I am seriously upset. I know I drive my car hard, but I also drive every single rotary engine that I build harder and my engines don't break this easy. When I first purchased the Rx8 my rear was humming on deceleration. I figured Ill take it back later when I had time. Later my tranny broke 3rd and 4th gears. I still needed the car for everyday use so I got by. meanwhile I called the dealer and told them to give me a date for me to drop the car of. later on that day I was driving normal not even pushing the engine hard and the engine broke and apex seal. I took the car back to my shop and I did a compression test and the rear rotor was dead. previosly to all this failures I notice hesitation on initial start up. From day 1 the tranny was making a loud input shaft bearing noise at idle in neutral. Like I said I drive the car hard but I also have pushed many rotary engines to the point of no return and no engine damage was caused. I'm talking about 44lbs of boost and up to 250plus shot of nitrous on some Non turbo engines and no damage. to the contrary the power that is created at this levels of boost and nitrous is pure heaven. I'm seriously upset with the the Rx8.

 

Have you been running racing fuel in this engine? I'm not suggesting that as the cause, just curious.

 

When I tested the car 3 weeks ago at the drag strip I used higher octane to prevent detonation. Only because I had tested and seen alot of timing advance under a load. Meanwhile weeks later Im using regular octane and doing my regular driving. and when I least expected snap,crackel, pop apex seal gone.

 

that sucks
sorry

 

Oh boy... sorry to hear your misfortune - but at the same token, I sure wouldn't let you drive my car :p

 

WOW! I really want an RX-8 but with so many failure stories I'm begining to be worried. I owned 2 rotaries before, a 12A and a 13B both non turbo. I drove them as hard as I could and they never failed on me.

Are you taking it for warranty repairs? I wonder what they'll say when they find all of your drivetrain main components broken!

By the way, how do you know an apex seal went out and not a side seal like some other reported engine failures?

 

is the renesis using the same 2mm apex seals as earlier 13b's, E.G FD?

 

Apex seals are responsible for the engines main compression. When the apex seals break the engine will read no compression to very little compression. The side seals are in the side of the rotors and not responsible for the type of compression that the engine lost. Yes back for warranty repairs.

I am seriously going to look into the mis-firing problem that has been reported and try to fix that problem. Because my Rx8 is going to get some mod's and before I go further I want to fix this engine issues.

 

The renesis is using a new type of 2 piece 2 mm apex seal designed to seal better at higher rpm's

 

Wow! Just when I thought some boost would be nice. Must be that dreaded oil injector failure that I've heard others talk about.

 

Judge Ito wrote.

From day 1 the tranny was making a loud input shaft bearing noise at idle in neutral.

mine too. so does that mean my engine is doomed too? as soon as i push the clutch in it goes away. sorry to hear about your misfortune.

 

No offense but ever since I bought the RX-8 I noticed right away, this was by no mean a replacement for the RX-7. It handles great, and has killer brakes as well, but I bought the car knowing full well it was not a newer RX-7. The car is very weak imo. The car just doesn’t make enough HP let alone TQ, it shares the same weak tranny as the mita and S15, and the engine design is just not that much of an improvement. Moving ports to the side and adding an extra injector or two (which is basically all Mazda really did) really hasn’t done **** to make it any stronger, last any longer, or get better mileage. If I had it my way, they should have just left the 13B alone and gave it a simpler twin turbo set up. If I’m going to blow the motor anyways, Id like to at least have the power to make me feel like it was worth it. And the mileage is worse then my FD with 1600 secondary injectors, which is just ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love the RX-8, but it’s just not at the level Mazda promised, and makes me think how much the Renesis sucks compared to the FD motor. Now that I think about it, the RX-8 feels more like a Cosmo replacement minus a rotor .

 

so if you knew all this why the heck did you still buy 1?

 

If you felt straightaway that it was weak, did you jump at the chance to return the car?

 

Crap mine does the same thing...Now I am nervous...I don't even drive her that hard