Well, I've already purchased a vibration sensor for the alarm so I will sleep reasonably easy at night. Wheel locks don't stop determined thieves, but maybe help deter young punks who are just thinking about it. I can't wait to get my baby back.

Being without one's 8 is maddening.

Sorry to hear! I had that happen to my 1994 Integra GS-R, but they left it on Honda jacks of all things. Leaving it on a brick and boulder is MESSED UP.

Man that before and after makes me sick. Hope it all works out, I don't know if I could have walked by it every day sitting on rocks like that.

the cobb accessport becomes unusable if you cannot uninstall it from the car. so if the car gets stolen, thats it. you can throw the fob thing out.

So latest update... I'm still driving the Porsche. I was supposed to pick up the RX8 today from the body shop but due to complete idiocy it won't be ready anytime soon. The insurance company originally assessed the damages well lower than I expected, which of course turned out to be less than it would cost to fix, so a suppliment had to be requested. The body shop couldn't do any work until the suppliment was approved. This required an adjuster to come out and look at the car again. So the body shop faxed a request for a suppliment to Geico and waited for an adjuster to come out. A week later they hadn't heard from them and decided, "hey we should totally pick up a phone and call to make sure they got our fax!" Which of course Geico had not received. They sent out an adjuster today who approved the suppliment. Total cost of the damages is ~$4000.00 now. Awesome.

In addition I saw in the claim papers some damage which was absolutely not on the car prior to the incident is being claimed to be "prior damage". Scratches on the passenger side door and chipping paint on the rear left portion (where I think they pushed against the side to lift the car up) were listed as prior damage. I have detailed pictures of the car the day prior to the theft without those pieces of damage though. I am going to see the car when the body shop finishes up with the parts that are covered and if the other damage is significant then I will take photos and push it up to Geico to get it fixed.

Supposedly also there is something wrong with the brakes or the brake sensor as the guy at the shop that has the car said the brake light is flickering on and off. No idea what is wrong with that yet, but it will almost certainly require ANOTHER suppliment to the claim to get that fixed. The wheels and tires haven't even gone on the car yet because they were waiting for the body shop which was supposed to do it's work before the wheels/tires came in. The tires have been in for days and the wheels should be there today... so whenever they finish the body work it will go there for wheels/tires and to begin looking at the brake problem.

I will be very surprised if I see my car within a week.

perhaps this is a lesson to not use insurance featuring a talking gecko mascot.

It seems the issue is more with the shop than with the insurance company. The insurance company is covering everything, and taking action promptly. The shop looks like it is twiddling it's thumbs and not following up on stuff. The adjusted estimate does seem much more accurate, I thought the initial value was too low. And it would not surprise me if there was something wrong with the brakes. Who knows what impact force was delivered on one or more rotors while they were playing see-saw with your 8.

Still sucks either way.

I dropped a car once taking a wheel off because the jack failed and the whole car landed on the rotor. No obvious physical damage when I looked at it, but damn if those brakes were never the same again after that.

On the flipside, I was thankful that the rotor stopped it, because my left leg was also completely under the car. If the rotor hadn't stopped it, my leg would've.

I'd get them to look more closely at the brakes if you can...

For Geico, you have to HAVE TO call them. cuz for some reason their Fax numbers are too busy or something. they never get anything u fax them over.

Im happy with Geico, they have really fast claims. just make sure u never fax them stuff.

The gecko has done right by me.:dunno:

but the caveman sucks

in house car garage ftw. This is mad! I am surprised no one saw all these happening.

Due to all these jackass things I'm reading about here lately, I have unfortunately had to resort to additional security measures.

A pair of these for monitoring 24/7. They stream video/sound over wifi network.

http://www.underway.us/rx8/security/camera.jpg

hey, how much were those?

DITTO!!!!!!! How much!

Hang in there Blackened. She'll be up and running before you know it. I had 2 doors replaced and repainted and they had her 3 freakin weeks.

Yeah, I'm literally going to hug my car when I get it back. Then I'm going to go drive the living hell out of it. ...then I'm going to install a ton of new parts, starting with the vibration sensor for the alarm.

:lol2: Addicted for sure! I did the same thing, minus the vibration sensor. Might be something to look into for me as well. Post it up if you find something.

