Cool-Blue-Dad

Having read hundreds of posts and replies regarding different engine problems I'm highly alarmed about this.

I bought this 2004 RX-8 at the end of September this year so it was in storage somewhere for ~1 year.

The CEL light came on soon after I picked it up, but then it went out again a couple of trips later so I figured - gas cap. No problem.

91 octane is rare in this area so I started with 89 octane, then after a couple of tanks I switched to 93 octane.

Then a couple of days ago the CEL came on and stayed on, plus I have significant engine stuttering and stumbling first a 3,000 to 4,000 rpm, then the nose simply drops at 6,000rpm. I tried to baby it and switched back to 89. First guess - too high octane and the ecm hit the limit on the timing adjustment. However, the performance is no better with the 89.

Worst of all - I have almost no power at all. I can only manage the most meager accelleration on the flat and I'm lucky if I don't lose speed up even slight grades (terribly embarrasing in a performance sports car). Not going to be a lot of fun to limp 70 miles to Rochester like that.

Unfortunately, the nearest 5 dealers are 1 to 2 hours away and require appointments long in advance and use rental car agencies to provide loaners so now there is a delay to get serviced so more time to worry about how serious it is. The service manager and I have spoken three times so far, but mostly complications getting a rental car for a loaner (they want to be extra, extra sure this is a warrenty issue, oh, and by the way, don't bring the rental loaner back late or you pay extra out of your pocket for it).

*heavy sigh*

Cool-Blue-Dad

Thanks for the feedback Zoom44. It must be a defective (or used? just kidding) cat to clog at 2,000 miles. I'll share the verdict when they report in.

The only reason I didn't really freak out is the engine *sounds* okay - no rattles, no banging, no grinding, no ringing metal-on-metal sounds. I hope it's just some odd failure.

I actually found a damaged water hose on the day I brought it home. Almost looks like it was chewed. Anyone ever find rodent damage from storage (either by Mazda, a dealer or other private storage)? I guess I need to crawl through the whole car inspecting for more insidious types of damage that would have occurred during the year the car sat around.

If I'd started earlier in the day Roadside Assistance would have been nice. I need to check if the mileage is unlimited on the tow. I thought one of the service folks said a fixed amount like 25 miles or 50 miles. Anyway, I was racing the clock to get the RX-8 dropped off and a rental picked up before everyone started closing.

I have to bring the rental back on the day they say my car is ready and I must arrive at the dealership earlier than the time of day I left with the rental. I picked up at 3pm so if they call me at 10am I have to be sure to be there before 3pm. The rental company counts 24-hour days so arriving at 3:30pm would mean they charge me for a day. Being 2 hours from the dealership they could easily sabotage me by calling at 2:30, but I'll guard against that by calling them for a report in the morning to see if they expect to have it ready.

I don't know if the dealer encourages the car rental place to bring a proper ride or if I was just lucky - they brought me a 2006 Jeep Liberty with 11 miles on the odometer. I never drove a Liberty so this amounts to a multi-day test drive. Nothing to complain about. It could've been a really low class rental.

Cool-Blue-Dad

You know, I didn't even think of that. When I met the car it had 120 miles on it (129 after my road-test). 120 miles isn't fresh-off-the-truck so I was dimly concerned that some idiot may have made way too enthusiastic a test-drive or that some idiot who couldn't drive a stick practiced on this car.

However, dealers are prone to re-arranging cars on their lot and that's a perfect recipe for flooding an RX-8. Heck, they 'brought the car around front for me' so I could inspect it before our road-test. I should have advised them to leave it running, but I didn't even think of it and they shut it off cold. I wonder how many times they did that.


I'll have to read up on flooding killing cats. I drove the RX-8 ~300 miles to get home - nice varying speeds and rpms through the hills. Shouldn't that have heated up the cat enough to burn out any contaminents from prior floods? I live 20 minutes outside of town so I always drive at least 20 minutes. Bad for my gas-bill, but good for my car.

Cool-Blue-Dad

Well, you guys win the prize for guessing the clogged cat (hairball?). The dealer paperwork showed the CEL code directed them to the cat, which they found to be plugged so they replaced it.

The Jeep Liberty loaner was okay for 4 days, but I was so happy to get the `8 back. I'm doubly delighted because she's a whole new animal with her exhaust breathing freely!

Cool-Blue-Dad

I did check the rest of the engine bay more carefully after finding the one damaged hose. I didn't think to check in the airbox, that's a good tip. There was no evidence of any nesting materials. It looks like the rodent was 'just passing through' and had a quick bite.

I referred to it as rodent damage to one dealer and they started giving me static about replacing it. I explained how it had happened *before* I picked up the car and thus should be a real open & shut warrenty case, but he still waffled and said he'd have to call the rep when he saw the car. So, I called dealer #2 in my area and referred to it only as a leaking hose.

Yeah, they took care of it when they replaced the cat and painted the brake rotors. No lip about it at all. I have 5 dealers all about equidistance (~2 hours away in every direction). I use the one with the best service department (which may vary).

Cool-Blue-Dad

4 days.

Tuesday - Dropped off car ~4pm.
Wednesday - Shop confirmed cat and ordered parts.
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Parts arrived after lunch, shop installed, I picked up ~5pm.

Could have been 5 days easy. My suggestion - make sure you get a good loaner/rental because you could be without your RX-8 for a week.

Cool-Blue-Dad

I tried to convince the shop to get a cat on order to cut down on the turn-around time. I didn't have any luck, but I didn't push hard either.

Also, there seem to only be about 5 RX-8s in western NY so if your area has more Mazda dealers and more RX-8s they may have a replacement cat closer at hand.

Cool-Blue-Dad

Good researching so far. However, a clogged cat sounds unlikely for your circumstances for two reasons -
1) The clogged cat got steadily worse for me over a few days. In less than two weeks I could barely climb gentle hills.
2) The power loss was substantial and affected me in all gears without ever using the AC.

Your problem sounds a little different, but if you don't have a CEL code stored which implicates the CAT then the dealership may be correct about not checking the CAT (they may still be clowns, but they may be right about that).

Cool-Blue-Dad

That probably depends on the type of damage or manner of blockage your cat is developing.

In my case the time was only a couple of weeks. At first I denied the problem, then I tried to rationalize that it must be bad gas, bad oil or something else obvious.

However, the problem quickly degenerated into something I could not deny or ignore. In the end I couldn't rev above 5000rpm or so and I couldn't get up to 50mph on even a slight up-hill grade.Months? That seems like a long time for a cat problem to build up. In my case the CEL indicated a code in the engine computer which directed the dealer straight to the cat. If you have no CEL I'm not sure how to coerce the service department into making a serious inspection of your cat.