RX8Club.com - New RX8 owner!

Best advise? READ, READ and READ some more! Hex above gave you some helpfull links that should help you on your way and please take the advise about using the search feature. The RX8 is an interesting car with lots of, ahem, 'character'. In reality, this means there are MANY common issues, most of which can be delt with easily so don't panic.

Here is a cut and paste of the most important things that new owners should be aware of,

1. To start up turn the key to position 2, wait for most of the lights on the dash to go out (I watch the airbag light by the glove box), depress clutch all the way down (optional, reduces drag - I do it anyway), turn the key to start and do not touch the throttle until it has started. Once it is running you can drive off straight away, it will warm up as you go.

2. Never turn off the engine before it has reached at least somewhere towards normal operating temperature (should only take a minute or two, but best to go for a short drive if just swapping cars round on the drive etc). Switching off cold risks flooding, which is a real with a rotary engine. Mazda recommend rev to 4k and hold it for 8-10 seconds switching off while still revving if you have no option but to switch off cold (it is not necessary to do this in any other circumstance).

3. Check the oil level regularly (use the dipstick - the oil gauge tells you nothing other than that you have or don't have pressure) and top up if necessary with semi synthetic 5w30 (more people are advising to use 10w40 now though) ... small amounts at a time, no more than ½ a litre then check the level again before adding more as you don't want to overfill it.

4. Use all the revs once the engine is nice and warm (keep it below about 4k until the needle on the water temperature gauge is pointing straight up, then give it another 10 minutes for the oil to warm up too before really thrashing it ) and hit the beep/redline often. This will help keep the engine clear of nasty buildups. Best acceleration is from 4k revs up - to pull away you really need to rev to 2k - you can let the revs drop after lifting the clutch if you are in traffic, cruising steadily at 3½k revs and changing down to go up hills or accelerate gets you the best mpg ... which still won't be great.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy the car!