Engine lack of power
 

Last night I was driving home and was cruising on the freeway. I was not driving above speed limit (my girlfriend was with me). In other words I`ve been driving kindly with my car. I`d also like to mention I never rev above 4k with cold engine, I always drive the engine warm before I turn it off. I redline it often to keep the carbon away. I do all these things to prevent any damage to my car.

So, to the problem. When I was almost home (driving on the freeway) something happened to my car. It felt like it lost half of it`s power. It dropped from 5000 rpm to 3000 rpm and the sound got darker and it didn`t sound too good. It felt like I only had 50 horsepower. When I had to stop for red light, the engine went down to 500 rpm and I had to put my foot to the pedal, otherwise the car had stopped. When I was close to my parking garage I saw a lot of people looked strange at my car and I thought something looked wrong (maybe smoke from the exhaust).

When I came to my parking place I tried to let the car idle. It stayed on 500 rpm for like 1 second before it shut down. I got my girlfriend to look at my exhaust while I was starting the car again. She said white smoke were coming out of the pipes and flames also. There were also coming a lot of smoke out of my engine room. I turned the car off right away, and the smoke was still coming out of my engine room. After 10-15 minutes the smoke was gone. I checked the oil and there was above minimum. It was very, very, very hot in the engine room. The exhaust tips were covered in somehting white.

Sorry for my english. I hope you guys can help me and tell whats wrong. I`m going to take the car to the dealer on saturday. I`m busy everyday this week, so I have a few days of finding out what`s wrong with the car.

I`ve treated the car very nice. I`ve done everything to prevent damage.

Check your spark plugs and battery.
Do you have a aftermarket system in your car? Like a AMP or Subs?
Take it to a Mazda dealer and have them look at your CAT. If you drive the car cold you might have killed the OEM CAT.
And last one :( have a compression tes done. It sounds like you might need a new engine.

^ lack of a cat doesn't make smoke come from the engine bay or flames when starting up.

I guess coolant leakage in the combustion chamber. It seems that you need a rebuild or a new engine

^ I agree. Rebuild or replacement time.

Check for coolant in the oil, coolant level, so on. The gaskets on the rotor housings can and do fail. If thats the case, rebuilt time, sorry.

It`s time for an update. After having the car at Mazda a long time they said last week the car was done. They said that the cat was blown and the spark plugs too, so they replaced with new spark plugs and a new cat I had (racecat from Agency Power). Parts are very expensive here i Norway. A new OEM cat cost more than 3000 dollar, therefor I got them to use my racecat instead of buying a new OEM cat.

When i went over to the dealership on saturday to pick up my car they said everything was OK with my car. Started up the car and the DCS lamp was on, it won`t go off. I suggested something was wrong. It took for a spin and after driving two minutes the exact same thing happened to my car. Engine lack of power. It felt like it had only 50 horsepower and the engine didn`t run clean. When I let go off the gas pedal it throwed flames and a high noise. I drove it back to the dealer right away. The engine idle rpm was about 500 rpms.

I said to the dealership that they should check the sealings of the rotor chamber, do a comp test, check the coils and check my engine starter because it won`t start right after I turn the car off (if I put it in gear and push the car it starts right away. sounds like the starter needs to "click" to work). None of these things were done. They only did replace the cat.

This is very frustrating and it starts to become expensive for me. I paid more than 1000 dollar for replacement of spark plugs and a fuel hose.

Dude your engine is toast, the dealership should have figured that out as soon as you brought in the first time. Also, I'm not sure how the emissions laws are in Norway but the cat should be covered under warranty unless you're over 80000 miles. Also, your engine is covered to 100k miles. keep us posted.

how old are your coils?

It almost definitely is rebuild time.

Sounds like rebuild....do the Euro folk get the same warranty as us?

I don`t know. I bought the car in july, and in september I brought the car to the dealership, so I don`t know how old they are. I told the dealership to check the coils, but I think they didn`t check them. There are like a max 100 RX-8 driving around in Norway, and no one here has a clue about how to fix the engine on these cars. So they use a lot of time to fix small things.

I gave them a brand new cat a couple of days ago, and if the cat is blown already because they didn`t check the seals of the rotor chamber or did a comp test I`m gonna be pissed.

I`m not sure if the US Service Bulletins are valid in Norway. I know the list i Europe are smaller than the US list. I have a seperate warranty that covers everything inside the engine, but not the exhaust or the cat. Therefor I hope for a engine replacement or rebuild.

sounds to me ur motor is dead. i had the same problems when my rear apex seal broke. get it replaced should be under warrenty. and you got scammed for plugs and cat! that is outrageous price for pretty much labor work

if you have only 1 rotor running, the fuel from the other rotor will just go straight to the exhaust and create large flames out of the exhaust.

if you have only 1 rotor running, it will feel like you have 50hp as well.

and jesus christ... if you contact Charles R Hill, you might be able to ship you the spark plugs. you're in norway, so it may not be $80 shipped, but but $200 is still better than $1000.

im sorry to say, but i think you have 1 dead rotor. but dont worry, our engine is warrantied to 100,000 miles / 8 years. so you wont have to pay for it. if you contact Mazda of Norway, you might be able to get them to refund you the $1000 you paid, because the dealership misdiagnosed the problem.

Good luck, my rotary brother from another country mother.