Battery - Mid-winter.
Starter - Last week.

The battery made it crank a little faster but the starter sounds like it made the big difference. I'll post the service receipt.

 

I went on a trip for 4 days and the battery was dead when I got back. They wouldn't give me a new one because I had roadside come and jump it off and drove to the dealer. The next time there will be a flatbed coming to pick the car up so that it is dead when they get it.

 

There seems to be a wide variance in how cool dealerships are about things like this - which is really silly - they get warrantee money for it - it shouldn't be so difficult.

BTW - I walked into my dealer - said "My battery was sick", and they offered up the battery wo/question, saying the starter would be coming later, they just didn't know when.

What to do w/bad Mazda dealers? I guess find a new dealer or wait til MNA issues the official words so you can print it out and shove in their face "So there!":p .

 

Just scheduled my 30k. Got appt next Tuesday. If u could please get TSB # or any other reference number it'd really help. Service manager here was very helpful making apptment & checking TSB's for me so I can get everything done in 1 apptmnt. Got 6 days til I bring car in..wait was for my shcedule not theyres btw..they coulda done it next day
Appreciate any quick feedback.

 

Go here for the RX-8 service bulletins:
http://www.finishlineperformance.com...ins_index.html

If you're referring specifically to a service bulletin for the "new" starter, there is none and there may not be one in the near future. By far the biggest gain to be had in cranking "power" is the replacement battery which has 640CCA, versus the OEM battery with about 300CCA. The increased cranking power provided by the "new" starter is minimal and not worth going to the mat for.

 

Do you have or have you seen the new starter? In my experience the battery made about a 10-20% increase and the starter was more like a 50-60% increase. The cranking power of the starter is directly related to the voltage across the motor. Maybe the old battery dipped to 8V during cranking and the new one only dips to 10V. That’s still only a 20% difference. The difference would be smaller in the summer when both batteries are warm.

I don’t know the exact numbers so I can’t make a strong argument but I’m here to tell you that the new starter makes a bigger difference than the battery change alone.

 

That would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think we need to specify what powertrain is being addressed. I hear that they AUTOMATIC cars have minimal gains with the new starter.

 

snap-on's on fire today . Is that a tribute I see on the horizon?

 

I know WHERE YOU LIVE!!

Don't make me come up there.

 

Here's the service recipt with the new starter and plugs that they put in.

This is a MT, wouldn't have it any other way. :p

 

Terrible scan, writing is a blur.

 

Looks fine to me. Did you click on the little boxy thing in the lower right of the image to enlarge the image?

 

I can read it fine too. Thanks a bunch MX6_2_RX8

 

WOW!! they wash and vacuum your car!! man, I took my 8 for an oil change at the dealership and thats all they did...

DO you have to request that the car be washed and Vacuumed?

 

The scan looks fine to me. I did have to reduce it to 200K before it was happy. I asked for a complimentary wash. I don't think they got to the vacuum. $40 for the oil change & tire rotation, it's the least they can do. So far they have been a really good dealer to work with so I can't complain.

 

If the local is cool..

Will they check the cold start RPM's on the car?

 

Enlarges fine, but still a blur Oh well.

 

May have something to do with the resolution you have your monitor set to or perhaps a problem with your video card or monitor. If this is a laptop or a flat-panel desktop monitor, make sure the resolution is set to the preferred setting. Settings outside of the preferred setting can often soften up the image.

 

Part Numbers for those who can't read the scan.
Starter = N3H1-18-400A
SPARK PLUG = N3Y3-18-S30

 

Trouble is they aren't exactly local. I have to plan a day around getting there. They aren't that helpful anyway. The tach doesn't seem to register while cranking so that's no help.

 

MX6, either your 8 holds more oil than the rest of ours. or you might be overfilled
with 10 qts

 

Maybe they did it twice so I am good for 8000 miles. :p It's a good question. Maybe they charge by the pint I Also wonder why the quan was 1 on the spark plug. Does anybody know if that part number is for a complete set?

 

The sparkplug # is for a set. The starter # does show a supersession to a revised part (The old one was 18-400 vs the new one being 18-400A). As to the oil quantity, somethings funky there. There's only one filter billed out, that's the 14-302 #.
Paul.

 

Do you know a local tech with a (pardon the plug) Snap-on MT 2500 scanner?

It will log rpm if it has the CAN upgrade cartridge.