SlideWayz

I just heard of yet another blown GReddy Renesis out here in the SF Bay area. It was running the new GReddy kit with the eManage Ultimate, stock boost, stock maps.

Theoretically, if the engine is well tuned it shouldn't substantially reduce its longevity. However, as others have pointed out, it does place more stress on it. Given that a lot of NA Renesis engines are failing, that makes FI even riskier.

Has anyone gotten over 50k miles on a boosted Renesis yet? I am starting to seriously doubt this engine can handle the extra power reliably.

Mazmart

iTrader: (12)

I don't oppose your general question, although some here will argue at length. I will, however, point out that there are not a " lot " of NA renesis motors failing. The numbers are truly small and mostly earlier automatics.

Paul.

rotarygod

The Greddy turbo kit as it comes is poorly tuned and needs a lot of work to be acceptable. I'm not terribly surprised the engine failed. It's not the engine's fault. It's the crap tuning that kit comes with.

Fanman

^^^^^

Yup, the kit comes pretty poorly done for a "plug & play kit" as Greddy claims.

Even with great tuning this kit has turned out to be suspect (at least from my experience)

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Please, stop spreading B.S. when you dont even have any facts to back yourself up. and I would like to know where is that *Given that a lot of NA Renesis engines are failing* came from.

Fanman

I think that an outfit like Mazsport has it right. Instead of offering a half *** attempt at a turbo kit using off the shelf products, and not even bothering to tune it for the car very well, Mazsport has looked at the car and designed a kit specifically for this car. From correct sizing the turbo, to actually working on the fuel system, to actually using the right kind of hoses, to an actually tuned FMU, the kit is made for the RX8 vs. the Greddy kit.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

And even then it still needs tuning!

Nothing works on this car right out of the box. Nature of the beast.

Fanman

Yeah, luckily Scott is about a 1000X more helpful than Greddy. You pay a lot, you get a lot. Seems cool to me.

N rider89

damn greddy is greedy

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

That's for sure!

SlideWayz

The high failure rate of NA Renesis engines is a known problem. Mazda has even extended the powertrain warranty as a damage control effort. Please get your facts straight before breaking out the flamethrower, mate.

My hypothesis is that there are failure-prone components and/or an overall design flaw in the Renesis engine. This is exacerbated by the additional mechanical stress of FI.

If lots of Renesis engines survive 50k+ miles of FI duty, then I will consider my hypothesis disproven. If, on the other hand, we see lots of them grenading for reasons other than bad tuning, perhaps my hypothesis will become a theory and we can see if trends emerge (or can be discerned from the wreckage!).

Mazda knows the RX8 is underpowered and way under-torqued for the US market, they have been experimenting with FI Renesis for 3 years, and yet they have not offered an FI Renesis product. Considering this along with the high failure rate of NA Renesis engines, it is not unreasonable to suspect they may know something they're not divulging to the RX8 community.

As a purely selfish concern, I am debating whether or not to pull the turbo off my car so I don't have to replace the engine again.

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

if I had a dollar for every blown up NA Rensis, i couldn't even move you into the nicer section of your trailor park

SlideWayz

First of all, that word you're trying to spell is 'trailer', not 'trailor'.

Do you think they did this out of the goodness of their hearts?

http://www.finishlineperformance.com.../pdf/ad-18.pdf

Having been very poor myself at one time, it is nothing to joke about. If you have nothing substantial to contribute to the conversation, why don't you **** off elsewhere?

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

The recall was a result of trying to get all cars on the same ecu flash level and checking for any emissions or engine damage that could have been caused by the previous flawed ecu flashes. If you would do any kind of research beyond finding something on the internet and running with it, you would realize a very small percentage of engines were actually replaced - and you wouldn't look like another village idiot tr0ll boy.

but damn, you really made me look dumb spelling it trailor instead of trailer... congrats

therm8

All in all there was a very small percentage of naturally aspirated engine failures. Much less so than, for example, the first year of the E46 M3. An extended warranty means nothing. I have an early 04 (June '03 build), and I never got such a notice. Post some hard numbers if you have them, conspiracy theories serve no one.

rotarygod

The Renesis engine does not have a high failure rate. Please site in percentage an accurate respresentation of how many engines get replaced to how many cars get sold. What's high in your opinion? 1%? 10%? 50%? What's the number? You MUST know if you are claiming there is a high failure rate. There is zero excuse not to with a claim like that therefore you must in fact have one and can prove it with proper proof. I'll wait.

The engine's that have failed have been due to improper lubrication and oil cooling. Hardly and engine fault as ANY engine would fail under the same circumstances. That was a cooling and lubrication issue that had nothing to do with the engine itself.

The old 13B engine failures happened for a couple of reasons. The largest of which was a seal issue in the engine that was a mistake but the failure was still due to improper cooling and overheating. The other issue was with improper tuning when increasing boost on a map based system. Again, hardly an inherent design flaw of the engine.

There are only a couple of things that kill engines (rotary or otherwise). That is improper cooling, improper lubrication, and improper tuning. That's it. There is no flaw in the engine design or seal design that makes it likely to blow up. I'd sure like to see some metallurgical proof if anyone says otherwise. Again, I'll wait.

moRotorMotor

Smell that people? That's the smell of someone who just got burned by rotarygod.

paulmasoner

iTrader: (1)

tell 'em how it is!!

HolyCross05

Smells more like a troll to me

MrWigggles

I can't give you an exact number. (Not that it really matters - better than average or worse than average is more telling than "1.432 % failure rate")

From Consumer Reports, Overall reliability versus other sporty cars:


Problem areas for the RX-8:


Compared to its competitors, 350z:


Sti:


S2000:


Miata:


I would say the RX-8 is much worse than the competition on "Minor" engine issues and slightly worse than average on "Major" ones. (I don't know if flooding would be considered an engine or fuel system problem.)

Anyway, I would say both of you guys are right. Yes, the Rensis has issues but it usually isn't catastrophic. However, the Renesis doesn't appear to be any better than its competition. And to be fair Fred, you are making claims without any hard numbers yourself; anecdotal evidence can prove any type of engine is good or a lemon.

Let the fighting continue...

-Mr. Wigggles

MrWigggles

Dummy post to get more pictures uplinked...

SlideWayz

No, you accomplished that all by yourself.

Well, actually that's not totally accurate. The lack of chlorine in your gene pool & a questionable upbringing doubtless lent a hand.

MrWigggles

Guys, give it up...

You started the thread with a legitimate question. Stay on topic.

-Mr. Wigggles

jmerc

Consumer Reports is not a valid reliability rating scale, sorry, until they actually verify their subscribers own the cars they report on by valid documentation they do not count for anything. Anybody that rates one car's reliability higher by a significant margin than another that is built on the exact same line based on the badge on the hood is incompetent at their profession (Pontiac Vibe/ Toyota Matrix, Ford Escape/ Mazda Tribute/Mercury Mariner). And when questioned on this by Autoline Detroit could not give a reason for this practice.

mysql101

You're making random assumptions. Perhaps you should consider the impact of fuel economy - today's market isn't one that a 15 mpg car would sell well, even if it made 300 hp.


Since you know of the failures, and since you're troubled by it, perhaps you shouldn't have bought an automatic and drove it around in the desert with only one oil cooler, before turbocharging it *.



* In case you aren't driving an automatic in the desert, perhaps you should have done more research on the topic before spouting gibberish. Since those are the cars that have seen most of the engine problems due to lack of oil injection.