I recently purchased an '04 RX-8 GT, and this is my first winter driving it. I live in upstate NewYork, and am surprised to see that when the temperature is below 20 degrees, the engine never makes it to full normal operating temp (meaning the temp guage needle never makes it to straight up). When it was 10 degrees the other day, the needle only made it to the first quarter point after 30 minutes of driving.
This sounds to me like the thermostat is stuck open, but the dealer says this is normal, and rotary engines do not generate as much heat as even a 4-cylinder engine. Are they right, or pulling my leg? Does Mazda offer different summer and winter thermostats? Thanks, Greg

 

Your dealer is an idiot.
However, so is the gauge as it does not represent actual engine operating temps.

The "straight up" position - or anywhere within 15° or so of deflection on either side of center - can represent a range of temperatures from 78°C to 110°C, with no direct correlation.

BTW - rotaries are far hotter than any other Otto-cycle engine.

Had you used the search button, this thread would not need to exist.
Please do so in the future.

 

The stock meters are pretty much garbage, but the temperature one does work. Don't worry, it will sit wherever it sits, the oil does a lot of the heat removal thru the two oil coolers, the actual coolant temp is not critical. I haven't heard of anyone changing thermostats for winter.

Your dealer was wrong about the rotary - for its size and output, it makes way more waste heat than a piston motor.

Don't worry, turn the heater **** all the way up and enjoy the car!

S

 

If I were u I would stay completely away from that dealer. cuz obvious they dont even have a single clue about Rotary.

 

I have an 05. Had heating issues since day one. Brought the car to two different dealerships and complained about lack of heat and that the gauge would never stay towards the middle when it was below 28F. The gauge actually fluctuated all over the place and the car never ... ever .. got warm. Anyway received by car back last week after it sat at the dealership for almost three weeks while they were trying to fix it. First of all .. hats off to Chris the mechanic at Holiday Mazda in FondDuLac. He kept at it and finally found an engineer at Mazda with a redesigned Thermostat housing. I could go into more detail, but now everything's great. Toasty warm, car heats up in about 5-8 miles, needle stays where it should be .. about one to two ticks from the center. If you need more info, let me know.