Ive been searching around for that perfect little sports car for some time now. and its come between a S2k and the RX-8.

I love everything about the 8, hardtop, nice styling etc. etc.
But ive been in the automotive world for my life, racing and commercial. and have done a few engine swaps on some RX-7s. mainly for poor oiling.

My question is how reliable is the current 1.3L? if maintained properly.

how many miles can i expect to get out of one? and when shopping around what should be my mileage cut off?

Also if there's anything else in particular i should know please feel free to tell me!

thank you in advance!

 

The 2004-2008's (series 1) engines are less reliable than 2009+ (series 2). Some people get well over 100k miles while others have had failures in 1/5th that distance on series 1 engines. It has a lot to do with driving conditions, maintenance, and luck. There's no set number as to how long the engine will last. Mazda did provide a warranty on the series 1 engine core good for 100k miles and some number of years.

I've put 60k on my 2008 so far and its been solid, zero problems. I plan to keep it until about 100k.

Get a compression test done by Mazda or a rotary shop before buying to tell you the engine health.

Search around in the forum, and you'll find this has been discussed a lot before so the are plenty of opinions on the subject.

But if you can swing it, get a 2009+, the oiling system has been improved an the engine is much more reliable. Best of luck.

 

Actually, the best thing we could tell you is to read, read, read.
This is a really good place to start. https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discuss...t-here-202454/
Yes, it may seem stupid for someone of your supposed knowledge on this car, but it can't hurt to read it anyway as there are little gems all throughout this thread.

 

there is a lot of info out there about these engines, and it seems like they were built to looser standards than they should have been, and they wear quickly.

the Japanese shops start stage 1 with a rebuilt engine, so a mileage cutoff is arbitrary IMO. i think the best way is either buying a car with a tired engine, and replacing it, or buying a car with a fresh engine is the best way to go. buying a newer lower mileage car, seems to be the favored option, although really it just hasn't broken yet.

the rest of the car is actually really good, there are things that can go wrong, but most of these are quick little 6 minute jobs.

since these cars are high performance, but long warrantied, the condition of the car you buy reflects how good or bad the service department is at the local dealer. my current car came from out of the area, and basically i own it because the dealership screwed up the power plant frame adjustment, they also didn't do any of the updates that the 2005 and older cars had available.

my friends have Rx8's, and they either worked at dealerships, or brought them into good ones, and have had no trouble. the oldest car, a 10/03 car has 83k on it, and has been trouble free.

 

Thanks for all the replies! Ill search around a little more on the forum.

All i can remember about the RX-7 were the god awful plastic oiling lines.....

 

On the renesis it's the ignition you have to look out for. Keep it happy (or upgraded) and it will keep you happy. So any car you look at, ask when/how often the plugs, wires and coil were changed.

 

^ +1 ...and check the oil every gas fill-up.

 

I made 73k on my original engine in my 04. Covered under warranty and now have about 4k on the reman. All comes down to maintenance and how you drive it.

 

they are fun cars to drive but very high strung, which results in **** poor fuel mileage no matter what you do to try and offset that fact(add to that the inefficiency of the long CC and you wind up with a car that needs to plan routes to gas stations for long trips).

the later series engines are more reliable than the early versions which had inferior internal lubrication. if you can't hack sub 20mpg highway, look at other avenues. the S2k is a rather gutless bottom end high revving engine car similar to the 8 but it gets much better fuel economy. the main difference is the S2k is a light 2 seater versus the heavier 2+2 'sedan' 8. if you want a more sporty car with better fuel economy the S2k is it, if you want a more comfortable sporty sedan then the 8 is the better choice.

i bought the 8 recently but still contemplating keeping the E36 BMW which is almost as comfortable and gets twice the mileage. the 8 was too cheap to pass on though. IMO there are plenty of cars in the '00-10 model years comparable with more upside.

i would also like to say first hand that many series 1 13B-MSP engines were misdiagnosed and simply flooded. unfortunately they are also the most difficult rotary engines to deflood once you have failed at cranking it for only a few minutes. they still do fail though, even though flooding and misdiagnosis is going to continue and get worse in coming years as they age more.