I have a 2004 model RX8, it was running like a dream and 1 day came up with the radiator coolant light. No problems with that other than the fact i took the car to Mazda and was told the price of which i said leave it alone. They also said it needed new spark plugs and had found the spark plugs were all trailing spark plugs and the car will run better with the correct ones. Since then the idle speed has problems, car has flat spots and they have changed the Spark plugs, Colis, leads and catalytic converter only to find the car still runs like crap. Anyone out there got any suggestions other than put back as it was before they changed it?

 

What idle speed problems? What flat spots?

 

^+1
What a mess....with coolant light, sometimes all you have to do it fill up the coolant a bit more, and it'll go away.
The trailing plugs they mentioned is really suspicious...did you ever replace them before?

 

Might be worth it to clean the MAF sensor. it can be done it 5 min and it's been known to help with our idle.
read this https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...71&postcount=9

 

If you do clean the MAF be very careful when screwing it back in, dont go to tight or you will strip it.

 

I have only had the car couple months and drove it from Queensland to Sydney and ran like a dream so seems strange if plugs were wrong.

 

MAF? Sorry I am new to rotary engines so not sure what this is.

 

The latest on the 8 is it ran ruff going up a hill and had to keep dropping the gears and when i stopped at the lights the engine stalled.
Lucky i was able to get it running again but wont idle properly and has no power going up hill at all to a point where im in the way of other cars.
So far changed plugs, leads, coils and CAT.
Any other suggestions other than set fire to it?
Could this be caused by MAF?

 

I would check to see if the wires and plugs were installed properly...and if all the plug wires are still on

It is easy to switch the order of the coil plugs and wires if they weren't paying attention

I have seen plugs put in at the dealer that were loose as well...and plug wires hanging off the plugs is common

After that..I would get a compression check to see if the engine is healthy and go from there

Always look at the last thing messed with when trying to diagnose a new problem....so I wouldn't **** with the MAF until I checked out the other stuff

 

Yeah checked all the leads and coils etc as well as wires and all seems tight.
Car was running so well until they touched it so now trying to get car at least back running as it was.
Maybe i will get a compression test tomorrow as I have to once again take back to the mazda dealer. They had the car 3 days last week and 1 the week before so its almost living there now!

 

just so you know in the future, the MAF sensor is the mass airflow sensor. It monitors the air coming into your engine through the air intake.
Here is the link that will help you clean it https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...71&postcount=9
Good luck!

 

Guys, do you suppose it's possible they did all that work without taking the battery loose and/or not doing any resets?

 

I would expect that the car would idle like crap but still have about normal power under load after a reset. Right?

 

So do they need to do a reset or something after install new parts is that what you mean? I thought they would plug in via laptop and check the tuning of the car or similar?

 

They will disconnect the battery first before they touch anything electrical...ie your coils and plugs.

 

But did you check they were going to the right places?
I know the picture will be backwards for you, but verify they are in the right place!

 

Maybe........maybe not..........it was just a guess.
You don't have to do so(disconnect the battery) to do anything they did. They should've, I agree....that doesn't mean that they did.

Think he needs to verify other stuff, but from his last post of going uphill and loosing power it's starting to sound like compression.

Guess where I was going with it was......if he had all trailing plugs, is it possible the car adjusted everything(trims etc.) over time to account for it. The leading and trailing plugs have at least different heat ranges right? What else?
Would that have caused the ECU to do anything different?
If he had RX-7 plugs in there, the trailings had better have been shimmed.



Oh......and he does say it idles like crap as well.

I asked him to go back and check the coil to plug order and gave him a picture above. He verified all that Dan asked except the order!

Ross...............you got any CEL(check engine light) at all on?

 

At least our wasn't all leading plugs I am often amazed at how simple things can get screwed up. Check everything and then take it back for the compression test

 

just checked and all leads as per the photo. There was no mention from dealer of any shims on the plugs so not sure they did or didnt have. I will take the car back tomorrow and get them to check the compression but bit lost as to why the car not going well at present. When first started it runs fine and seems to be when it gets up to operating temp it starts to run bad and hills seem worse. Love the car just want to get it working properly again so need this sorted.

 

Didn't want to throw you off on a tangent, so forget my last post. Good to know the order is right.

You didn't answer if any CEL or not....so I assume not.

MAF might be a good place to look, but let them debug it. Good luck!
Let us know!

 

there is no CEL light on so thats good i guess but it had come on when the car was flooded prior to take to the dealer. Thanks for all the input i really appreciate all of this as it helps for future reference as well.

 

Coils, plugs and CAT were replaced after the flooding right?

 

yeah plugs, leads, CAT, and coils all changed.

 

Good!

Some OEM coils have been known to be bad right out of the box, so hopefully it's that simple.
If it is that(a bad coil out of the box), then it probably hasn't had enough time to damage the new CAT.
That's what I was after by asking the last question.

Fingers crossed it ain't lack of compression.

 

ok cheers I will keep u updated on the progress from Mazda this week.