Newest member to blown engine club
 

I am now the proud member to be driving a rental car (Altima) for two weeks. I took my car to the dealership 1/8 becuase I noticed that there was a small oil leak and needed to get tires rotated.
So I am there for about two hours because I needed the car to visit some friends when I was done. I then had the Service tech guy send me to the rent a car place because he was trying to get a hold of the head tech guy in California because they cannot figure out why my car is leaking oil. So then I come back about three hours later to have the Service Manager tell me that they are going to have to put in a new engine only 7300 miles and they are going to ship my engine to California so that the tech guys there can take a look at it. So now I get to drive an Alitma for 2 weeks and not my "X". And what really sucks is that today my clear outs and rotary accents arrived.
Bought 6MT on 7/29/03 Blew enigne on 1/8/04
GOD I MISS MY CAR

Really sorry to hear your misfortune. Hopefully this isn't an indicator of things to come with this engine. How hard did you drive your 8? Just curious as to the circumstances...did you notice any power loss or just the oil?

Good luck and hope you get your baby back soon.

Enjoy that loaner ... and when you get your ride back, but Canzooomers ECU mod. Break it in right, and enjoy.

Drive the $hit outta dat bitch! It'll thank you later ... the car that is.

yea i think thats the mistake i've been making. driving it too slow. i went WOT to redline in first gear today for the first time after 2800 miles. it wanted more. i've been holding my poor baby back. WOW

I've driven 2 8's. One from Lou Fusz Mazda in St Louis, literally 0 miles on the ticker. They were kind enough to give me a full day with the car. With less than .5 miles on the clock I was bouncing off the redline, powersliding around a cloverleaf onto the Intersate.

Who cares how much HP the car really has. Even bone stock it made me forget all about my M3. Rotary 4ever!

Oh, one more thing ... subscribe to the mag before 1/12, and in the mag will be a $50 off Canzoomers ECU mod inside. That'll pay for 2 years by itself.

Because the rotary is built "sandwich style", leaks can develop between the layers. The coolant "O" rings are the most famous, but there are coolant "O" rings on the studs that bolt it together, and there are oil seals as well. These are not generally high failure rate places on a NA car (it doesn't tax the engine as hard as a turbo car). There will be the odd one that fails though, probably due to a casting defect or assembly problem.

At least you get a new engine! And ECU. Dealer will probably need both your keys when he installs the new engine.

Sorry to hear about your RX-8!

Question on the Rotary, years ago there was a woman at my Mazda dealer that was having the Rotary in her 1991 RX-7 replaced. She did not drive it a lot... kept in the garage... and the oil seals started to leak (I think). From what I heard, she only had about 12k on it after three years. Could sitting around a lot cause this?

great, we lost our cars on the same day 1/8 (leaking coolant).ive had a elantra for 2 days but the dealership told me i can have a 6 instead for the next 2 weeks if i want.

I drove it kind of like an old lady. I was shifting at about 3500 RPM's because that would be the loudest range for my exhaust to sound great( Magnaflow). I really drove it cautiously as this was my first brand new car and wanted it to last for a long time. The tech guy also gave me attitude because of the exhaust he thought I was driving the hell out of it. I can not wait to get it back because I do not have people coming up to me and saying what a nice car I have when driving the Altima
PS I am driving the hell out of the loaner car.

That really sucks that you got an Altima as a loaner. At least they don't leave you carless though. Take a couple of long distance driving trips ;)

I remember when I had a rental Focus a few years ago because my Civic got into a car accident (other party's fault). Ford Focus...POS...unlimited miles though. I put something like 2000 miles on there in one week. Found out the thing is governed at something like 107-110 MPH. Got a ticket in the damn thing too...god that was embarrasing...speeding ticket in a focus. "That's not the right car for going that speed son (92 MPH)". Speed limit in the area was 75 MPH btw.

there is no reason for the rotary to do this other than poor Q/A at the factory. Remember its a new engine. The original 10A, 12A n/a engines had many issues before mazda fixed them. in N/A form the 13B was as bulletproof as you can get, I'd expect the same from this engine.

This is a repeat of a post on another thread. When I had mine if for service at 165 miles, the service tech said that break-in on these engines is not required, and to "drive it like you stole it, and quit babying it around".

Sorry to hear about your engine troubles. The 2K2+ Altima isn't that bad a car, yeah the interior sucks though. Were you lucky enough to get a 3.5SE (V6) Altima? If so, have fun! I had a 2k3 2.5L 4 cylinder as a rental once and it wasn't all that bad.

Another guy mentioned the Focus being a POS. I've had two as rental before and even though I don't like American cars and know the Focus has shit reliability, I have to admit it's not a bad econobox. The 1st one I had I think had a 1 weak 2.0L 110 hp engine. The 2nd one was 2.3L PZEV that had ~140 hp and was MUCH better.

The worst rentals I've ever had were probably a Daewoo Leganza, a beatup 2K1 Altima (had 58K miles on it), a beat up old Ford pickup, and a total POS Chevy Metro... man that SUCKED!

Blow thiis....
 

Like I told you on the other thread, an oil leak is not a 'blown engine'.

If you drove it till it blew up, then I could understand your/

/Oh, forget it, you WANT to think you 'blew it up', why do I bother?
S

Blown engine may suck, but how about this for luck....

Ordered Canadian GT 6-MT TItanium with roof on March 11, 2003
FINALLY delivered on November 28, 2003

December 3, 2003 - driving with my boss I get rear-ended by a Humane Society van. Front bumper of the van is wrecked....amiazingly, no visible damage to the 8, but being 5 days old I make the insurance report and schedule an appointment with the dealer/body shop to inspect. Driving to work on December 5th, rear-ended a second time by a plumbing van....$8000 damage to the rear end/drivers rear quarter. Today is January 16th and I am still waiting on parts from Mazda Canada. No repair to the 8 yet.....17 working days from when parts are in to complete repair.

Rear-ended twice in 6 days. Won't see the car until mid to end of February.:( :mad:

Sorry Steveo67. I would cry every day when I woke up and then to find out it wasn't a dream.

Stealth TL. You try not driving your car for about a week or more and then we will see how your stupid comments sound. I was just stating what the tech guy said. It is a 2k4 Altima 2.5 not to bad and no my engine is not even at the dealership yet I am calling every day trying to figure out where the engine is and how long it is going to take until I can get back in my X

engine failure
 

I am now the newest member of the new engine club :(. I began to notice the smell of coolant and asked the dealer about it when I took it in for routine service at 7500 miles. After a few minutes at the dealership, the news came. It's gonna take a week to replace it. This can't be good for resale value! (a stripped down Protege as a loaner).

Re: engine failure
 

You mean BLOWN engine club. They told me 2 Weeks for the replacement.It has now been 26 Days and still counting.

Chef RX-8,

How many miles did your car have on the odometer when you bought it???

Thanks.

There should be a 'buy back' policy from Mazda for such occurrences!

Re: Re: engine failure
 

Now that's service! I feel for you man....

So how many blown engines belong to this forum now?

3 i think.