^^^^Got one....Pointing out my driveway...the only entrance...$120 each camera...Whats best about it is that i can stream from any internet connection even at work...of course with the appropriate passport to my modem--->wireless router...i also have the link sys wireless router $85....connected to my wireless laptop (vaio internal bluetooth and wireless internet).... and it can email me segment videos or pics when motion is detected....

P.S. I have my Printer Bluetoothed to my computer and connected to my router... so i can print stuff from work to my home printer....HA HA HA... wireless is sickening...my life... I hate printer noise....i sit in my room bluetooth printing to my living room (printer)...

Its affordable (bluetooth & wirless router & wifi connections)....just as expensive as the cables for pcs/printers/cameras.

http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/p.../bluetooth.jpg

I have the linksys wireless router already. This is going to be an easy hookup. Thanks!

That setup sounds sick and only for those with nothing better to do than make sure their 8 is safe...
....

I want it now.

Definitely going to ask Santa for this for Christmas. I've been a good girl this year! :D:

Thats actually a nice setup, I may think about doing the same thing. I miss my car. :(

you gonna make it to the fudd's meet?

Since I used to install cameras for security purpose I would actually say don't waste your money. If anything just buy the heavily tinted domes and mount them where it looks like it is pointing at your car. That would be the biggest deterrent.

It is impossible to identify a person using a camera. And lets face it, if you are in bed asleep you can't exactly catch them in the act either.


Edit: Commercial grade cameras with the B&W night vision run about $150 a pop. Its like $100 for the camera and $50 for the lens.

Edit 2: I've lost the wheel lock key before and used a gator grip socket thing to get it off.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00947078000P

^^^^^Thing is.....that even if my car does get stolen/vandalized/broken into...the camera and video feed is for insurance purposes...and my Winchester 12g shotty says if i catch you then i catch you......i have motion lights so ill see u!!!^^^^^i doubt they would be able to avoid the alarm...then actually have time to jack up my car, take off carrying my heavy rims over my 6 foot fence... DID YOU FORGET HOW LOUD THE HORN OF THE RX8 IS?? i guarantee you i will wake up...with my WINCHESTER in my arms...so good luck....

My neighbors dog/s bark loud as hell...(two dogs i dont mind barking when my car is being broken into...)

(Video Monitoring gets u a discount on homeowners ins.) (Farmers)

Whos gonna see heavily tinted domes in the night as a detterent?

Remington 870 12g ;)

^^^Nice...A lot of PPL fav for home safety...Pistol Grip?^^^ Laser mount?

Now thats prevention

Nah, I don't need that fancy smanchy stuff in a 'street sweeper.' ;) But I do have the Marine Magnum version (nickle plated).

click...click

Heh, I have a Mossberg 500, but it didn't do me much good. :(

I am shocked and dismayed at unlawful treatment and insult!! I cringe to thing of this happening to me too! I have three different wheel locks on my TE-37s and seeing what happened to you... awe man! it cuts deep.

Hope you get reimbursed for your damage and treated fairly, as the real victim here. The fact that you did not "report" performance upgrades... man! that is BALONEY! and it is painfully unfair.

Keep us in the loop, and please please, give us advice on what steps we as fellow owners can do to avoid this, or resist this terrible treatment.

You have my sincerest concern and sympathy, friend!

breaks my heart to see this, where are u located?

What you need is a Mossberg 500 JIC!

Actually I need to swap a pistol grip onto my 500. A couple of years ago I had a scare and thought I was going to have to use the gun and found the length extremely dangerous to maneuver around corners. I came home late from work and had a couple of roommates at the time but only the one girl had her car home. All the lights in the house were off, and the front door was hanging open... I slipped inside, grabbed the shotgun, chambered a round and swept the upstairs of the house. No movement, so I went towards the basement where the female roommate lived. There was light down there but no noise. I got downstairs and found my roommate lying facedown on the floor. I went to check her pulse and ...turns out she hadn't slept the night before and had come home from work and conked out on the floor. Contractors had been in the house doing some repair work I hadn't known about and didn't close the door on the way out. Nobody was hurt, but the experience of sweeping the house gave me a good reason to pick up a pistol grip.

Anyway, no new news about the car yet. I should find out tomorrow about the brake situation. The repair guy is telling me now that the brake light is intermittently flashing on and off. So even if they fix the body work, and get the wheels/tires on, I still need to find out what is wrong with the brakes, then probably get an adjuster to come out...AGAIN, and then get that fixed. This whole situation is an unimaginable pain in the ass.

