Is it true that the engine won't last past 50,000 miles?

 

Not true. The engine can last a long time if you keep up with regular maintainence. There are a lot of Rx-7s (mainly N/A FC) with over 150K miles on the engine without a rebuild.

 

Who told you that hunk of crap, a monster truck driver?

 

it is pretty reliable. You'll see

 

Apperntly 3rd Gen Rx7's had some reliability problems due to a large amount of turbo boost, and poor cooling (mostly poor cooling). All other rotories have done much better. From a design standpoint, the Rx8 should be the most reliable rotary yet.

Anyway, the warranty os 50,000 miles, so it should last quite a bit longer than that.
--Dave.

 

Yeah, mazda thought they'd be the first to sell a car with a 50,000 mile lifespan.

Honestly, I don't know how these rumors even surface.

 

think about this, even when your at 9000rpm's, the rotor is only turning at 3,000 rpm's. plus, there are only three main moving parts in the engine, 2 rotors and the drive shaft. compare that to well over 80 in a small 4 cylinder. plus there is more...
apex seals no longer run over the exaust port openings, so they'll last longer.
less overal vibration.
if it overheats, it won't sieze up as easily as a piston engine.
plus, because of the problems with the last turbo rotars overheating, mazda took extra care to make sure that this engine will be reliable.
and last, the skycar project uses rotary's, eight in fact. they wouldn't be using them if there was a greater chance of falure, cause the project will be officially over when one of those goes down with someone in it...

 

They start underneath of bridges!

 

It is said that RX-7s had that problem... they needed engine rebuild at around 70,000 miles... however, Mazda tried to fix this problem with RX-8s and came up with Renessis engine. They say it is now reliable engine... but we will see soon.

 

i've know people that have had the rx7 for 14 years ..... no problems with the engine

 

The same bs floated around for the first gen rx7. Everything else will fall apart on that car before the engine craps out.

 

50,000? No, it will last about 80,000 miles. It works like this, the RX-7 lasted for about 70k miles, the RX-2 lasted for about 20k miles, the RX-8 is designed to last 80K miles. If you need an engine to last 200k miles then you have to wait until the RX-20 comes out.

 

Ditto. Sniff, sniff. I smell a troll.

 

I'm not a troll.......Just concerned on dropping 27k on a car that will lose its engine at 80k miles.

 

It looks obvious to me that the renesis is engineered well enough to go past 150k without a rebuild. Better oil and cooling system and no boost on a freshly designed rotary engine. If it doesn't last 150k miles, I don't know what to say.

 

I don't think they were refering to yourself.. but to the person who spouted that little... ummm... 'gem' to you...

 

If you so concerned with reliability buy another car. While I don't think for a second the RX-8 will have reliability issues like the FD the Renesis is still unproven, but I don't see it not lasting 100k+ miles in most RX-8s if regular maintennance is kept up.

 

NA rotories are reliable its the ones with forced induction that have a not so impressive track record.

 

Yep Mazda makes cars that will self destruct in 50k miles or less so you will have to buy another one, then another, and another ... ect.
Actually, I have a 1988 RX-7 5 speed NA that has 148,000 miles and counting. The engine in the 8 is essentially an upgraded 13B. I would not worry about the 8. I bought one and expect it to go at least 150k if I decide to keep it that long.
Buy it and join the cult. You can't go wrong getting an 8.

 

The longevity issues were with the rotary engines in the Rx2s and RX3s of the early/mid 1970s. Once Mazda figured out how to make the apex seals on the rotors survive, the majority of the issues were solved. In the third generation RX7s, an air separation tank was prone to cracking and when that happened the resulting loss of coolant typically resulted in a severe overheating of the engine that blew an internal water seal that could only be fixed by a complete teardown.

My '94 RX7 has 91,000 miles on the original engine and my '86 RX7 has 215,000. Engine life in rotaries is certainly no worse, and possibly much better than a piston engine IF PROPERLY MAINTAINED.