thats another thing, ive really been babying it, i havnt been drivin it very fast lately but it seems everyone says that its good for the car to redline it once a day

 

i've owned so many because i have an addiction to them...i buy them, fix them, sell the ones that don't mean much to me and move on. my thing is RX-7 restoration. i restore one per year to a reliable driving condition. i have owned 7's since i was in high school. so, over 11 years, i have broght some rough ones back to life and have restored a few and have enjoyed those. and Ken, i've never flooded the RX-8

 

hey chief, first off, i'm not treating you like an ******* so don't get on here treating me like one. i'm not saying his car will break if he doesn't let it warm up. i'm just saying that i like to let the engine in my cars warm up until the needle moves from the cold range. just my preference. i was stating that after owning 31 RX-7's you learn some of the issues related to the rotary and i was stating that the older 12A and 13B EGI powered 7's do not idle exceptionally well when cold and they require warmup into the "zone of normal operating temperature indicated by a non linear gauge". so because of this, i always let the 8 warm up a little before driving. i'm not worried about cold start oil starvation or excessive wear when cold. i don't drive my cars hard when cold.

 

for someone with your experience, i cannot believe that you would idle the car 5-10 mins till it warms up itself. when the car is sitting there idle, nothing is really moving and you are just not warming up in the correct way. gears are not moving, all the fluids are not doing their jobs, parts are not lubricated properly...it would do nothing good to the car except for building up carbon...

 

CORRECT....I only had the car for about a month when I found out about the loss of power TSB...thanks to this site!!!!!! So I printed out the TSB and took it to the dealership and told them I had been experiencing some of the same problems(when in reality...since I was so new to the car I didn't know if I had a loss or not..I just wanted it checked) After about an hour of sitting in the dealership, they brought me keys to the rental and said, "new motor" for you. And really, that was about it! Litteraly, my jaw bout hit the floor when they told me I needed a new motor and the fact that they were so nonchalant about it..like they had motors coming out their butts or something. They had the car for about 3 weeks(which is not normal...they said the shipment from Mazda was delayed due to customs...now, I thought they were all assembled here in the US??, but the service guy told me it was coming from Japan ...I still think they might have been making that up and wanted to wait on doing the motor until the first of the month or something, but again, I have no idea what the hold up was). Further, I don't know if it was simply down to the low compression numbers, or if there was a "series" of tests they performed before they decided they would have to replace the motor. Matter of fact, somewhere on this site I know there is the actual "loss of power" TSB and what the procedure is for testing and determining whether or not to replace the unit. I'm not going to give you that "search noob " because I'm SURE YOU'RE ALREADY DOING THAT hahahahahahaha. jk, well not really, hahahahahahah . OH, and on a side note, I would do some checking for a local shop...OTHER THAN THE DEALERSHIP, that specializes in Mazdas...specifically rotarys. I've found the price to be cheaper and the service to be better than my local dealership. Pretty much, if it's not covered by the warranty, I use a local independent. OH, and another bit of advice....DO NOT LET THE WIFE, GIRLFRIEND, MOM..PREACHER...NOBODY drive the car unless you give them the run down on what NOT to do. My wife hates borrowing my(our) car, because I give her about a 10 min dissertation every time...and you know what, I enjoy doing it because mabye she'll stop asking I know it seems like a lot of **** to think about, but honestly, as long as you take care of it and keep that oil topped of, it should provide you with many years of hauling *** around curves and on and off the off-ramps...really, there are not too many cars that can hang with our turn in, mid corner and exit speeds. The straights are a different story...but that's another argument and about 5k worth of work

 

so let me ask, by me letting the engine idle for 3 mins or so, what does it hurt other than fuel economy?

 

Well it hurts time conservation, which would be critical in your case, because if you're only restoring an average of one RX7 per year to reliable driving condition, that ain't gonna add up to 31 cars over 11 years, chief.

Which means over 11 years, you may have had as many as 20 RX7's that were not in reliable driving condition. Now I understand why you were so religiously warming them up.

 

when you let the car idle, you build up carbon. more importantly, if you warm up your car this way, you are ONLY warming up the engine. the transmission, steering parts etc. etc. are NOT warm up and lubricated. so if you take off after 3-5 mins thinking that your car is fully warm up and push the car, it is as bad as if you never warmed up the car. so what is the point?

 

i've only been into restorations for about five years. i did a lot of buying and selling in the past. i would buy a 7 and sell it a few months later. the problem was that i was buying them in too poor a condition and before i started buying parts cars, it was too expensive to maintain several junkers. i'm at a point now where i have a collection of cars that i'm not buying and selling anymore. it not only kills a family budget, but i just don't have the room to be buying and selling. i prefer to keep what i have..and what i have now is still irritating to the wife.

 

i totally agree with you on this. i'm not saying that i push the car after i take off with only the engine warm. my whole point was that before i take off, i let the temp needle come out of the complete cold range. i also stated that older 12A's run far better warm than cold, so driving on a cold engine can be frustrating. the rx-8 however, runs far better warm or cold. i still let it get out of the complete cold range if i am not running late. i dont drive the 7's or the 8 in cold weather so warmup there isn't an issue.

 

in that case it is just personal (maybe over-cautious) choice. but you should make it clear since ppl are asking how to warm up the car, your answer is a little misleading in that context. if ppl took your advice and "warm up" the car like you suggest, they are likely to drive off thinking that the car is warmed up and treat that car as if it were "warm up" -- this can be really bad.

 

[quote=ATL-GP;3537157]CORRECT....I only had the car for about a month when I found out about the loss of power TSB...thanks to this site!!!!!! So I printed out the TSB and took it to the dealership and told them I had been experiencing some of the same problems(when in reality...since I was so new to the car I didn't know if I had a loss or not..I just wanted it checked) After about an hour of sitting in the dealership, they brought me keys to the rental and said, "new motor" for you. And really, that was about it! Litteraly, my jaw bout hit the floor when they told me I needed a new motor and the fact that they were so nonchalant about it..like they had motors coming out their butts or something. They had the car for about 3 weeks(which is not normal...they said the shipment from Mazda was delayed due to customs...now, I thought they were all assembled here in the US??, but the service guy told me it was coming from Japan ...I still think they might have been making that up and wanted to wait on doing the motor until the first of the month or something, but again, I have no idea what the hold up was). Further, I don't know if it was simply down to the low compression numbers, or if there was a "series" of tests they performed before they decided they would have to replace the motor. Matter of fact, somewhere on this site I know there is the actual "loss of power" TSB and what the procedure is for testing and determining whether or not to replace the unit. I'm not going to give you that "search noob " because I'm SURE

can you give me a link where the tsb is? cause i wanta check that out. i only have 40k miles on it, but why not have a new engine if i can ? ? also something i noticed is my 8 kinda shakes or vibrates when idling, such as u can see the steering wheel and stickshift shake a little its not idling high, but i drove a completely stock rx8 and it didnt do that.

 

^ as far as your shaking, that could be a bad motor mount. As for the rest of your post, It is unreadable. You don't know where the quote ends and your post begins.

 

Anyone have trouble with hot starts? Because of my job, sometimes I drive the car short distances, turn of the engine, then turn it back on 5 min later, then repeat...Ive noticed the engine doesn't like when I start and stop it when its warmed up.....

 

Try searching for that. I bet 15 million threads come up lol. It's a possible sign of low compression.

 

Sorry about the goof...my brain short-circuited between your post and another one where the guy did flood his 8. I need to pay more attention, especially in a thread as wild as this one.

I see that you just let the engine warm til the temp gauge starts to move...and that it's an RX-7 thing. The 8 runs really well when cold. Better than most cars that I've owned. I once had an Alfa that had to come up to temp before driving...it just would not go at all when cold. But with the 8 I have to consciously watch the gauge and wait before hitting it.

Again, apologies for the mis-attribution.

Ken

 

I had that same problem....took it to get checked out and I needed new coils, wires and plugs.....which I was due for anyway. Another factor for me, is the fact I still run the original 04 "old" starter. Which I'm actually surprised by the fact that I have over 78k on that old pos and it's still working...nock wood Anyway, when's the last time you changed the plugs, coils and wires?? You may be due. If not...the low compression issue could be a possibility, as stated above

 

No need to let it cool down, that's more of a turbo thing, and even then only if you don't have ceramic ball bearings...

Warm up is also like any other car, I give mine just enough time for the idle to slow a little (from like 2K to 1500) and then go. Usually 10-15 secnods or so... Just don't get too fancy with it until she's up to full running temperature.

Oh, I also just bought a bright yellow '04 and it has...drum roll please...19450 miles on it. Man was I blown away. Runs like a showroom car and picked it up for only $14K from a local BMW dealer.

I LOVE THIS CAR!!!

 

I got the plugs and coils replaced and it idles and accelerates a lot better, I just get nervous still sometimes because when it's really hot outside, and the engine is hot, when I'm at a stop light, the idle will be around 900 rpm and then after a few seconds drop to about 500 and the car will rumble and shake a little, then kick back up to 900...this will repeat every 10 sec or so...I just feel like the car is about to stall again. It's an 05 with 58k, would it have the old starter?

 

nice! my 04 has 40k miles and i love it too! i thoght that was low! but about 20k miles??? i wonder if thats 20k miles with a new motor put on it, cause they have that huge recall, every rx8 can get a new engine if it pass some tests.

 

2004 GT in Iowa with 60,000 miles on it...perfect warm up procedure: start car, dust entire car with Califronia duster (45 seconds)...drive away. Whether it is 10 degrees or 95 degrees, it has never given me one second of trouble.