Next update:

Shop still has not once called me to give me an update since it went in. I've had to call and harass the guy every single time. I called today since earlier this week he told me I might be able to pick it up tonight. Today he tells me that he still hasn't gotten it from the body shop, it should be cleaned up and brought over later today. He is "totally swamped" so he won't get a chance to look at the brakes today, there is no mechanic at the shop tomorrow, and they are closed Sunday. He said "if we get the brakes looked at and its not anything major you might be able to get it on Monday." Then like every other time I've talked to him, he said he would give me a call and update me on the status... which he hasn't done even once. He also blamed part of the delay in fixing my car on Nascar season because he has mechanics on vacation to go see Nascar.

I had to clean and return the Porsche to my friend last night, so I'm driving the Toyota Corolla again... woo. People that don't have RX8s don't understand how special a car it is. I'm going absolutely nuts trying to get mine back. Depressingly, as soon as I get it back it goes into the Mazda dealer to get the catalytic converter checked, a compression test on the engine, Tein springs installed, and a full checkup.

I may go down to get an estimate from JE Imports in Baltimore for the turbo/gauge install this weekend, because they just need to see all the components, not the car itself. I can pile all the comps into the Corolla and go down there.

Good to hear that it might be moving along, albeit slowly. NASCAR season? lol... :rant:

I feel for you. I've been driving a Chevy Malibu for the last ten days. Not only is the daily cost just beyond what insurance covers, the agency I got it from doesn't have anything else. Worse, I simply hate larger cars. When you've driven small red sports cars most of your adult life, nothing else measures up.

Well... the story takes yet another twist. I called the wheel place today (of course they didn't call me) and they said that the brake issue was because they put the wrong sized wheels on the car. The intermitent scraping was causing pressure and the brake light. When the new wheels got on the car it supposedly "drives great, come pick it up!" I took off work early, and my wife took off work early so she could drive me down to get the car. At first glance the car looked great, the wheels were VERY shiny hyperblack and the tires were nice and dark. When I got closer and started looking at the paint though I realized immediately that something was wrong. The whole midsection of the car runners along the bottom sides was all bubbled looking on the left side where the majority of the damage had been. It looked like they had thrown a can of black cherry mica paint on a pile of gravel, extra thick. The wheel guy was like "oh thats the gravel guard, they do the paint that way to keep it from chipping!" Until we went to look at the other side of the car which didn't look like ass. He just stared at the two sides for a minute and then got in his truck to go get the manager of the body shop the work was done at. The co-owner of the body shop came up and was basically a stereotypical sleezeball. He told me, "oh yeah, well that paint style is real hard to match... I mean, Mazda would do the same thing, because the paint comes from the factory sprayed by a machine..."

He rambled on for a while before offering to take it back to his shop for a solid day of work (free of charge woo?) and either try to smooth out the paint work he had done, or make the other side look shitty to match. He and the wheel guy tried to convince me to do that for almost 20 minutes, offering me free gift cards for dinner, and telling me "well that car ain't no virgin, she's been painted befur!" I called Geico and told them I was very dissatisfied with the body shop's work, and I wanted to take it to the place I told them I wanted to do the body work to begin with. Then I took the car. On the way home I noticed the tire pressure light was blinking. I called the wheel guy and said, "heeey, so by any chance when you guys put on those wheels and tires... did you put the tire pressure gauges in?" The phone went silent... "Uhhhh... I'm gonna have to check on that tomorrow..."

What a complete bunch of asshats. I have my car back, and its been so long without it I could barely drive the damn thing, but the plan is to have Geico pay to have the Mazda dealership fix the wheels and the paint now. The car is already scheduled at the dealer on Thursday to check the catalytic converter, a compression test, and double checking to make sure all the recalls were done on the car. Now it looks like they will be handling all of that and the stuff the other company completely buggered up.

I'm glad to hear you have your car back man, but holy shit that dealership sounds insanely retarded. :banghead:

That Color is NOT hard to match if the paint code is read right...Body shops worth their salt take the codes to a professional auto paint store, and they mix them...precisely every time...My husband owned and ran a body shop and painted himself...Unless it was a custom color for a personal vehicle and he was painting the entire car, he always sent the codes to the auto paint store to have it done....Sounds like your guy tried to save a few bucks...

