What the hell is going on!? Here is my nightmare story:

A little history on the car: 2004 MT - 128000KM (80k miles)

-3 weeks ago at 127000km reman engine was put in part #N3H3-02-200R-V0, new plugs, coils and wires.
-2 weeks later I bring back the car for lack of power issue: Intake manifold part number: N3H6-13-100R was bad apparently. I dont know how those go bad. Catalytic converter is partially clogged but still fine. The car has nice pull in every gear.
-1 week after being with a rental I get my car back from the dealer which is today.

So I drove about 50km home, picked up my mazdaspeed exhaust and midpipe to go install it on my fairly "new" car. So I start the car, get down on the highway. There is a stop light. Right as I come to a stop POW! Car switches off. Strong smell of gas immediately. I thought it flooded so I try cranking it, no start. I mashed the gas pedal for deflooding procedure, no start. I open the door and there is a puddle of oil dripping from the engine mixed with gas. I thought it would catch fire so I got out of the car.

I just came out of the freakn dealership. I couldnt see any oil while opening the hood. Only from under the car. I heard of faulty gas lines while a new engine install? But that couldnt be it.

So what could have gone wrong this time? Opinions please? My dealer doesnt wanna pay the 275$ towing. Im gonna go ***** out and explode soon.

 

Have it towed to your dealership without paying anything and contact both MNAO and your lawyer.

Have fun.

 

another bad fuel line install?

 

doesn't explain the oil though does it?

 

Something certainly let go. That fuel line is a real possibility, since it shut off the car. Only other way an oil failure would shut off the engine is if it seized from running out of oil completely.

Are you sure that it's oil? and not just mostly gas that perhaps "cleaned" oil residue from the engine when it sprayed everywhere?

 

Chances are they didn't tighten the oil feed or return line and it came loose. Hoss-05 had something similar happen but on a smaller scale when the dealer forgot to tighten the oil pressure sending unit. It is possible that the ECU shuts off the engine when it reads 0 oil pressure

 

Definitely not your fault...take it back and get it fixed

 

I am positive that is oil I touched it. Still traces on my hand. Huge gas smell too. I just took it out from the dealer today with a new intake manifold. Is there anything oil related in there?

Im soooooo pissed off right now you guys have no idea. I drove my car 5 days in the past month. Its always at the dealer.

Im scared that I cranked it too long before I realized it was spewing oil on the ground. Hope I didnt flood/mess up my reman some mroe

 

Lawyer really? Im surprised that the biggest mazda dealer in north america would do a botched job on an rx8. They have been changing rx8 engines left and right over there

 

djfa, it's pretty obvious that they botched SOMETHING.

Defending them isn't going to get it miraculously fixed.

 

No it wont. Im gonna give them hell and make them pay for my towing. I had to get it towed 60 miles away for 275$.

 

ill update you guys on what went wrong when I get news in a few days. So this doesnt happen to anybody else. This is very dangerous stuff. Im surprised nothing caught fire with the high temps around there.

 

You were lucky.
If they report a leaking fuel hose just sue them. It happened before and the owners weren't as lucky as you were.

 

It's not unique. Fuel fires from that line failing just after a reman installation have indeed happened before. Too many times actually.

Yes, you are right, it is extremely dangerous. Fortunately I haven't heard of any deaths from it, but have had some very narrow close calls.

 

9krpm :

Would that cause the engine to seize? If i was driving on it for 60km?

 

Wouldn't last more than 100 feet with no oil pressure...

Chances are if it ran out of oil you have a big leak/leaks someplace. I would make sure that that they re-do the engine.....bearing damage is not always evident unless it siezes and I sure wouldn't want one that had semicrapped bearings

 

If the ECU shut it off as a fail-safe, then no, you didn't seize it. The easy way to check if it's seized is to put it in neutral, e-brake engaged, pop the hood and find the front main pulley and see if you can rotate it. If you can't rotate by hand, get a 19mm socket (or is it 21mm?) and put that on the e-shaft bolt in the middle of the pulley and attach a ratchet or breaker bar to it and then rotate the engine. Should spin easily, though with "lumps" as you are compressing air in the engine as you rotate it. If it won't budge at all in either direction, then you can start worrying about it being seized. If it rotates freely, then it isn't.

 

+1 to Dan's comment, and as for the fuel smell, that is likely the oil, it tends to smell like fuel a bit in a rotary.

 

AFAIK there is no oil pressure shutoff in a Series 1..but I might be wrong. There is no way I would want a motor that was run dry in any event....siezed or not

 

That is excellent information and duely noted. When I get updates on what happened, if it ran out of oil without me knowing about it im definetly gonna demand for another new engine.

by bearing damage you would mean like the e-shaft moving the rotors?

So how am I gonna know if it ran dry? my car is probably at the dealer by now and no way for me to check it out

 

But there IS a no-fuel shutoff.

My problem with just pointing a finger at an oil fitting is that it doesn't explain why the engine just shut off. Fuel line does, but fuel line doesn't explain the oil. Could be both? and the fuel hosed the leaking oil from the side of the engine?

 

there are basically 4 main bearings...2 stationary gear ( shaft) bearings at each end, and a bearing in each rotor.

The rotor bearings tend to last better than the stat gear bearings due to the size and the respective loads

 

Oh yeah one more question. If it was a fuel line, what would be the potential damage to the car? and if I get a lawyer, on what basis shall I sue? Life endangerment?

 

The lawyer comments are a bit premature at the moment.

You will need a lawyer if the dealer refuses to acknowledge their problem. But if they recognize it and fix it free of charge, there shouldn't be any need for a lawyer. Suing because of "life endangerment" or something like that would only be justified if the tech was actually trying to kill you. Anything else is just an accident and you won't have much to stand on.

 

Thanks so much for the comments. I appreaciate every bit of everyones advice. Have I mentioned you guys are the best? I wish y'all were here, the drinks would be on me! This is by far the best club.

Ill keep you posted!