Had my first oil change at 2k last Friday at the dealer. Everything was great, got the M flash, and everyone was pretty nice. Talked with one of the guys at the parts counter about how I liked the 8, blah, blah.

I remember some posters noted that their invoices listed oil weights other than 5-20, so I checked mine yesterday. Hmmm, no weight listed.

I called today and reminded the service writer I had been in last week for an oil change and wondered what weight of oil was used, or is normally used in the 8. He said whatever is in the owners manual or on the oil filler cap. Ok, cool, but then he adds, I think it's 10-30. Uh oh, really? He catches himself and tells me to hold on, he wants to make sure.

He either thinks I'm on hold or that I can't hear hiim talking to one of the mechanics in the background. He asks the mechanic what weight they put in the 8's. The mechanic thinks it's 5-30. The service writer replies that he has someone (me) on the line asking and he just told him 10-30, so he wants to see an owners manual for the 8. The mechanic adds, "Why doesn't the a**hole look himself?" Ouch, my feelings are hurt.

The service writer is having a hard time finding a manual, and the mechanic, too. The mechanic says, "Just tell him anything, he won't know the difference." (Laughter) The service writer is a little smarter, and says, "Nah, if tell him the wrong weight, he'll probably want us to replace all the oil." Anyway, he finally finds a manual, gets back on the line and tells me they put in 5-20 per the owners manaul.

Now, I'm not exactly thrilled how that phone experience went. The mechanic's attitude is sad, but I doubt reflects the attitude of most mechanics.

I checked the oil and it ran off the dipstick like a light grade, so at least they didn't put 50 weight in. I had fun opening up the engine over the weekend after the first oil change, but today after the phone call, I had a little doubt in the back of my mind when the tach hit 7k or 8k a few times on the way home from work.

Anyway, I'm convinced that the dealers need more experience on the 8's before they'll know any more than we do about maintaining and repairing them.

 

ugh, that sucks. How big is that dealership?

If you have a large enough dealership that gets enough RX-8's into the service area, they seem to know what they're doing.

 

A lot of people have run into this issue. I think it may simply reflect that the oil weight really isn't that big of a deal and mechanics' understanding that the 5w20 spec is more about squeaking through government mileage mandates than engine longevity. Self-change is best, imo. Then you can use exactly what you want and it gives you an opportunity to give the car a good looking at.

 

I hope you told the dealership off about that conversation - pretty rude stuff there. - by the way, i admire your taste in colour :-)

 

5w-30 is OK , its what the rest of the world uses.

 

Also I read here on the forum that the 8 needs natural oil no synthetics. I was reading the post about little ***** of rubber in the rotars from the older RX-7 upon rebuild because the owners were using syns. Scary since I mixed in some syn already into the car!

 

There was a post about that some months ago. Do a search on 'synthetic' it will come up. Title was something like "e-mailed Mazda usa about oil". There was an abstract of a Mazda Tech document why PRE-Renesis engines could not use synthetic. It's down to an O-ring on the rotor (see picture below).

I can't find any mention in my manual about synthetic being 'bad' for my Renesis. I use full synthetic oil sold to me by Mazda. Dexelia 5W30 (recommended Mazda oil in EU) is semi-synthetic I believe.

The real matter is to know what is in your engine when it comes from the factory in Japan and to stick with it until oil change.

 

Damn ! Forgot the pix...

 

Synthetic wont reck your 8.

Personaly Iwouldnt use it, but as mazda says, the 8 is the first rotary that its acceptable to use it in.

 

Right on then!

 

We put 5-20 in all of our 8's unless otherwise requested but no request yet. They should know what oil it takes for the 8. Some of the trucks i have to look at the cap since they are different from year to year and diff engine size. We are a small dealer with myself as the only tech but i see quite a fex rx8 come in.

 

I agree on doing your own oil changes. Just did my 17,500 mile change on Saturday, and it takes all of 20 minutes once you have everything together, such as tools.

Since I bought with the 1st pre-order, and kept mine after the buy-back offer, Mazda is paying for the every 5,000 mile oil changes that the dealer does. I do the filter & oil change inbetween, since I can only change out 4 quarts. Hence she gets new blood every 2,500 miles.

Oh, and I've changed to using 5W-30 instead of 5W-20. Based upon other threads talked about months ago, I decided this would be better for the long haul.

 

Is it safe to mix a synthetic with normal 5w20? My dealer stated approx 3-4 quarts of oil stay in the engine that can't be drained during an oil change.

 

I liked changing my own oil - once upon a time. Finding a place to take the drained oil is so difficult now. What do you do with it? Leaving it in the yard until the container rots just isn't a good option.

 

My oil change ios coming up soon so what would be best Im getting 2500 miles so its the first change, any pointers 5-20 or 5-30?

 

Funny, I used AMSOIL synthetic exclusively in my 2nd gen RX-7 for the past 17 years. Current mileage is 154K. No excessive oil consumption/white smoke/etc.

 

Hello brother blue,

Are you suggesting that 5-30 will reduce wear long term? Also, others have said that 5-30 is used overseas. So does that mean 5-20 is recommended in the US only for emissions or some other standard that will mean shorter engine life?

 

There is actaully an acticle in Mazda Sports Magazine about this exact issue. There are some sythetics that work and some that don't. I will see if I can scan the article and post it. The main issue I remember was finding one that burned clean. Synthetics did get high marks in the article because it required a higher temp to break down the oil.

 

all Autozones take used oil. Up tp 5 gallons a customer

 

In my city (Sunnyvale) you can leave your used oil out with the recycling and they'll pick it up for you. Very convenient!

~ Matt

 

How do you subscribe to Mazda Sports Magazine. I never heard of it and can't find it with a Google search.

 

Now I am going to really get things going. I am friendly with the Service Manager at my local Mazda Dealer. He is an ex-racer and his recommendation was to screw the 5-20wt and to use 20-50 Castrol in hot florida. I also asked Cam at Pettit Racing what he recommended and his answer was the same.

13,000 miles, three drivers schools and it runs like a dream. The only bad part about the dream is that I keep wishing for more Torque.

 

Just my 2 cents worth: unless the Service Manager has some technical grounding in Tribology, I would view his comments as speculative in nature... his background is more likely to be biased by recips, not rotaries, and I expect would be less qualified than the engineers who designed the Renesis in the first place.

"Hot Florida" is relative - the absolute changes in internal temperatures are likely to be minor once the engine is at operating temperature, whether you're in Florida or up here in the Great White North, provided you've got the same thermostat.

Cheers

 

I couldn't agree more.

The only reason why oil weight is different is so that when the car is cold (70 in Florida or -20 in Calgary) the oil can still flow well enough from the oil pan through the lines to start to lubricate the engine in a very short amount of time. Once any engine is warmed up, the oil is at it's thinnest point. It still needs to lubricate and protect well at these temperatures so it shouldn't be of any concern what weight oil you have so long as your climate isn't too cold for the higher weights. Older oils were more protective of bearing contact based on weight of oils. A higher performance engine would run a thicker oil to help prevent this. Todays oils are so good that there isn't any concern about this happening with thin oils. Race cars use thin oils succesfully and your street car can too.

 

went to my dealership today to pick up some oil, they only had blended synthetic oil, is that ok?