Thats the problem though, the color matches, but it looks like its just blobbed on there and way too much of it. The paint texture is thick and bubbled or gravely. The guy said they paint the underskirts that way on some cars to reduce chipping from gravel etc. That would be fine if thats how Mazda painted it to begin with, and if they had even bothered to paint the other side to match. The paint looks badly badly mismatched and I said so. My exact words to the guy who owned the paint shop were, "I honestly cannot believe you let this out of your shop looking like this." He proceeded to insult the OEM paint in leu of response... what a complete waste of air.

What I've done however is update Geico with the fact that the wheel shop screwed up even the tire install and told them I'm taking it to Mazda on Thursday to fix what was screwed up. The adjuster is welcome to inspect the damage before then so they can pay for it. Then I changed my policy to add a car, add a ton of features on the policy etc so I am an even more valued customer... if they dicker at all about paying for it, I'll just offer to take my business elsewhere. Anyway, Mazda dealership on Thursday, I might get the Tein's installed tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. Once all the shop work is done, I have the BHR clutch pedal to install myself. Either this weekend or the next I will be getting an official estimate on the turbo install. I'm getting this project put together come hell or high water!!

There ya go! I know how you feel!!! There'll be some major changes to mine by Spring as well. Tein Basics, repainted, and kit fitted. to start. :D:

In re-reading your description again, I remembered something about my husbands shop days.. What you are talking about sounds like when they finished sanding the area to be painted it wasn't cleaned property, and they sprayed the clear too heavy to cover it up. It's either that or the clear itself had trash in it, and they tried to cover that too. If that's the case, the other shop will have to probably start all over to get it right. Hopefully the other shop will get right on it. GL

I have a Winning Blue Metallic...and everyone at SEVENSTOCK...70+Rx8's can vouche that my kit and fender....is Match perfect all the way down to the Metallic Glitter (what are they called?) So yeah....One time he got the paint exact same color but not the metallic side of it so he did it again without me knowing and he told me after....i was very satisfied. Make sure u look at it in direct sunlight...Shadows may appear..

Any shock sensors would you recommend Mysql or you guys????

Is there any option other than the dealer-installable alarm sensor option?

There is an OEM Mazda vibration/shock sensor that attaches to the OEM alarm. It is relatively cheap. I just picked one up and will be getting it installed tomorrow. Of course I went to get my Tein S. Techs installed today and found not only did the wheel/tire company not put in the tire pressure sensors, they used wheel locks and didn't give me the key. I had to cancel the appointment for the spring install so the dumbass company can mail me the wheel lock key.

That means the springs won't go in until the car gets back from all the work at the dealer. Considering how much I'm having done I'll be surprised if I have the springs in by Monday. Oh well, getting closer anyway...

On a positive note, the car is an absolute dream to drive. The wheel company may have screwed up just about everything else but the balance and alignment is fantastic. It actually feels better than before the theft. I fell completely in love with the car all over again. I'll post up some pictures of the car shortly including pics of the crappy paint job. I also forgot to post pics of the Porsche I was driving so I'll post those up too. :)

I installed the OEM shock sensor myself. Took all of maybe 30 minutes. 2004 8... it does sound like the wiring changed a bit (for the worse) on the newer models.

BTW - it was this thread that motivated me to get the shock sensor.

Well, I was going to install it myself, but after this nightmare of an experience I'm so burned out that I don't feel like fvcking with the wiring at all. I'm going to hand it to Mazda and if their install fees are completely outrageous they can do the install. On top of everything, I am driving the car today and the sun is getting in my eyes so I reach up to pull the sun visor down.... except it looks like someone has split the back of the sun visor and its totally broken and hanging on by some glue. I called up the owner of the shop that did the wheels and asked him if he knew of any issues reported with the sun visor and he said "no... why?" Basically we went back and forth and the guy seems to actually feel crummy for how badly my experience has been so we'll see what happens. I'm taking the car into Mazda tomorrow for a huge laundry list of things, now including looking at the sun visor.

• Compression test the engine
• Inspect the catalytic converter
• Install the shock sensor
• Install/calibrate the tire pressure gauges
• Replace the driver's side sun visor
• Generate an estimate for body/paint repair on lower side panel

Sorry to hear about all your troubles man. One bad turn just led to another didn't it? Geico is notorious for looking out for THEIR best interest and not yours. They gave you a crappy body shop and you got a crappy job done.....imagine that. Good luck with everything and keep us posted.