So what does a garage actually know....
 

Bought my 2005 RX about 4 months ago now. It used to belong to a family friend who had it for about 4 years. He had it regularly serviced by a local "Performance Car Shop".

The car was last serviced 2 months before I bought it and he asked at the time for them to check the coils and the plugs. They said, no need to change, it's all perfect.

Roll on to last weekend, I needed to move the car just a nudge. I had done it before without any problems but after this time the car wouldn't start after.

So it's flooded, my first time! Having read up on the procedure I rolled up another car for juice and I removed the fuel pump fuse.... you know...

After many tries and not a sign of firing I realized I had to pull the plugs. So I pulled the plugs from the first chamber, looked at them and decided to call it a day.

I have never in my life seen plugs in such poor condition! I have just under 50k miles on the car and I am certain the plugs fitted are the ones from factory.

I have ordered new parts, plugs, leads and coils so I will be alright. But this is just a bit of a rant directed at the shop taking care of the servicing. I find around here with cars, the only one you can trust is yourself.

Its usually the same all over. Dealers are even worse. I learned to work on mine myself. I had very little wrenching experience prior. But just digging in I learned its actually very easy to work on. Hell even swapping in a new motor now.

Any picture of the plugs?

changing the plugs, coils and wires is a novice job which anyone can perform. it's even easier if you feel like jacking the car up and taking the driver front wheel off.

if you can do an oil change you can do most of the easier maintenance tasks.

I just need tools and confidence to do it...but i don't :( lol

I'm comfortable as a DIY mechanic and I have a pretty well stocked shed so no problem that way. I'm taking care of it going forward. I'm just amazed how the shop could have just ignored these things.

UPS should land later today with the parts and I hope to have time this evening to fit. Will take a photo of the old plugs then.

most local garages honestly don't know much about rotaries. Yea they might know the standard procedures such as changing the oil frequently, brakes, coolant, power steering, etc. Rotaries on the other hand require more in depth maintenance that local garages just don't know. Much better off learning how to do it yourself, saves time and money in my opinion.

I swapped the plugs, coils and leads last night anyway. The car was still badly flooded but I got it going anyway. Starts easier and runs better overall.

It was a bit late by the time I finished so I didn't take any photos but I still have the plugs so I'll look at them again later.

You cannot get mad at the shop. Just like Jcola said. They simply don't know about these cars. For a regular high end piston engine it is the norm for cars to go 100 k plus on the original plugs and coils without problems.

Adding to the problems caused by the rarity of the rotary engine compared to its piston counterparts (as previously noted) is how different the RX7 and RX8 are from each other. While this is no excuse for plugs, it certainly doesn't help.

The lack of familiarity with our engines is the number 1 reason I dread the idea of a new engine installed under warranty by the dealer. I have a good friend who worked at the only dealer I remotely "trust" for many years. During his entire decade of tenure there, he saw the same number of engine replacements on RX8's as the number of times a Porsche Carrera GT came in for service (and they made less than 1,300 of those world-wide).

most shops will follow the factory maintenance schedule, the factory schedule for plugs is replacing them at 37.5k miles.

given that you have 50k, we don't know how many you put on it or how many it had since it was last at that particular shop.

saying a generic shop "should know better" is false in this case. you don't just pull spark plugs and inspect them for the hell of it, only a rotary specialty shop would know that the plugs rarely make it that long without developing issues. spark plugs in piston engines usually last much longer, so pointing fingers will get you nowhere. i just yanked a first set of plugs out of a 20k mile '04 and they were severely carboned up..

Maybe I was overreacting. But at the same time I would have expected better.

it comes with the paranoia of owning a rotary powered car. but when you start pointing fingers, that is when things get ugly.

the best thing is to learn about your car and know for yourself when the services should be due. any shop should be able to manage outside of the engine just fine, assuming they can actually turn a wrench the right direction.

I'm fixing to order BHR ignition parts for my fiance's 2010, and this is what I'm expecting to see @21k miles. Putt-putting (from what I've gathered thus far) is one of the cars worst enemies, and she's no speed freak. There's really a 20k mile 04 out there?!? :boink: