I let my fat friend sit his *** in the passenger seat of the RX8 last week and I noticed today that the plastic panel on the right side of the passenger seat was popped off. I looked inside and found one of the plastic clips missing, the other was still in place. I pushed the panel back into place and sat on it a few times and it popped off again.

Obviously, the panel isn't secured properly due to the missing clip (which I cannot find). Where would these clips be available for purchase? I noticed similar clips at Lowes but they are listed as "GM, Chrysler, Ford, etc", no Mazdas.

 

i had the same problem but i swapped my seats out so i never fixed it ... i would say either take out another one or take a pic and compare it at lowes ... as long as the size is similar you should be able to force it in ... if its a little bigger it might hold better too!

 

I'll see what I can find. Autozone probably has some that fits also, or at least i hope they do.

 

Good News- I found a solution that takes the seat’s side panels back to new. Those side panels use two simple, button-like cone clips that slide into the seat’s bottom outside panel. The cone part just pops into the square hole for it in the metal frame. Nice thing- installing those buttons requires no tools. BUT- I went to my Mazda dealer, and the parts person gave me the diagram of the seat parts. Mazda didn’t even show a part number for those. All you could do, at least on the parts diagram for my 2004 RX-8, would be to buy a new side panel: clips would come with it. Of course, in 2024, that panel is discontinued, and would be too much $ anyhow.
** Solution found! After a bit of research, I found that the CX-5s use a similar looking clip (WITH A PART #), so I ordered 2 of them. Voila! They are identical! I slide them into the two slots provided and popped my seat trim back in place. -Exactly like when I bought the car new in ‘03! For under $3.00.

The button/cone clips cost under $1.50 each and my dealer had them in two days. Mazda Part # KD45-88-585 - that’s for one clip. Each seat bottom side panel on the 8 uses 2 clips. Just Google Mazda Part # KD45-88-585.

 

Good find, I found a couple of different parts from other Mazda's that will replace the expensive RX-8 parts..
Amazon sells all that kind of stuff, bought a bag of clips for the door panels when i was repairing the window and lock motors.