yakkboy

Hey everyone.

First off I want to thank everyone in this forum. Because of you I have been able to diagnose and rectify A LOT of problems. I can't imagine owning this car without this forum. So Thanks for being here.....

That said guys, I have an 04' GT 6-sp, 87k. Had it for almost a year and what an expensive year it has been. After owning 80's rx7's and knowing how much they loved punishment, (Sadist's of the automobile world!) it is sad how flawed this car is.

I will say, when it runs right, damn its fine. But its the "runs right" thing that is killing me.

List of repairs in the past 10 months:

1. Cat
2. Starter
3. Plugs
4. Wires
5. Coil packs
6. Clutch
7. Engine mounts
8. o2's!!! (Damn cat!)
9. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Bridge to leap off!

After reading this forum up and down and looking through codes and being nervous about posting because I don't want to be redundant, I am at the point where I have to stop lurking and ask y'all's opinion.

Everything you see above is in order of what has been repaired since I have had this thing. And I, yes I, the novice gear-head replaced the o2's with Bosch replacements. (Car throwing a 0131, front bank, sensor1 CEL. I guess its a short......)
Replaced both for the hell of and its still throwing the code. I have done the PCM reset. Pulled the battery (Which resulted in the CEL turning off for about 16 miles, then it came back on.) Needless to say, I was beyond pissed when it did.

The car has been guzzling gas, more than it does normally. I've made a game out of literally watching the needle fall in traffic.
Recently, it's been sluggish, not as responsive as it should be when I throttle up. And lately a hint of hesitation, not a misfire type of hesitation, just general malaise. (Just does not feel like a misfire, but what do I know? No codes thrown for misfire however.)The hesitation is not constant, and slight, sometimes it seems responsive. Almost like dealing with my moody wife. Hot and cold.....

Now, coming home today I sat in traffic and when I broke free, I stretched the cars' legs a bit on the highway. (Triple digits stretch at points.) Disgusted with the response I got her home and looked under the car and noticed the cat was glowing, not super-red, but was glowing. (@##$@#$@%)

So, in my mind, the root of my CEL is once again, the CAT. The CEL remains after the o2 swap and swapping them was not rocket surgery, and hell I tied up the cables better than Mazda placed them for christ sake!

But wouldn't it throw a CEL for for the upstream and downstream sensor?
I was running th sucker hard, I imagine staying over 100mph would make a lot of metal turn red regardless of condition.

I have rigorously checked the wiring from the front sensor to the pcm\ecu and continuity is fine.

If it's not the Cat, what the hell is it? The exhaust manifold? The engine is blown?

Engine sounds good, no diesel rattle, or lawnmower chewing on a rock. Last compression test done in Jan was "great" per Mazda.

No smoke from the exhaust except at startup and its light in color.
Idle fluctuates from 500-750, most of the time idles reliably at 750. Has been rough lately however.

Have done all oil changes myself religously every 3k and I check the oil at every freaking fill-up and carry 5w-20 in my trunk at all times.....

Nothing but 93 Octane.

Stock air-box, new K&N filter.

Seafoamed the sucker.

Do get the rotten egg smell every so often in the cabin. Not like when the first Cat died however. Surprised I didn't get carbon monoxide poisoning with that one.....

Radiator light comes on randomly all the time. Car is not dropping any fluid nor is eating it. Temperature is stable. No sweet smell of antifreeze at all. Figured its that cheap sensor they have molded in that bottle. Need to replace that too I guess!

My moody wife is about to smother me with a pillow in my sleep because I pay the car more attention!

Help everyone...I'm running out of cash and patience and frankly my sanity. If you made it through this long rambling post, please offer some advice, opinion, condolences......

Thanks everyone, really appreciate any input.
I do love the car, or rather rotary technology. Such a beautiful noise the cars make. I want that happiness again.....

Hopefully this post doesn't spawn a "Pity party" sub forum under the Series I forum.......

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

Alrighty, you have issues! (car, that is :P )
You say you had the CAT replaced. Have you visually inspected this new CAT? Any breakdown of interior parts?
When do you find the engine being sluggish? In high/ med/ low rpm's?

yakkboy

Honestly, lately...it seems low end and top end.....

yakkboy

Sorry soldier forgot the detail.
Have not opened the Cat up myself, Ima scared......and don't have jackstands, just some small ramps, enough to change oil and gasp, the o2 sensors.

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

when you changed the air filter, did you clean the MAF sensor? I doubt this will solve all your problems, but it may help. After you clean it, unplug the battery for 5 minutes to reset the ecu.
click these links- ssv
and APV

Hope this helps!

EDIT: start with the maf cleaning/ ecu reset. Then see if you can lift the car to check the CAT. Start with the simple

yakkboy

Thanks so much for the reply soldier....hope all is well in Manitoba!

I will do MAF etc in the AM first thing and post results immediately...

Been up reading all night tonight, obsessed with figuring this out!

RX8Soldier

iTrader: (24)

believe me, I know exactly what you mean!
Good luck!

VOODOO8

Have no choice but try and pitch in here, can feel your pain all the way up here in NH. Two suggestions:
1) Don't think you have much choice but to drop the new cat and give a physical look/see. You may have gotten a bad one (if so it should have some warranty coverage on it that you'll want to take advantage of before it expires), or it could be an install issue, or other. Its not rocket science, but does require a lift. Maybe you can rent one from a local repair shop or oil change facility for cheap money.
2) You say the coolant temp is stable although your getting an intermittent idiot light on it. First guess is that their may be loose or corroded connectors in the warning light harness that is triggering it. Has been brought up a number of times in this forum so you should be able to find good data with a search on it. Second option is that the coolant temp is not as stable as you presume, especially if your making that determination based on the worthless guage in the instrument cluster. You really need to hook up a CAN protocol capable scanner/guage to get a true reading - especially when you have put the hammer down for a while and the car is running hot. While it is once again an opportunity to spend money you don't have, my personal preference is to drop some coinage on an Ultragauge. I have one sitting right on top of my instrument cluster and the #1 position on my guage is set to monitor actual coolant temperature. I also have an alarm set for max temperature in case I am so distracted by road conditions that I don't see the coolant numbers running too high.

bse50

Given your mileage and the amount of stupid problems you had because the previous owner was a ***** i would:
Clean the possibly filthy MAF\IAT and reset the KAM\NVRAM
Check the compression. Bad coils\plugs and a choked catalyst don't help... your engine may be dying already.
Fuel pump and injectors perhaps? Possibly not an issue, just part of it.

If you're in atlanta just get in touch with Mazmart if you need an engine.

The price of the engine is not even that high, and the gas savings well be an interesting factor

That's generally the problem of getting an used and miskept rotary engined car. These things are pretty tough if well serviced and thoroughly maintained... the problem is that the average joe doesn't know that and changes the plugs maybe every 50000 miles lol.

DocBeech

iTrader: (1)

What were your numbers for the compression test?

A lot of people recommend cleaning the MAF I recommend just replacing it with a rebuilt. The wire that acts as a sensor is like a fillament in a light bulb. It frays before it fails and even cleaning it is a temp solution. Cleaning it will tell you if you need to replace it.

If you want to make sure that your temps are correct you can do it one of two ways. Expensive but very good to have is an instrument cluster. They sell them prebuilt or you can make your own. Oil temp and Water temp are the two you need the third is up to you. Or option b is a Laser Thermometer Gun. You can get them for about 30-40 dollars or more depending on your taste to measure temps. You will have to lift the hood and do it yourself, but if you shoot the oil filter you can get a pretty close estimate as to your oil temps.