Blinking engine light, slow acceleration, white smoke.
 

Car started fine as I left work, put it in reverse and it immediately had almost no power as I pulled out. Accelerated very slowly with a hard sputtering noise at an idle. I baby my car back the 5 minutes home on the access roads as I'm barely able to accelerate, and my car is sounding like a harley. As I pull into my parking spot I notice white smoke coming from under the hood. Smells strongly like overheated metal and burning plastic/rubber. I stayed out there for a bit just to make sure my car wasnt on fire and burning to a crisp while I typed this. Has anyone else had this sort of problem? This is a 2007 RX-8. I've had all maintnance done by the dealership every 2500 miles. The car currently has 39,000 miles on it, and my last service was at 38,000.

check your engine coolant (DON'T OPEN THE LID WHEN HOT!!!)
One of the seals may be leaking. I'd start gathering your service records for a possible engine replacement.... :(

Same thing happend to me last week...I looked around and found this video which pretty much shows the same symptoms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6RFvEE_Vxw

Car's getting towed to dealer next week.

Aw man, now ya'll have got me worried. The tow driver is on his way here and I'm not sure if I should just go to the shop with them. (Hard to trust just handing my keys off to a random truck driver) I hope it isnt anything too expensive.

Phew!
 

Today the dealership called me and gave me an update on my baby. Apparently two of my plugs collapsed and my coils got burned up, which is what all the smoke and junk was when I parked. So far my bill total is at $860, which is not covered by my engine warranty so I'm paying out of pocket. Hopefully after all my bills and repairs, I'll still be able to afford the tires I need for my roadtrip to Seattle in two weeks. :D Excited to have my baby up and running, and back into my loving care.

does this dealership sell condoms? Because you're getting fucked.


sorry but that's an outrageous price to pay for plugs and coils.
Ignition coils = $49.95 each.

Full set of Spark Plugs = $125

$49.95 (lets call it $50) x 4 = $200
Set of Spark Plugs = $125
$200 + $125 = $325

Dealer quote = $860
So $325 worth of parts leaves.... $535 worth of Labor?! :Eyecrazy:
It take MAYBE 45 minutes for a factory trained employee to swap all 4 coils and spark plugs. :uhh:


I am relieved to hear that you are getting you car back but hopefully this is a valuable (and somewhat costly) lesson that while dealerships can be great, it's usually best to find a good mechanic for simple repairs like this.

:rofl: funny but trueee, and if the op did homework he might've also found someone that wouldve gave him a hand for even cheaper.

While that's all well and good, instead of snubbing me for assuming I havent done my homework (Which I did), just realize that this is my daily driver, it has to be fixed now, and I dont have the time to dick around with other mechanics to get it done.

uhh, okay.
I was being nice and giving you links should you need to have those repairs done again because as you surely learned while doing your homework, the OEM ignition coils on our vehicles are prone to early failure.

Did you get the car back?..How's it running?

$860...F*** that...I just bought a full new set of plugs for $95, and installed them in about 10 minutes tops...I have BHR coils, so your situation is a little different...But you easily could have gotten a full set of stock coils for about $120...They're easy to put in...The hardest part is just getting to them if you have a stock air box in the way...But it shouldn't take you more than 45 minutes to 1 hour to install the coils =(

*sigh*...I know it sucks to hear that...But you could have saved so much.

unfortunately, I'm in the same boat---just got a call
"we have 9 pages of misfires--we're gonna start by replacing the coils/wires/plugs--though I can't guarantee that'll fix the problem"

I told em, I just had the coils/wires/plugs changed --they said they'll have to do it again anyways. I asked em to check compression as my mechanic said it was low--they said it was fine.

Should I ask them for the readings? I really don't think they did a compression test, cause if it's low they'd have to replace the engine, so they're probably just trying to milk me.

since they most likely just charged you for that compression test, tell them you need the results for your records.

Just as Mazda asks us for invoices and proof of maintenance, you would like to do the same.

That video posted above scares me. revving the car like that cold is retarded, no wonder it runs like shit.


Anyway,

I have a pretty good dealer but one time they tried to bill me for coils and wires when I had just had them replaced 6 months ago. So I demanded the test results from the coil/wire tests ( I had recently read the FSM about testing the coils) and they could not provide them. So then I immediately asked to speak with the tech about the coil test and how he performed them and then service adviser asked em to wait a bit. A few minutes later he came back and told me they would be covered under warranty.

Being and informed customer will save you tons of money. I can't tell you how much BS I have called my dealer on. Now that I am out of warranty stuff can get expensive but at least I know doing it myself that it will get fixed properly.

I pulled this together last night for another forum member :suspect:

Yep, I love Advance Auto Parts they always have RX-8 plugs in stock and they are $80.00 :) I also think the OEM type coils they sell have a lifetime free replacement warranty, you just take the failed one in and they replace it no questions asked.

lol yea thats pretty pricey, it better come with a warranty! at least mazda sees that you are maintaining your car. Which reminds me I need to go to mazda for an oil change :D...

That's not pricey at all, that's the cheapest available price.

Most vendors are just under the $50 each mark, and most dealers are in the $60-100 each range, for just coils. Their markups on plugs and wires are similarly horrific.

$182 is BY FAR the cheapest price you will see right now.


Things may change.

My Car has just done the same thing, i have a 2007 rx8 57300 miles. Once they replaced the coils and spark plugs did the car run fine :) Thanks

minus the smoke, my car is having the same issues, replaces all listed parts above, as well as new fuel pump, still having issues

Which of the steps in the first post of this thread have you not followed?
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...t-here-222280/

was visiting family in jax, stopped at a gas station to fill up, and topped off the oil as well before i made the trip back down to orlando. car sounded like a lawn mower and had no power. essentially got it into limp mode and drove 40mph back to orlando, since there i've fixed pretty all the steps:

bought NGK spark plugs, duralast coils and wires
Cleaned the MAF Sensor
Cleaned the E-shaft Sensor and reset doing the brake pump method
replaced fuel pump to a walboro 255 with a new housing for the pump
never really let the car get below a quarter of a tank
and don't have a cat, have mazdaspeed exhaust with BHR catless midpipe.

i don't think its low compression because my problems are intermittent. mostly when its cold (outside and car) but even when warmed up, accelerates slow, spudders, but once its catches it feels like its doing overtime to fix what it fucked up. sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Car only has 36k on it

You missed a few steps in that thread :)

Vacuum leak, fuel trims, and grounding problem are 3 things not mentioned that quickly come to mind. Compression loss is still a possibility until it's actually ruled out with testing.

thank you!! question though, what/where are the fuel trims and what would i be looking for with them? im assuming these would attribute the p0302 cylinder 2 misfire code im getting?

It's electronic table data. Basically, if something is wrong with any one of a number of different components in the car, you can build incorrect fuel trims as the ECU is trying to account for the parts that have a problem. Then you fix the parts... and the fuel trims trying to account for them are now incorrect for a repaired and healthy car, causing their own problems.

Reset the fuel trims by disconnecting the battery for a few minutes. When you reconnect, fire up the engine and let it idle warm, and then idle for another 5-10 minutes. If you start driving right away after a battery disconnect, the fuel trimming for idle speeds may not be established enough to 'catch' the revs when driving and you clutch in or come to a stop, leading to engine stalls.