If not, why not?

Why do you have to flood the car before they upgrade these?

Do you think this will eventually be a recall item for the '04's and 05's, as opposed to the current "whoops, well let's fix that for you" approach

Sure seems like if the rx-8 is indeed not selling well then the flooding is likely the biggest PR issue and fixing it should be priority one (how much does the upgraded battery/starter/plugs really cost Mazda anyway?)

 

all of those things were introduced on th eassembly line as the became available. all 8s built now have them

 

Thanks Zoom, that's good to know.

So do some '05's have them then? How do you tell?

And why isn't Mazda proactively upgrading all the Rx-8's? Is the assumption the effect is only a minor improvement or is it believed to make a major difference?

 

As explained to me by the service department at my dealership, it is only an issue on some cars, not all, even if they have lower level equipment in them. Therefore, when a problem presents they will fix it then, as opposed to fixing all of them, as it might not be an issue for all of them.

 

i think its officially a TSB now, so in theory you should be able to fix it under warranty pending request. my dealer did such...

 

i dont think they are in any 05s unless they were recently serviced
i think they already stopped production of 05s when the new plugs came out

i could be wrong

 

I took my car in yesterday for 35,000 mile service. I talked briefly about flooding issues with a service tech while waiting for the person writing my ticket to check on something in the back. The service tech said they were giving new batteries, starters and plugs to people who flooded their cars this winter. I didn't mention anything to the person writing up my ticket - but when I returned later in the day to pick up the car- I had a new battery/starter/plugs. I was very surprised and happy!

The new starter/battery fires the car up immediately ! It's a big improvement. Hopefully Mazda will be offering this to everyone. Since I was getting the plugs replaced at the 35,000 mile service anyway, maybe they thought they would save time/money by doing it all now.

I hope they offer this to everyone. It's worth checking it out with your Mazda dealer if you're worried about the flooding problem.

 

I got new plugs and starter 2 weeks ago. They did not replace the battery as they said it was ok

 

on the FCs in 89 they introduced an antiflooding routine in the ECU such that if it senses full throttle during cranking it does not enable the injectors or the fuel pump... thus unflooding itself.... they shoulda maintained that with the RX8s... seemed to work well for the FCs.

 

Did you flood nomopistons?

 

The starter is not on a TSB.....

 

I'm going to plead my case about the new starter tomorrow at my dealership. I've had the cranking issues for awhile and never did anything. I'm turbo'd so I'm not sure if they'll upgrade the starter under warranty. I've already bought an optima red battery and colder plugs.

 

That is also programmed into the 8's ECU as well. That is part of the deflooding procedure.

 

peopel who havent flooded dont need the new stuff- i havent flooded why spend the money putting them in mine? economics

 

Well Zoom I would state that's a lousy attitude for Mazda to take. People who haven't "flooded yet" flood for the first time every day I'm sure.

The fact that they are building all cars going forward with the better starter, battery, plugs would suggest they acknowledge there's a strong benefit for the owner to have them.

Gee, I wonder what percentage of owners would want the 'upgrades' done under warranty right now?

There's a right way to handle new car problems as they arise: proactively addressing them (eg see the Lexus story in the tipping point book), and a wrong way: ignoring them, pretending they don't exist, blaming the owner, waiting until an owner has the problem before fixing...

Of course flooding is perhaps a lesser concern then loss of compression in the engines over time -- https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/blown-motor-77861/ -- now that's a biggie if widespread!