This weekend my father and I did a fairly comprehensive tune-up, with a small aesthetic improvement, on my 2004 LY RX-8. The car has 68k miles on it. The itinerary:

1) New Front Control Arm Stabilizers
2) New Ignition Coil Packs (OEM Replacements)
3) New Plugs and Wires
4) New Brake Pads and Rotors (Centric Rotors+ Axxis ULT pads)
5) Oil Change (Royal Purple 10w40)
6) New Exhaust Gasket
7) New Tires (Goodyear Eagle GTs)
8) Painted brake calipers (glossy black)

#1 took us some time as we had to get out the torches to heat up the bolts to get the old stabilizers off. The left one was broken, but we replaced both with the (purportedly) redesigned part. The new ones looked the same to me.

#2 & 3 was fairly straight forward (except that my father and I briefly miscommunicated about the order of the wires, causing mild panic). I used the redesigned OEM packs instead of the Yukon solution due to cost and wanting to be conservative. The car had original packs and wires, and the sparkplugs weren't terrible looking, but changing them certainly didn't hurt. Afterward there was a noticeable improvement in responsiveness on the throttle, and the engine runs and idles smoother. I haven't noticed any change in MPG, but I don't have enough data on my usual routes to draw any conclusions yet.

Regarding #4, the car still had original rotors and pads on, which was amazing to me at almost 70k miles. The rear pads were worn much more than the front, which we found interesting. The rotors probably could have stayed on if we'd wanted.

#6 is the most amusing. When I bought the car, I thought it was loud. But I noticed it had a Greddy exhaust on it, and I thought "Well, I'm riced out now, that's just how it is." So I drove the car for about 8 months, and a service shop mentioned that there was a bad exhaust gasket. Drove it for another four months, using 5th gear on the highway to get the sound to calm down.

We finally looked at it on Friday - whoever put on the exhaust had used not one, but 2 exhaust gaskets connecting the mufflers to the pipe, and both were burnt out and rotted away. There was a *lot* of sound coming out of the now large gap between the pipes. Three trips to NAPA followed (because their gasket book didn't even list the RX-8!) before the $6 part was obtained and installed. The car sounds completely different - *much* quieter. To those of you who think the Greddy sounds loud - you have no idea.

The new tires are a harder compound, but Z rated as opposed to H rated for my old Nankang IIs, so handling is pretty similar, and traction in wet will be significantly improved. The tires were not planned, but when we took them off to do the brakes, we noticed cord showing on one, and cuts in two more. The tires were all worn on the inside, but when I had the shop check the alignment, it was within spec. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long the old tires were on the car. I *think* they were only the second tire - in all likelihood replacing the OEMs as they had a 340 rating. But it's really only an educated guess.

I'll post some pictures of the calipers later when I get home from work and can upload them.

Final result? Almost every aspect of the car is improved - acceleration, handling, idle, sound, traction, appearance. It's cliche to say it's like a new car, but the improvements were vast and noticeable. The car was very easy to work on and we were very happy with the results. It's now ready for the trip down to the Deals Gap Rotary Rally on Thursday!

 

Whoa ? H Rated ?!?!?!?!

Anway, H rated tires are WAYYYYY too low for 8. Yes it can support "up to" 130 Mph. but its always better to get the highest speed rating tires you can get. it will ALWAYS handle better than lower speed rated tires (unless its too close, like Z/Y)

The previous owner is really a cheapass.

and, it should be Nankang, not Nanking

 

Heh, fixed. I highly suspect the Nankangs were put on by a dealership at some point so they could say "Hey, look, tread!" I just used up whatever life was left in them (16k on my end) and didn't push them too hard.

 

Very cool that you got to do this - I've been wishing i had the time.

Pictures??

 

maybe.

Nankangs ... god I can't even get them in NYC. LOL

I use Bridgestones only.

 

I took a couple vacation days to work on the car, half disguised as visiting my parents. We got everything but one wheel and the exhaust gasket done last Thursday not working particularly quickly. Friday, we finished those two projects, and I washed, vacuumed and detailed the inside, all in an afternoon. Saturday I took it to the shop for tires.

I do have a couple pics, I'll post them when I get home.

 

I wanted to put the Pirelli PZero Neros on, but couldn't get them on such short notice. It was between the Goodyears and Yokohama AVID W4S.

 

Look forward to pics, great list of spring-cleaning parts.

I am on stock rotors and pads and still have plenty of meat left (52k miles) as well!