I just purchased a brand new series 2 tranny from Mazdatrix which will get installed next week. Thanks for the tips!

Not a bad price for retail.

I see they have an RX8 oil pan on their site now. Seems to be or reflect a Mazda Motorsports part number, but I can’t find or locate in the Motorsports parts system. Unfortunately the one person there who always seems to always answer the phone when I call in there also seems to have little understanding or experience about the parts they have for the RX8. The system also doesn’t always display, or be categorized properly to display, all the RX8 parts when doing a parts search.

They used to have a photo gallery with parts nimbers you could look through and then try to investigate further, which was better than the nothing we have now, but that seems to be offline now too. I appreciate what they do for us and realize that Mazda likely provides the bare minimum funding for their department, but in general they’ve always had this issue and unless you can get the right person on the phone it’s just a cluster in general and always has been. It’s a bit frustrating to say the least and I’m not sure if calling them is going to make any difference.


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The series 2 tranny came with the throw-out bearing and oil in it ready to go. The swap of the wiring connectors was easy once I verified what switch did what with a continuity tester. I also bought a Series 1 Exedy Stage 1 clutch kit. FYI Exedy has a different part # for the Series 2 kit which would have worked as well but it costs more. Mazdatrix said Exedy does that to get more money for series 2 stuff. Wow!

If I recall, Mazdaspeed recommended I change that oil out when I installed the S2 transmission.

No mods necessary to computer. Just modify the wires for the neutral switch and reverse switch. That's it.

Bump

Just curious has anyone seen MPGs increase on the highway with an S2 transmission and S1 differential? If my math is correct the S2 trans+S1 diff=8% less RPMs in 6th gear. So instead of 4000 RPMs at 80MPH, the S2 trans+S1 diff should be around 3700 RPMs at 80MPH.

No problem with the DSC either? Have tried to find an conclusive answer, but in vain. I suspected that due to the changed drive ratios, it would be seen by ABS sensors and the DSC system would not be too happy and throw a light?

The ABS and DSC work off the wheel speed sensors.... so it won't care about which transmission is involved

^^nobody mentions it because they all understand what you didn’t, but hopefully now do.

@dannobre Many thanks, beautifully simple. Perfect job Mazda.

@TeamRX8 Invaluable info as so often before. There is no way of understanding this, without real life test, you need access to logic. If not, you need knowledge to understand that there might be pitfalls. Obviously you don't have adequate understanding, but fits perfect with my 16years of observations as a programmer on heavy machinery; The more knowledgeable people actually are, the less they have the need to exalt themselves, together with less need to to speak disparagingly of other.

You might find "Dunning–Kruger mount stupid" interesting. In short, when people have gained some knowledge, but don't have enough knowledge to understand that they are not knowledgeable enough, they find themselves on a place called "mount stupid".

Remember to tighten the drive shaft in the same position from which you unscrewed it, many people forget about it and is balanced so as not to generate vibrations.

If it’s balanced, then it’s balanced. So not sure why it should matter at all. I never did it that way.

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It does matter. I have never dropped a DS on the RX8, but on other vehicles I have worked on, yes it does matter. I have never asked why, just did as was recommended, and DS vibration went away, by relocating shaft, 90 degrees rotated on the yoke. You're right, I thought the same, balanced should be balanced regardless, but...

In fact, I suspect a recently acquired (yesterday) 08 Nissan Frontier of my son has this issue, as it was towed across country with shaft disconnected, and then reconnected. So, this was fresh in my mind, interesting that it came up on here also.

well specifically with the RX8 they balance the shaft separately, then just bolt it up however during production. If it was balanced after assembly I might buy into that.

But honestly, do it any way you want. Again, on the RX8 I never did and it’s been off more times than all my fingers and toes counted up together.
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In the few, (less than 10) driveshafts I've replaced, they have run the gamut from used, new, marginal, rebuilt, transmission and DS swap, etc. Sometimes no marks were made, sometimes I was in the project from start to finish and did so.

The point is mark it before you disassemble, but if you didn't, and are getting DS vibration, don't throw out the DS until you try to reposition it. Now that I thought about it, I even moved them 180 and 270 degrees to quiet them down. It does work, even on new or rebuilt driveshafts that are freshly balanced, you can sometimes get vibration unless you do this. Maybe yokes are bent, who knows. But I know it makes a difference, because I have done it after being told to do it by others years before with vastly more experience than I.

do you just mark the differential end or the exact spline alignment on the transmission end too? :squint:

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