carbon at bay. Enjoy, and welcome to an awesome forum.

Targatheory

Not trying to be a dick or anything. Just want you to know that if you haven't yet, going back a couple pages in General you will see a handful of threads about new guys just getting this car. It's worth looking at, and hope ur wife doesn't get jealous of the relationship you're about to embark on...(smiley face)

Detrich

hey mach, i finally saw a stormy blue at a gas station a few weeks ago and went over to talk to the owner... check out the "i spotted u" thread in socal and i posted a (not-so-great) pix. it looks even better in person.

NoTears316

I didn't realize "dark blue" was a color you could get the 8 in.

MazdaJeff

^^^ Ya, of all the colors I find it the most metallic. You can really see the flakes in the paint. Quite nice.

DarkBrew

Welcome and congrats!

Gambit

rough idle??

Check your oil level periodically, and add more as necessary

Subdivisions

Congrats!

"If it were me" ... I would think really hard about the AT choice.
I think most on this board would agree that the manual is much better.
If your wife can't drive a manual, this is actually a pretty easy car to learn in (from what I understand anyway).

My $0.02 anyway

StewC625

I'm going to give you my new standard answer to anyone that posts a "just bought it, what do I need to know" thread - rather than the SEARCH NOOB response that has been determined to be a bad thing.

Also, get the manual - AT ... icky bad.

Here's what I'd give you as a quick top 10 things to know:

1) Oil - it consumes oil by design - nothing wrong with that. Check your oil at every other fill up, or do like I do and spend an hour puttering around the garage every other weekend, and adjust the tire pressures, check the oil, give it a wash, etc. A little RX-8 love time.

2) While it says "premium recommended" you can safely burn '87 in most climates and areas. If you feel guilty, pop the extra cost.

3) Change the oil every 5000 miles at least, more frequently if you'd like to. Pay attention to the maintenance schedule in the book and do those items.

4) Beware, Mazda dealers charge through the nose for everything, and they will try to sell you extra crap during scheduled maintenance stops. Don't let them do it.

5) You can safely upsize the tires to 245/40-18s - they are fatter, fill the wheel wells more, and look **** hot.

6) The summer tires work like crap when the temp falls below 45F. All-season performance radials are an acceptable compromise. Snow tires are a must if you commute in snow.

7) Visit your redline often to keep you happy and keep the buzzer from getting lonely.

8) Keep your car shiny and sparkling clean for best crowd pleasing.

9) Watch out for idiots in Civics who will rev on you.

10) This car is NOT a straight-line speed car - don't get disappointed when you realize that LOTS of cars can beat you at the strip.

Enjoy - post pics when you can!

And search and read:

- The little things
and all the other stickies in all the other forums - DIY - Show & Shine, and more.


Here's a few other goodies - let's call them "unique features":

1) Drive by wire throttle with adaptive learning - the engine computer "reads" your driving habits and can flatten or steepen the throttle response curve to match. Drive hard for a few days and find "new" horsepower (it's always there, just visiting at different times). Baby it and it becomes a rental car ... weird.

2) You have a sport. so this won't mean anything to you, but the weird Bose adaptive radio will boost the volume automatically while you drive - you'l turn it down and minute later you say to yourself "I swear I just turned the radio down".

3) The Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) will flash a warning on the dash when any tire is about 4 to 5 lbs down on pressure from the factory setpoint which is 32 PSI. If you get a TPMS warning, stop, do a walk around to make sure you don't have a tire going down, once you're sure, head to a gas station and fill the tire.

4) Never but NEVER use the fix-a-flat kit. It ruins the tire and clogs the TPMS.

5) Feel free to experiment with driving with the DSC off, but understand that there is a stern little Japanese guy hiding the in the works with his finger on the "I think not!" button when it's enabled, and it WILL save your ***! It saved mine once today when I hit a patch of oily pavement in the rain.

6) Don't bother trying to understand or explain the abject ergonomic failure represented by the sunvisors. Just accept that every hot supermodel has a knarly wart somewhere ...

7) Did I mention that the summer tires that come stock on it suck? Oh, yeah, I did. Well it bears mentioning again. If you stick with summers, at least upgrade to a better tire. If you live in a climate where the temp visits sub-40 ranges then consider all-season high performance radials - visit TireRack.com for good reccos, but can heartily reccommend the Pirelli PZero-Nero M+S.

8) You can buy used snows on eBay if you want to go that way. But if you don't use Mazda wheels with TPMS sensors, the light will be on all the time.

9) You can't make love in an RX8. I tried. Doesn't work. Either that or my wife and I both need to lose 7" in height and 75 lbs each (Ok, I could stand to lose 40 lbs ...).

10) Find twisty roads and drive them. Smile.

puch96

How do you know this? where did you get this info (the adaptive learning part)?

CarAndDriver

AT=bad

rglbegl

Drive it like a mad man/woman. Or pay for it later.
This car likes to be revved to clean it out once in a while. Automatics have trouble with that. Make sure to drive the $hit out of it

TimzSI

Stormy Blue is a very nice color. Topped only by Copper Red and then Phantom Blue. :o

Good luck, I think the 07 AT's have the most development, so hopefully there won't be too many problesm. GL!

coll3735

I've heard this too; my friend showed me how to reset the computer, its a pain, but I guess its worth it.

coll3735

Heres the info on reseting the ecu; I actually searched!
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ighlight=reset

the new one

Thank You guys for all the info. I do understand about the oil usage in a RX -8. I am the type of guy that works on my cars every weekend. I love to tinker and check fluids. I am a firm 3000 mile oil person. Is there any brand of oil these cars like to use. I use mobile oil in my Titan. Yes I wash and keep my cars very clean. I am a firm user of BG products. What about adding oil additives like lucas or moa by BG?

Yarrus1

If you`ve ordered an 238hp version with AT is not so bad like 192AT....My wifw sometimes takes my car...It`s very good to get trips with children cause the back seat is very comfortable to use for them.
I don`t know what type of oil use american mazda dealers.But in Moscow we use Mazda DEXELIA 5W30 or ELF Evolution5W30(the same like DEXELIA)

kersh4w

iTrader: (3)

i live in maryland. is that an acceptable climate for running 87? temps currently are mid 70s to 90s. do i have to change the octane based on the temperature?

Yarrus1

Rotor is very capricious for gasoline...I use 98 octane fuel only...

CarAndDriver

212HP for 6AT and 197HP for 4AT.

coll3735

98?! The most I can find in around here is 92; damn

StewC625

Our climate is similar to yours all summer, and I've used 87 without issues all the time. That said, no harm in 93 either. I do tend to put in 93 out of guilt if I'm going out for a hard "sports car day" drive on the twisties some where.