Ok...my 2004 RX-8 died (under warranty) and is off getting its engine replaced. Mazda dealer told me today that the coils "came apart". He said they replaced the coils and the plug wires but then the engine didn't have any power. So the mechanic called the "experts" who said the engine needed replacement. Also the catalytic converter burned up. He said that the coils could have caused the engine and cat failure.

It's all under warranty BUT.....what could have caused this? What (if anything) can I do to prevent it from happening again? What are the odds of this happening again? And what in the world are coils? And why would they cause an engine failure?

Sorry for the dumb question but when I pick the car up today I'd like to sound vaguely intelligent and know what questions I should ask about the repairs.

Thanks.

 

See what Wiki says.

 

Thank you, that helps. However I don't see how a coil "coming apart" could result in engine and catalytic converter failure. I would think it would simply result in the engine either not running, or running very badly. What am I missing here?

 

The RX-8 has 4 coils & 4 spark plugs. Depending on which coil (coils) went bad you could have been running on 1 rotor dumping a large amount of un-burnt fuel into the CAT converter. It could have also caused damage inside one of the rotor housings / apex seals having to deal with the un ignited fuel mixture.