Looking at the Mazda maintenance schedule, I noticed that there are no significant items until after 30K miles. As someone who desires max performance at all times, should I follow a more aggressive schedule or is that a waste of money?

 

I can't imagine anyone saying that the MAZDA recommended maintenance schedule is inadequate. I would suggest they know best what to maintain and when. Most folks will do oil changes more frequently (high satisfaction factor of laying your hands on the car), but generally speaking, for the general RX-8 community, the recommended maintenance is ... eh hem ... recommended.

If you drive more aggressively, or track your car, then probably more aggressive maintenance is in order.

As to whether it is a waste of money, that depends on whether you derive any benefits/savings by employing a more aggressive schedule. If there is no benefit or savings, I'd say yeah, it's a waste of money.

 

Oil is cheap....engines aren't..........always think it is better to err on the conservative side.........for me thats 5000Km Mazda says 8000Km

 

It looks like any other manufacturer's maintenance schedule. A gree with dannobre, oil is cheap(and free since mine is covered under Mazda special program, free manint.) so I change the oil/filter every 3K miles or 3 months whichever comes first.

 

I change my oil every 3k miles, and go to the dealer because I don't feel like dealing with any warranty issues just yet. I went in a day ago for my 15k maintanance, and they wanted to charge me $280 to basicly do what I do every 3 months at work. Basicly just pop it up on the lift, give it a once over, take a few pictures for warranty purpouses, and thats prety much it.

 

Take pictures? I have never heard that before, why?

 

$280 for doing what? The 15K is a minimal RX-8 service (oil/filter change, lube locks, inspect brakes, clean air filter, rotate tires). Unless your dealer charges $200/hour for labor something is seriously out of whack.

Just a thought. I recently had a 12 month (15K mile) service done and apparently my dealer is not capable of of correctly converting the statement "RX-8 Schedule 2, 12 Month Service" into the correct list of items to be done. They seem to use some generic table that they feel works for all Mazdas, Chryslers and Jeeps. I made a list of what I knew should be done, asked them what they had planned and then had them add the missing items. Where my dealer left things out, your dealer may be adding items in.

 

This way if I have a warranty problem, and they want to say I didn't preform the maintenence, I have photographic proof.