jivebunny

Thank you for providing us all with a great community for all RX8 owners
I am not very mechanically minded so please be gentle with me

5 months ago I bought my 2004 RX8 231 from an established garage on a whim whilst driving past one day...The car would not start but it didn't put me off...the garage owner said it had been stood for a week with it's back end on a ramp and was out of petrol. In went a few litres of petrol and the jump leads came out, followed by manic repeated stabbing of the brake pedal and then suddenly....viola! The car sprung into life! After a short drive and the handing over of £5000 in cash I was the happiest chap around, what with a 30 day warranty and a full service history what could go wrong??
Well for starters the service history couldn't be found and the owner of the garage himself promised to forward it to me. The journey home (40 miles) was eventful, the car had no power to speak of, had to be revved high to pull off and developed a very loud squeal from the nearside front wheel! The car was parked up overnight and my intentions was to drive it back to him the following morning. I got up went to the car and it wouldn't start..after 10 mins of trying and a flat battery I rang the garage who told me what to disconnect whilst it was tow started! The car did start and it was taken back. No luck the garage owner had gone out for the day on arrival, his mechanic refusing to look at it as he had no knowledge of the Rotary Engine! A few days later the car was tow started again and driven by a friend to the garage without booking it in where the owner was to be found sat at his desk. The garage owner took the RX8 to Mazda and my friend was given a lift home. 3 days later I was informed that two coil packs had been replaced, nothing was found to be wrong with the nearside wheel and that the car had 'learned' to cope with problems it didn't have and that the data it was holding needed to be replaced with data of an RX8 of similar age with no problems, which they would do when such a car came into service!
I got the car back and that was the last time I ever saw or heard from anyone from the garage, the owner went on holiday for two weeks, when he returned my 30 day warranty was done and no phone calls or letters answered. I took the car to a fast fit exhaust centre for a free brake check and they found a seized caliper on the nearside wheel which was rectified and new pads fitted all round as they were all shot. They serviced the car and replaced the plugs and the car ran better for a few hundred miles...quicker and more economical, however it wasn't long before the starting problems came back, first of all when the engine was hot it was impossible to start it and when it was cold it could take a full 30 seconds cranking before it would go. One evening I was at work and the car had been parked for 7 hours on trying to start it it would not fire and eventually the battery went flat. The RX8 was recovered and delivered to my local Mazda dealer where I learnt it was Flooded. They got it started and did a full health check where it was found to be down on power and restricted, also they told me the cat had shattered and that it was showing 2 misfire codes. Before they could do anything the cat had to be replaced but another garage told me before putting on a new cat the misfire had to be sorted so they opened up the cat scraped out all the innards and welded it back together! The car fired up and drove better than ever...for a while
The idea was to get it back in to get the misfire sorted, buy a new cat and finally enjoy the car, however yesterday I cranked the car over and it started...but only for a second and proceeded to stop. I cranked again only to be confronted by the biggest and loudest bang I have ever heard (which resulted in the entire neighbourhood coming out because they thought someone had been shot) quickly followed by a overwhelming smell of petrol and puthers of black smoke from the exhausts! The car now stands looking great but will not start, I do not have the money to waste on trying this and that and I need to know what is wrong with it and trust someone to actually fix it (if it's fixable) I am afraid I need a new engine amongst other things, the garage from where I bought still not answering letters I am at my wits end.
Some 5 months of owning this car I have not had one day where the car has been pleasurable to drive and I am asking for guidance on how to go about getting it sorted. I know how to stop and start the car correctly I do not know how to repair it....please help
Gary Gee (UK)
aka Jive Bunny
PS: I am still awaiting the service history, but I doubt it exists

dannobre

iTrader: (3)

Best I can come up with would be a loaded up exhaust that ignited and blew up...hense the bang. Likely something ignition related as well...I would check to make sure the plug and coil wires are on the respective correct plugs

You had idiots working on it last by the sound of things

Not sure what you laws are like there.......might be a way to go..

Otherise if you don't know much about these cars you will need to find someone who does to help you..or a good garage


Compression test will rule out the engine in short order.....after that you should have a shorter list of potential problems Usually starting with coils wires plugs

Good luck

VOODOO8

Have to second Dannobre's recommendation for a proper compression check of this motor. There are plenty of threads on this site that describe what a "proper" compression check should provide in the way of information, standards to compare these results against, and costs others have incurred to have a compression test done.

Motors do not generally loose compression overnight. Your symptoms described when you first took possession of the vehicle and even post the coil changeouts (such as hard starting, especially when warm) are telltale indicators of possible compression issues. If your compression is bad, you should have a case to go back against the outfit that originally sold you the car under their 30 day warranty, even though that time period has now lapsed. Given what you have already said about this outfit, I'd have a letter from a lawyer in tow when you show up at their door...