Krayzie8

ok, my transmission just went out again, it first happend at 1500 miles, at 3200 miles the clutch went out, and now at 4700 the transmission went again.

.....sure im kinda hard on the car, but its a sports car and i paid over 35k for it, shouldnt the trans and clutch be able to handle what the engine puts out?

ive never had a car that ive had so many problems with...if i can get rid of the car i will, and ill get the car i really wanted......

id like to know if anyones had the trans go out on their rx-8? or clutch?

warrenty covered the clutch and the transmission the first time, but this just happend and i havent even contacted the dealership yet.

cgrx

I'm sure they will start to question your driving skills now. Good luck getting it replaced under warrenty again. I drive my car hard quite a bit and I don't have any transmission problems. "KNOCK ON WOOD"

Good luck !

mysql101

Can you describe what you consider 'being hard' on the car?

Krayzie8

dumping the clutch, ya know, spinnin the tires a little bit. hard shifts... :-/ thats about it...

if i get the car replaced i wont get an rx-8 again...

Speed Racer

The drive train on the RX-8 definitely feels a little fragile. I had my clutch replaced at 7,500 miles and luckily haven't had any problems since then (currently at 22,000 miles). I hate to say this but I doubt that they will cover the repairs under warranty. With the second failure happening so soon they are going to say that you abused the car. Your best bet is to talk with the District Rep and explain the situation.

Krayzie8

im hoping to get it on the lemmon law...3 strikes...you're a lemon

Speed Racer

The Lemon law is supposed to be 3 strikes on the same problem. So this would be your second failure of the transmission and you may have to go through this one more time before you can call it a lemon.

The_Bean

My cluth "blew up" while shifting from 3 to 4 at 2600 miles. I had only popped the cluth twice and that was at a low 3500 - 4000 rpms.

A sports car should be able to handle moderate abuse--they are made (or should be) for fast, sometimes hard, driving. If they say it can do 0 to 60 in 5.9 seconds you should not have to worry about what it's going to do to the car to get that time.

red_rx8_red_int

That's why Mazda does not give 0-60 times, the car mags do. That's also why racing can void you're warrenty. While I think all here will agree that autoxing your car should not result in any problems. Repeated high RPM clutch drops will.

Krayzie8

yet they advertise a 9000rpm redline, 50/50 weight distribution, 238hp.....if its classified as a sports car, and it costs over 30k, it should be able to handle abuse....haha, you think the new gto, corvette, or mustangs transmissions go out so soon after having a little fun? no...all the parts on those cars are meant to compliment each other.....you dont ever hear about the 8;s rear end going out do you?

Charles R. Hill

iTrader: (7)

Those American cars are also using Getrag transmissions, or similar, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if the next model year RX uses a different tranny. As my mods continue I completely expect to lose my trans and differential. When that happens is when I'll worry about it.

Charles

rx8spiritR

can your describe clutch failure and the transmission problem you have? i kinda wanna know, does it "blew up"???? how??? how are they"went out"???? maybe i have the same problem too, because everytime I step down on my clutch it's not going very smooth, i don't know how to describe it, it doesn't have any sound or anything, but you can actually feel it when you take it in gear and you'll feel there's something in between everytime you step down and release it in gear, when it's in nutral it's fine and smooth no matter how you step on it. but once you're in gear you'll feel it. This doesn't happen when you first takes it out in the morning when it's still a little cold, it happens when it's fully warm up. and it happens that night I race with a RSX type S, before that run, my clutch are fine. I'm kinda worry now, because i don't even know if this is a problem or not, but I'm 100% sure that Mazda will tell me it's NORMAL and will not do **** for it.

rx8spiritR

my car have only 2000 miles on it.

Krayzie8

i really wouldnt worry about the rear differential that much, i hear they are VERY strong...the clutch and trans, thats a differant story......

and yes, my clutch BLEW up too...in like 15 pieces they said....

Krayzie8

i really hope they take my back...grrr

pcldletter

The diff is a peice of junk, I've already gone through 2. My trans and clutch however have been solid so far. I'm waiting until winter so I can blame the second failure on wheel spin in the snow so MNAO will cover it under warranty. I have a feeling mazda will put together a much stronger drive train next year, and that the price will go up a bit because of it.

BRONXBOMBERS

Personally mine is getting very rouch between 1-2 and 2-3. Almost like the shifter sticks for a second. But nothing major. Moderate vobration while sitting still. anyone else having this problem?

Charles R. Hill

iTrader: (7)

There have been several complaints about noise and harsh shifting with the 8. Mazda engineer Noboru Katabuchi explained in the Road and Track Special Series on the RX-8 that they designed the 8 to be a smoother, less torquey, feel when driving than the Evo 8 and WRX for examples. As such they probably didn't figure that so many people would be interested in higher performance so soon. I wonder how long it took owners of '95-'97 RX-7's to yearn for more power. In that same issue, at the back, HKS USA President Jun Toyoda talks about forced induction and 300 bhp being a reasonable yet conservative goal. With all this going on we can only hope that Mazda is taking input from the aftermarket when it comes to subsequent model years of the RX-8. I replaced my clutch and pressure plate early on as I knew I would be doing FI or nitrous.

A note to Bronx- I have noticed that it takes a while for the synchros to spin up whether with my stock flywheel or the 9 lb. version I currently have. Maybe if you slow down on the shift quickness it might get smoother for you. Just a thought.

Charles

rx8spiritR

so no body wanna answer my questions?

BRONXBOMBERS

Charles..be more specific, are you saying that you started shifting at higher rpm's and yours evened out?

NAVILESRX8

iTrader: (1)

haha....while my diff didn't out and out fail, it got real loud and clunky around 2000 miles. It always had a whine since I got it, but it got slowly louder and louder until it really sounded messed up. I got my new diff installed at 2800 miles, and after a careful 800 miles on the new diff, it is starting to whine again. I have 5100 miles total on the car. The whine isn't nearly as bad as the 1st diff, but it's there. It hasn't gotten louder. I am not worried about it. But if it does get any louder, I'm going to ask for a new diff.

NAVILESRX8

iTrader: (1)

oh, and I've ridden in pcldletter's car....his diff problems are exactly the same as mine. Funny, his is a 6Spd sport just like mine.....hmmmmm

I am happy to say that my clutch and tranny are performing perfectly....

Charles R. Hill

iTrader: (7)

No. What I mean is that if you try to not slam the shifter from one gear to the next it will go more smoothly. I know this seems obvious, so I am trying not to sound condescending. The RX8's transmission synchros have "triple cones" on the first three gears(maybe others, too). The cones are the friction faces that help the synchros spin up tho match the next gear. When we shift our transmissions we are not moving gears, we are moving synchros(constant-mesh). Manual trannys have been constant mesh since the early 50's. Anyway, I have found that the less I try to bang-shift, the quicker and smoother I am actually able to do it. And, with my SR flywheel I can more accurately rpm-match the shifts so it almost sounds like a sequential trans. If I were to give advice, I would say to forget any other experiences you have had with manuals transmissions and re-teach yourself the finesse of shifting the RX. This is where I think others have had problems with their transmissions and clutches. Start slow and develop a new approach and pretty soon you'll be sounding sequential, too. If you would like more info, please p.m. me.

Charles

BRONXBOMBERS

I'll give it a try...thanks

Charles R. Hill

iTrader: (7)

Start slow and you can actually feel the synchros spinning up. Get familiar with the feel and then your shifts will automatically get quicker. Now I am off to install the nitrous...

Charles