HELP: Engine seized, but has oil?
 

Hi, I own a 2004 6speed manual RX8. I was driving when the engine turned off and I heard a slight metal clank noise. I rolled to the side of the road and tried to restart. The starter has power and is audibly trying to turn the engine (I can here the clank from the starter when it hits the engine) but the engine would not turn.

I tired turning the engine crank manually but it would not budge. The engine oil level is full and the battery is 1 week old (has full power). This happened at night and in the morning before it happened, I noticed that the car was hard to start. It would take anywhere from 4 to 10 seconds of cranking for it to start. Once started it ran perfectly.

Has anyone had this similar problem? I searched and couldn't find any...maybe I missed it. Please advise. If I missed out any details that may help let me know.

Thanks.

I could be wrong, but maybe your Seals are finished. and that caused things to seize up.

whats the mileage.. what kind of maintenance have you done to the car... how often have your oil been changed...

Time for a new engine, according to your report.

carbon locked or an apex seal went.

Hurry up you should be covered under the 8 year warranty.

If it physically can not rotate at all, even with a 19mm socket on the e-shaft pulley bolt and a breaker bar, in either direction, then either pieces of your seals or chunks of carbon are wedged against an apex seal acting like a door stop wedge, or you actually have "seized" it with the e-shaft bearings fusing.

If you can rotate the engine AT ALL, it is not seized, and could be a different issue. When my clutch shattered at ~7.5k+ rpm, bits of the debris sliced into my starter nose housing and the metal sticking out locked itself against my flywheel, allowing only ~10 degrees of engine movement in either direction.


When you say "shut off", did it abruptly turn off? Or did it slowly die and you couldn't keep it running?

Have you tried push starting?

Try putting it in sixth gear and pushing it BACKWARDS.

This could free up whatever debris has it blocked from turning forward.

...or like RIWWP says, a 19mm socket, but turned counter-clockwise.

Thanks. I wondered at first if the clutch had shattered and caused some issues (thats kinda what it sounded like) but my mechanic came and tried turning the motor manually with a wrench and it would not turn. Maybe I should pull it down before running out to buy a new engine. Unfortunately, I live in the Virgin Islands and there are no dealers on this small island that can work on the RX8, let alone honor a warranty :(

I tried roll starting, but the car would stop once I released the clutch pedal.

The only reasonable answer left is that an apex or side seal broken, and a piece of it acted as a door stop wedge against the rotor or next apex seal, locking the engine in place.


It may be worth pulling the engine and tearing it down.

How would it be worth it if a seal had broken off and wedged it up against the rotor housing then it must have messed up the housing as well.. What's he to do re build the engine with one new housing only.. If rebuilding is the idea.. :Peace: If a Rotary seizes then it is dead isn't it..

Ignoring the month and a half gap to when I posted that... (:))

Entirely agree that it would still have internal damage, but not nearly as extensive as a coolant seal failure (for example). Entirely possible that the damage could be limited to just the housing and apex seal (if my example was indeed accurate), allowing re-use of the other housing, both rotors, the e-shaft, etc... All new seals of course, but potentially better than most failure methods in terms of "cost to rebuild". Could have destroyed alot in there too though... But then I covered that with the word 'may' in "It may be worth..."

:)

Would it even be worth rebuilding with just one new rotor housing ? You should be taken care of with the warranty tho right ?

Depends on what the OP's acceptable engine condition is.

You might refuse anything but brand new fresh parts, but the reality is, parts like housings are re-used all the time. I'd bet very few remans from Mazda have new housings, and any that chances to HAVE a new housing, is likely to have only 1. So, depends on what he is fine with.

After this long though, I'm sure he has a route to go already.

UPDATE: Thanks for all of the responses and suggestions. It was very helpful. I pulled down the engine last weekend and one of the apex seals had dislodged and cause an awfully ugly mess in the engine. The rotors are badly damaged and the housings are badly damaged. Something else may have happened in there, but it does not appear that the 2 rotors or housings are reusable. They look like someone took a hammer to them over and over again. :( The transmission is fine though :)

So I will end this thread with a plea for help finding a used RX8 motor...any year that will fit in my 2004 6-speed manual transmission car.

Thanks again.

Watch the classifieds section for used ones, they appear every so often. Mazmart is your cheapest "complete engine" option, and their remans are top notch in quality.

If it helps to explain what you need, you are looking for any 6 port engine from a series 1. This means 2004 through 2008 manual transmission equipped RX-8s, or 2006 through 2008 Automatics. 2004 and 2005 automatics are 4-port and will not be compatible. 2009 and higher of any transmission will not be compatible.

Be wary of anyone that says that it's a Mazda replacement "new" (because it's actually a reman unless they have documentation that there were no remans available and actually got a brand new engine shipped from Japan. Lots of misunderstanding around that), or claiming that it's a 2009 or higher engine in their 2008 or earlier (because there are many things that need to change to adapt a series 1 to a series 2 engine, and it's not at all cheap)

Now this is an ugly mess.....
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...0/ENGINE3.jpeg
and seized the engine....
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/ENGINE4.jpeg
I got a replacement block for $1300 shipped from Mr. Mazda..

I saw those pics on Facebook floating around. Didn't know it was you. Sucks bad :sad:

Yup sucks ass alright, a real shame that it had to die this way and the engine was real good and I decided to make it public.. But it's all good, never again will that happen! Already got the replacement block in and running, along with bigger fuel rails.. I sold the seized block to Kevin (Rotary Ressurection) for $300 and he was in Orlando for vacation so he didn't even have to pay shipping. The replacement block I got from from Mr. Mazda (Ebay name) is a Mazda remaned engine with only 10k miles he said, I asked him if it was new from Japan but he said the dealership rebuilt it, I wasn't aware that Mazda does in-house rebuilds.