Took the 8 into the dealer to get the swapped under 100k warranty. Wouldn't accept it since she has a rebuilt title, the *******. I was told that 3 solenoids in the back of the engine needed to be replaced and a few vacuum lines needed to be replaced and that would get rid of my compression failure symptoms.

So my question is would a vacuum issue cause similar issues with the hot start problem associated to the loss of compression?


The 8 is a 2004 auto, just replaced the plugs and it has BHR coils.

Thank you, for any helpful answers and or flames

 

Why are they f@#kers? No vehicle manufacturer honors a warranty on a rebuilt or salvage titled car. And search, there are a million hot start threads already.

 

I understand the hot start issue and have read a lot of them, and I am not asking specifically about it.

The dealer told me the problems were from losing vacuum. I am asking if a loss in vacuum can mimic the hot start issue. Thought I said that, so my bad.

I can be angry that I cant get the engine core warrantied, and thats why I said f@*kers.

 

A vacuum leak can cause all kinds of weird issues, so yes it could be the problem. But then again I don't trust dealer monkeys to fix anything. They usually just guess at what is wrong rather than properly diagnose it.

You should have done your homework when buying a car with a rebuilt title, don't be mad at Mazda for your lazyness.

 

Vacuum issue is usually a vacuum leak. There may be some threads on that out there on finding one. I use either an unlit propane torch, or brake cleaner.

In either case start the engine. With the torch, set it on low, and move it around the engine compartment, and wait for the idle speed to change. With the brake cleaner, spray it around, and wait for the idle to change. In both cases you are looking for a location where you can do something, and cause how the car runs to change, that is a very likely location for a vacuum leak. It should go without saying that the brake cleaner method is a whole lot safer than the propane torch method.

An ever safer way is to listen for a sucking sound.

 

A vacuum leak in the intake system is NOT going to change the internal engine compression numbers or increase your compression in anyway.

 

Yeah I have never heard of a vacuum leak causing hard starts. If it did it would have to be one hell of a vacuum leak.

 

It just affects the fuel trims and idle stability.

 

Definitely cant argue with you on this one. A lot of things about rx8 I should have done my homework on before buying it.

For everyone else thank you so much for what to do in troubleshooting the leak.
As well as a reminder on the MAF sensor being clean.

 

The three solenoids they're talking about control the SSV, VDI and secondary air injection valve. None of those will have any effect on the compression of your engine, nor likely to have an effect on hot starting.

If they're malfunctioning, the car will probably run poorly, but I can't imagine how they'd affect compression.

 

Have you actually had a compression test yet?

 

yeah, better do that first!

 

Yeah they wouldn't do the compression test until I had these issues fixed. They said accurate results wouldn't be had.

I cleaned the MAF, and the ESS yesterday, as well as taking off the BHR coils yesterday and putting some stock coils on I had bought when I first purchased the car. I definitely noticed an improvement in initial start up. There seemed to be an improvement in the hot start, but I still want to test that out some more as it was late and I had dinner plans.

 

You are fast Charles, I updated my previous post to include what I did yesterday.

Sadly I only have 1 Mazda Dealership in Louisville, which is weird as there are a crap load of other dealerships.

I was wrong there is another dealership after searching for one. Thought they had closed

 

I had an issue back in the summer, where the car would die in Neutral coming up to a red light at first. Then it got to the point I couldnt keep the car running while parked unless I kept my foot on the gas. It ended up being that the vacuum caps i used when I did the throttle body by-pass had dry rotted. once I found those and replaced them with new ones, everything was great.