Mine has the throw-out bearing noise ("rattle"?) at idle in neutral that goes away when putting the clutch in. Don't think it has a thing to do with apex seals, or 3rd or 4th gear or the rear diff. Have about 9300 miles so far, no tranny problems. Any single tranny could have a problem, but it stands to reason that the harder it's driven and how frequently it will wear any involved component more than 'average' or the norm. And break-down can occur at any time after the damage was initiated - even during normal usage. Think a 84 y/o man having all-night sex w/ a 21 y/o nymph. Then he dies during breakfast the next morning. It wasn't the breakfast that did him in...

 

I know one of them quite well an it was not reinforced in any way other than a 3 puck clutch and a HD pressure plate.

And my FD was putting out plenty of HP and was quite fast, but I am in no way upset with the RX-8. It rides and handles better than my RX-7 ever did, and I had some awesome suspension components attached to it. The RX-8 is more predictable and definately more tractable. It's amazing what the engineers can do with a bit of R&D. I bet if I upgraded my suspension on the RX-8 as I had on the RX-7 my opinion would change. you cant just throw parts at a car and make it handle better, as I found out. It takes a bit of research and lots of tuning to get the setup right after you change even one simple component.

 

Uh huh...

I still own an FD (and an FC) and I think my '8 handles as well as the FD does. It's most certainly not as fast and the engine power comes on completely different, but hey - it's not the same car and so I don't expect it to be the same. The brakes rock, the handling is precise and very predictable and it's more comfortable to be in. It doesn't excite me quite as much as driving the FD does, but I enjoy driving it just as much.

So the main reason I'm not critical of the '8 is because I stopped comparing it to the FD, it's not one and I don't expect it to be one. It's a different car and I enjoy driving it as much as the FD but for different reasons.

So there you go.

Simon.

 

3000 miles when the 3rd and 4 gear broke and 3780 miles when the engine let go.

 

Sounds like Judge got himself a lemon

 

What I am doing is comparing an old 6 port engines vs the new renesis 6 port engine. The old 6 port engine never had this many failures at the beggining of their sales back in 85 to 91. A matter of fact we still have many second gen.'s running around with original engines and well over 130,000 miles on the engine. My nephew has a 1986 GXL running the original engine that I recently installed an intake,Racing Beat headers and pre-silencer. We took the Rx7 to our local drag strip and beat the living crap out the engine and the car ran 15.3 all day with a rookie driver.

Because the exhaust ports are now located on the side housings instead of the rotor housings, the engine has no overlap(intake and exhaust ports opened at the same time) what Mazda did was increase the intake port opening up to 30% larger since the engine has no overlap. When this is done the SIDE SEALS of the rotors are exposed to the opening and closing of the intake ports and any slight vibration of the rotor could cause the SIDE SEALS to crash right into the closing part of the intake port itself and creat some SIDE SEAL damage and lost of power. Many people with Rx8's are saying that after their engine was replaced, Mazda told them that it was a SIDESEAL problem. A large port could be made, that is not a problem, but careful attention needs to be paid to the closing part of the intake port.

 

Sorry to say but it seems like theres alot of lemons around and I think we could make some lemonade and feel better about the whole situation.

 

Judge Ito:

I'm sorry to hear about the problems you're having with your car. I am wondering though, do we know for sure how many Renesis engines have failed, and how many 6PI 13b engines in the 2nd gen. RX7's failed?

Forums like these give us a place to immediately report problems with our cars; something we didn't have the luxury of doing back in 1986 to 1991.

 

I sure wish I was to die this way..... :D

 

I just got the car back. feels back to normal with no diff. noises. Tranny and engine working fine.

 

Good... will you have new 1/4 times tomorrow?

 

Judge Ito:

I hope things hold together for you from now on. I know you'll feel better, but we may all feel a little better too!

 

I made a decision to still drive the car hard and race it. When something breaks next time I'm not going to take it back for warranty. I'm going to upgrade what ever breaks, Make it stronger. I want to make my Rx8 run 12 seconds all motor and I just realized that the factory equipment is not up to my challenge.

 

Wow!
You certainly got your RX-8 fixed quickly. How long did the dealership have your car?

 

That will be awesome. Good luck

 

maybe this time you should leave the tranny/diff break-in for a few thousand miles before beating the hell out of it...

 

Just out of curiosity, what type of engine oil were you running in your car? and have you added any tpe of performance parts in your vehicle since you bought??

 

I'm surprised nobody commented on the video of the judge's car doing it's fascinating burnout with the dealer tags still on it.
There's a difference between driving a vehicle 'hard' and attempting to break stuff.It's unfair IMHO to compare the old 6ports being abused to the brand new Renesis.For one thing the rpms at which the rev limiter comes on are increased.There are more critical things taking place in this zone.I could be wrong but if the older ones were capable of running there you would see similar failures.The judge's car was definitely bouncing off the rev-limiter.
I'm not excusing Mazda who may have more bugs still to be worked out.I don't think those gearbox noises sound normal or acceptable but I'd give them time to get it all sorted.
The cars seem to do what they were designed to do and warranties are not meant to cater to abuse.I'm glad Mazda will not be unfairly burdened with the expense of replacing more of his tortured components.

 

Doing burn outs, driving an brand new RX8 at over 100 MPH, driving it like there is no tomorrow are just a few of the things brand new rotary owners are doing and expecting the car to last forever...
I guess nobody told about the breaking in time frame, in rotary engine should be taking very seriously as they are very delicate engines.

I swear MAZDA before selling their cars, they should give a Rotary Engine 101 class to all the new owners who come from pistons engines and think they can do anything to their cars and missthreat the poor FE's...Why????Gee...

 

 

Yes parts need to be broken in for a few different reasons, But like I said, I haven't done anything different that I haven't done to other rotaries that I have build. When I assemble a differential I drive it for about half an hour, let it kool off then another half hour run, change the gear oil and beat the crap out the rear end with no damage. I think Mazda might have changed to a different bearing company and we are starting to see the effects with the tranny noises and the diff. noises.

 

I agree no more comparisons, it doesn't matter to me anymore. I made my decision to upgrade and modify what ever needs to be done.

 

My car is bone stock making 196.5rwhp and ran 14.5 @ 94mph using the original engine oil the car came with.

 

Thats why you blew your engine. Running it a track without even waiting to breaK IN YOUR ENGINE>

 

My engine was fully broken IN when I race it at the drag strip had over 2000miles. It seems like you don't have the slightest Idea who you are talking to. I build and race rotary engines all day. When an engine is properly built no break in is needed(exmaple I'll build a nitrous oxide engine that runs well over 11,000 rpms this engine has no break in and takes everything that we give it and stays together. Mazda builds them correctly but anything could happened in the assembly line. I have taking engines apart with low miles burning coolant. When I tear the original rebuild apart I have found that during assembly by mazda the coolant seals did not seat properly against the rotor housing and side housing. When this happened the coolant seal was crushed and allowed coolant to lean into the combustion chamber. Stuff like this happens back in the assembly line.