Neil

haha, I havnt tried alot at all because unfortunately it went wrong on XMAS eve with all the presents in the back, no where has been open since

Neil

well give this man a star, drove the beast less than a mile around the corner to a formula1 garage, the guy here knew of these kind of problems from before and as soon as they put it up on a ramp there it was glowing like a trooper and giving off heat like you wouldnt believe.

Seems its gotten so hot it had about a foot of melting plastic hanging from the lamba sensor :-/

tsxmidship

glad you found the problem

04RX8man

ah...good to have found it

Neil

yah, good to know its probalby nothing more sinister with the engine or something as those problems always lead one to another.

Now just to get a new cat and have the problem fixed.

slidey

Neil, glad you've found the problem, a firm called CATS DIRECT do one for £309 plus vat, yes4cats on ebay £279 inc delivery, they might be able to do you a performace cat to i expect with your cat getting so hot it might have knackered the lamba sensor to, and it does sound like the wiring going to it is shot, so get a new one and i hope that's the end of your troubles.

Happy zooming and have a good poke around this site, it's got some top tips if your new to rotoring

dave

alfy28

i had the same problem as you had TC, but minus the Smoke. my problem is was the coils. swiched them out and hard start was gone and the lack of power taking off was fixed also misfires no more . when i would take off, my car wanted to act like it wanted to die, then the power would kick in. also would take me a good 6-10sec to start the car up.

then a week later i jsut bought plugs and wires since i just got done swithcing out the coils.

Haze

This answered one question for me, that there are 8s in or around Birmingham. My friends over there swear that they have never seen one. I don't think that they have been looking.

My guess is that when the spark plugs were changed, they reversed the spark plug wires. It is frighteningly easy to do on this car if you aren't careful, and that the improper firing led to massive amounts of unburnt fuel to be thrown into the cat as well as back firing up through the intake manifold. Nasty mess. I hope that it all gets fixed for you and that you are back on the road soon.

Neil

So ive had a new cat and lamdba sensor fitted, I used cats direct for the cat and got the sensor direct from mazda.

The problem now is the garage cant get the car started, they believe it is flooded as there is loads of fuel on the spark plugs, any tips?

Haze

Pull the plugs, clean them and let them dry. Turn the engine with the spark plugs out and the room fuse to the fuel injectors pulled to get the unburnt fuel out of the rotors. Then put a small amount of Automatic Transmission fluid in the housings through the spark plugs hole, turn the engine, a little more tranny fluid, and put the plugs back in. Make sure that leading plugs go to leading holes, and trailing to trailing holes. Put all spark plug wires back on to the correct spark plugs, and reinsert the room fuse for the fuel injectors. It should fire right up.

Second option is to try the deflood procedure as described by Mazda.

Third option is to do what my cousin did when an 8 died at his body shop. They put the car in the paint booth drier at heated the whole car up to 160 Degrees farenheit, which had the effect of vaporizing the unburnt fuel, and the car fired right up.

Two things happen when the car floods. First the plugs become so fuel fouled that they can't spark and second the seals on the rotors fail to seal (since there is no oil to complete the seal) and you can't get good compression to start the car.

Best of luck, and I Hope that it gets goin well for you shortly.

Neil

Got the car back from the garage with the new cat and lambda sensor, toe started it to get it started as the battery was pretty much flat.

It started okay but again its still got no power and only less than half a mile down the road i pulled up to smell a horrid burning smell and a glowing cat again!!!

This must mean there is unburnt fuel getting into the cat still I guess? Must be something like the spark plugs not igniting or something?

Haze

I know that I have suggested this twice before, but I am going to do it again. Make sure that the plug wires did not get reversed when they changed your spark plugs! There are two plugs per rotor, and if the leading and trailing wires are reversed, all kinds of bad things happen. At this point, someone who had a mazda manual needs to check which coil goes to which plug and trace the wires. If it isn't that, then I am at a loss I am afraid. All the best and best of luck.

heyarnold69

iTrader: (1)

did u roast marshmallows as well?

