RX8Club.com

The WDS diagnostic machine at every Mazda Dealer in the WORLD should be "updated" every week.

The Ford family has adopted this touch screen, windows based machine for the entire product line. It is portable and programable but it is much slower than the NGS machines of the past. This machine is used for the entire Ford family and some updates may fix a Jag or Rover.

Generally every three months the Dealer receives a CD in the mail from MZ and it is a major upgrade (IE 30.xx)

Each week Mz is supposed to release a minor update(IE 30.2)

Occaisionally a "patch" is released to address software issues in the machine also.

If your local does not do the weekly update they can be up to 3 months behind between major updates. If the manufacturer could trust each dealer to do this they probably would never need to release a "major". My techs come back from school in different parts of the country and tell me stories of dealers that don't even know what a weekly upgrade is. How can you fix a "new problem' If your equipment is not up to date?

You should be able to call your dealer and SOMEONE there should know what level the WDS has been updated to. Probably not the lube tech.

This is where the confusion seems to come in...the update may or may not address any issue on the 8. Or on a Mazda for that matter. Some dealers can call a "connection" and ask if a problem is going to be address on a minor update.

When the machine is hooked to the OBD-II terminal on your car you can prompt it for updates. It will tell the tech if there is are any available and the update(s) should be installed.