Gotta love the reliability; to the tune of $698.00
 

Okay, so despite my tender love and affection, my RX-8 lets me down yet again. So, since it has heated up tremendously lately my car is sluggish and at 7k rpm and up it just boggs. So, I figure since it has gotten really hot over the last weeks that it must have something to do with the latest recall which outlines the same symptoms. I took it to the dealer this morning and they did the recall and said the car was still sluggish so after a diagnosis they are telling me I need new plugs, new coils, and new wires. All at the discount price of $683.00 and that it is not covered by my extended warranty.

So, the dignosis sounds right but how much should all these parts run if I do it myself? Any tips on where to get good deals on the parts would be greatly appreciated.

Plugs...90
Coils 110
Wires 60

Install..about 1 hour...90

Lots of room to wiggle there ;)

make sure to ask if that price includes a reach-around or is that extra?

Wow. Not only a rip-off price, but that isn't going to fix the problem.

take it back, do it yourself, show them the new stuff and old stuff and tell them to skip that step and move on. they are just telling you the step by step instructions.

they are throwing parts at a problem. remove the airbox via my DIY, unbolt the throttle body connector, and all the connectors to remove the airbox. the rest will be clear as day.

airbox https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-stock-air-filter-box-144789/

spark plug https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-spark-plug-change-145045/

coils https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-burnt-out-coil-replacement-131476/

rofl? its you.

You talk a lot. You should be able to handle all those yourself.

Okay, so the service rep got my extended warranty to cover the coils so they will be replaced tomorrow.

NYCGPS, I could do all this myself. That's not the point. I just closed on a new house yesterday and forked out $15,000.00 so it's a god damn hassle because I have neither the extra cash or the time to do it myself. Not to mention it's my daily driver now so getting to work will be a bitch. I brought it to the dealer thinking it wouldn't be that big of a deal. My frustration is that this car has been such a love hate relationship. I was moving this weekend and my dad had to move my car (didn't ask me) and he flooded it by turning it off cold. I was just bragging the other day how my car had never flooded. This car asks a lot of it's owner and I don't think I'm at a place in my life where I am willing to deal with it anymore. Not to mention that it's resale value sucks ass. I test drove a fully loaded pearl white MS3 with all the goodies while I was there waiting though. I hate to go back to FWD but I just can't trust my RX8 anymore and I have too much shit going on right now to deal with an unreliable car. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent, tomorrow I will probably look at her all cleaned up and change my mind.

MM, you think the problem is something else? Would you care to enlighten me?

Oh man do some cooling mods while you are at it!

ur plugs are fouled due to flodding. Cat may be shot. my RX8 is THE DD, and i changed out all 3 of said item myself with hand tools in 3 days, all during lunch break.

Loss of power when hot is a loss of compression.

which means new engine time

F@#k. This would be the third engine (oil changed every 3k with 10W30 GTX and revved to 9k daily). I guess I should look up how to do a compression check on a rotary. If the engine is toast you think it would be covered by the extended warranty? If it is the engine then it's hello mazdaspeed 3 time.

Reliability
 

What type of extended warranty do you have???

Dunno, it's by a company called fidelity. It's pretty good, it covered my ABS modulator a few months back and that woudl have run me like 2k or something like that. I will look it up.

Coils replaced. Car still bogs at 7k. They are saying it's due to the need for wires and plugs but they want $500.00 just to do that so I guess I have a project this weekend. If the car runs the same after the wires and plugs are installed I might have to bitch slap someone. But this dealer has been cool with my mods so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and replace the plugs and wires. Should I upgrade the wires? Where can I get a good deal on plugs?

Cat??

its unlikely to be wires or plugs making that much of a difference more likely cat or compression loss .
ask them to take your cat off and do a visual on it .
If it is ok I would try a decarb and see if that helped .

fuel pump. btw, racing beat and maztrix for wires.

beers :beer:

Thanks. I am getting the wires and plugs tomorrow but I too think its the cat because there is a burning smell under the car. I will change the plugs and wires tomorrow. BTW, advance auto parts has the NGK RE9B-T & the RE7C-L for $19.88 a piece.

Crap, I replaced the plugs and man were they bad but Napa gave me the wrong wires. So, I called advanced Auto Parts and they have the wires in stock so I will pick them up and slap them on. The cars still bogs at 7k but it is idling and sounds a lot smoother up until 7k rpm. I will replace the wires after work but the factory wires looked okay so I am not sure the diagnosis was correct. The fuel smell is gone so I am thinking the plugs were not burning all the fuel and now they are but the car still has a loss of power and won't rev above 7k. Oh, and I had to use a breaker bar to remove the spark plugs!!! I am not sure the leading plugs were replaced when they did the new engine because they were every bit as bad as the trailing plugs.

Sounds more and more like cat.

If you have an engine problem check this thread out.
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/8-years-100-000-mi-extended-warranty-147287/

Okay, well I am typing this at the dealer. I replaced the wires last night with Mazda wires because the ones from advanced auto parts were the wrong ones too. The car is still doing the exact same thing (revs to 7k rpm and just bogs). I asked the guy why they were just throwing parts at the problem and he said because the car had stored codes of misfires. So, I asked about the cat and he said that would not cause the problem. I wish I had a rotary shop I could take it too.

BS - tell him to call the tech hotline and ask if there has ever been a bad cat that didnt cause a cel. ive seen 5 personally and know of probably a hundred others or more on this site. DMP had a dealer who refused to look at the cat because it wasnt throwing a CEL. went to a MUCH BETTER PLACE with a Master Tech who had a clue and when he pulled the cat down the ceramic FELL OUT.

tell the guy to call teh tech line and get it ok'd to drop the cat and look inside. he's just worried about not getting paid for it.

You guys are so right. They replaced the coils AGAIN!!!! But get this, I told him to test drive it and really get on it (because if you don't know teh car, under normal driving you really would not notice the power loss) and he called me back and said it was still bogging. HA!!! Well, he calls me back a few minutes ago and says they ran some test on the cat and it was performing below specs so they had to replace it. I asked him how that could be possible without a CEL and he sputtered out some BS about having to reset the computer. So, I asked him how it ran after the cat replacement and he said it ran fine all the way to redline but that it was likely due to the ECU reset and not the new cat. Can you believe this BS?

The car runs like never before. I probably needed the plugs and coils done anyway so it all turned out well.