Neil

Yah, well I am going to find a mechanic who works saturdays failing that I am gonna look into it myself by taking each spark plug out individually and making sure they are all sparking visually, then checking they are all wired up correctly.

Annoyingly as I had found the cat to be glowing and the time of year I found a garage that could fit a new cat but not alot else, I had to leave for london and couldnt be with the car to get it over to mazda. Now I'm back for the weekend and mazda service doesnt open on saturdays


Well where can I get info onto how the spark plugs should be wired up, what part number they should be and where the fuse for the injectors is located.

Neil

Is it possible for an engine to run (be it very badly) on just one rotarary? When the car started it seems to idle at about 500rpm which is lower than it ever does?

Haze

Unfortunately, my manual is currently at a garage miles away from here so I can't check the wiring order for you. If I were you, I would post these specific questions in the tech section of the forum where you will hopefully get an answer by tomorrow.

I wish that I had my manual to help you, but someone there should be able to get the answers about firing/wiring order.

As for plug identification, that is actually pretty easy if the car has the stock plugs in it. Cast onto the rotor housings themselves are the letters "T" or "L" for trailing and leading. The plugs should have these letters as their last letters of their plug numbers on the plug. L goes into L hole, and T goes into T hole.

US Spec plugs for High Power engine (6 speed RX8) are:

NGK RE7CL for the leading plug

NGK RE9BT for the trailing plug.

I am not sure if these are the same for the UK spec car, but I would think that they should be.

You also might try searching the forum at the top of the page under search for "coil replacement".

Haze

Neil -

There is also this thread which states the stock wiring for the wires to the plugs. Do not follow all of the advice since the guy seems to have miswired his coils, which couldn't have happened on yours because the coils were not touched.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/coil-pack-order-138419/

Key info:


you might also want to make sure the plug wires aren't switched between leading and trailing


starting at the coil pack toward the front of the car working back towards the firewall the order is:

leading front rotor - trailing front rotor - leading rear rotor - trailing rear rotor


on each rotor the lower sparkplug plug is leading and the top spark plug is trailing

slidey

Haze, your right about the plugs, but alot of garages and even shops will fit or give you cr8c-l in the uk, even though MAZDA have updated us to 7's, all fitment guides still show the 8's, but that's another story for our uk problems
If the leads have'nt been switched, then i would surgest a coil pack test.
If the leads have been switched, i would get something in writing off whoever fixes the car, and give the bill to kwikfit.

dave

Neil

Well thanks for the help guys, I checked the cables myself and they were wired up fine, I actually found an official mazda garage service manual with a diagram of how it should be wired up.

I have now dragged her round to the local Mazda dealer and its parked outside waiting for them to open on Monday as I had to leave to start a new contract up in Scotland. I had taken it to alocal kwikfit and asked them to check the coils were giving a spark, then check the plugs were giving spark and compression test it though they "didnt get time to look at it" so I just dragged it to Mazda and see what they say. Its gonna be costly no doubt but at least experts will be finding the issue!

04RX8man

who had marshmallows?

Haze

I'll keep my fingers crossed that they can fix it for you for not too much money. Best of luck and post what the problem turns out to be.

Neil

Okay the mazda low down is 3 of the 4 coils are shot, apparently you can have 2 of the 4 go down (1 in each rotary) and you wouldnt notice, then the 3rd one pops and all hell breaks lose as what happened to me.


So they want £95+vat per coil, does anyone know a UK supplier who is cheaper? I can get them for this price for a set of 4 in the US :-/

slidey

Niel,the only way you'll get cheap coils is ordering from one of the vendors on here, the uk price is around £80-£120 depending on which dealer you go to rip off britain.

dave

04RX8man

yeah vendors on here would b the best way BHR has an ignition upgrade but not exactly sure of the price!!!

Neil

I went and purchased a set from a US site becuase a set of 4 with postage was no more than a single one from Mazda.

Mazda said they would hold my car until the parts arrive and fit them for me, I know I could easily fit myself but im already charged for the diagnosis so wont cost me alot more for the full hour labour.