Hello all ,

I recently came into ownership of a 2004 RX8 GT 6 speed from my boss , It has 125,000km on it and he has always had it serviced at the Mazda Dealership . I got the car for a really good price of $9,000can so I kind of jumped into the deal without much research on the car . From what I have been reading on the internet these cars are a good well rounded car and Im picking it up in about a week and had a couple questions .

A. I drove the car a few times and it seems to run like a bat outa hell , but when im at a red light the idle is at about 800RPM and has a bit of a shake to it and the smallest pulse in the idle I would say 800RPM ---- 8200rpm back and forth . Is this normal with the Rotary engines ?

B. Do you guys go outside the box of what mazda tells you to use as far as Engine oil ? syn or non syn .

C. The car has a tiny delay when you turn the key before it starts about 1 second . Is this normal ?

Sorry for the questions that you all think is very newbish of me , but im just tryin to wrap my head around these rotary engines and how to care for them . I am mechanicly incline and also have a Toyota Based Rock Crawler and a Honda civic track car so I will understand if you guys go into a bit more detail about the rotary . I get the basics of how it works , I just would like the hear from the people who own them , and get a understanding of the characteristics of the car . I have been reading the site all day and will keep on reading until I get my car next week and have searched for these questions and came up with a few answers but I just would like to get a better idea of my specific question .

Thanks Curtis

Here is a Picture of my car , 2004 Black RX8 6speed with sunroof and navi , Black leather Int with the peanut butter / orange inlays . I love the car so far and cant wait to sink my teeth into it .

 

They sell upgraded starters now, because they are known for being a little weak.

And yeah, idling like that is normal. Some people say pre-mixing your gas with 2-stroke oil will help it idle better and improve engine life. Some people also say using higher octane gas helps that too.

As far as oil goes, there are many different opinions on that one. Best thing for that is use the search function and read away.

 

Yea I kinda jumped the gun a little bit , Already have read a ton of good info on thise site , I was mainly concerned about the idle and thought why not toss a few other questions in there lol . Thanks for the info , Appriciate it

 

you may need engine mount and tranny mount, and an upgrade starter. ooil is personal chose, so any thing you want as long as you check the oil every other fill up.

 

Just to add a little after doing alot of reading myself. My car idles exaclty the same, it's a little rumbly at stand still. Mine generally idles just under 1k but I can watch the needle bounce back and forth a little. This seems normal to me now as it always idles like that even months later after I purchased it. I think thats just how they run in my opinion. I have the same year as you in titanium grey and I'm at about 42k miles. Same with starting it, it takes a second or a little hesitation to start and also at this point seems completely normal to me as it always does this, doesn't get worse or better so I come to the conclusion this is normal for rotary.

There is much debate over oil use for these cars, from what I've read don't use synthetic (I'm no pro here) but some people say it doesn't burn the same as regular engine oil. These cars burn small amounts of oil with the gas naturally. So you can't go wrong using regular engine oil because that what Mazda intended these cars to run on. Although I use 5w30 over the reccomended 5w20 from Mazda. So using synthetic might lead to future problems in the long run because it might not be burning properly and possibly leaving some funky build up in places, and again I'm no pro. Hope this helps a little, good luck, I love my RX

 

Well thats music to the ears , 5w30 is what im going to run also . Thanks for your response , makes me stop thinkin about that and move on to what Im going to do to the car once I get my hands on it .

 

Idling like that is normal from my expirence so far.. if it drops too low could mean bad compression.. and among like 4 other things..

Lots of threads on here about oil.. Mazda recommends (if in US) 5w20 dino (in my user manual it says in hot climate you may use a heavier oil.).. they specifcally told me non-syn.. but people on here do it anyway.

Not sure if the delay has to do with your..
1. Starter
2. Battery
3. Coils/Plugs/Wires

 

Welcome,

Check the threads in my sig. First step for idle, clean the MAF. You will know in about 10 seconds if it helped.

Good luck, and happy reading...

 

You say there is a delay from when you turn the key to when the car starts...
Do mean before it starts to turn over, or before it actually starts?

 

A. Is normal, rotary engine idle misses a pulse every few seconds. If the car shakes too much, its the motor mount.

B. Oil is very subjective. If you wanna track your car, it would be best imo to get the SOHN adapter to feed premix to engine and you could use the synthetic oil without fear of what the myths say about synthetic killing rotary. Some of us stick with mineral oil because we do oil change between shorter intervals.

C. Normal. Best to turn to key to "ON" listen for the prime then turn to start. That almost always fires it immediately.

 

Very good info so far , I appriciate the responses .The car for sure has a decent shake to it when idle , What goes on the motor mount in these cars ? I cant see it breaking , is there a urethane bushing in it that wears out or something of that nature?

 

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...21-06-1559.pdf