it's always a good idea to suspect the obvious. spark plugs could definately go first. more likely than apex seals. if it were the apex seals, it wouldn't idle (he said it did idle). he'd see burning oil/fuel come out of the exhaust...alot of it too. spark knock definately sounds like a hammer beating on the combustion walls. this is just a guess man, diagnosing from behind a computer screen isn't easy.

 

That sucks man, I hope everything will be ok. I too have a base model no tc, and have the turbo kit, so i'm screwed if this happens to me!

 

ok well all kinds of smoke was comming out of the exhaust, and it wasn't like a good idle it jumps around than it stalls and it won't rev. it is an EXTREMELY LOUD CLACKING NOISE. i will have it towed to dealer tommorow i had to work all day today and maybe i'll know something by end of week.

 

Battery dead huh, I'm betting you chucked an alternator... prolly a bearing went bad and it's making all kinds of racket... and seizing which whould put enough strain on the engine to make it hesitate/stall. I've done it in other cars before. The CEL was "blinking" or it just came on? If it was blinking i'm betting the alternator was dying, voltage was intermittent.

 

it's cool. you know more about this stuff than me. :D

 

um...your motor sounds like it's finished. hopefully you have a good relationship with your dealer and they'll replace your motor without too many questions. the computer will also tell them exactly what happend at exactly x rpm @ x mph, etc. etc. cross your fingers man...tell us what happened too.

good luck!!!

 

i don;t mind them checking the rpms but i doubt they will see much i disconnected the battery to charge it up when i got home so i'm sure the ecus is clear and if its not i don;t mind i was only at 4-5k when it happened

 

What mods could he really have that would make the engine blow. Intake or exhaust I doubt that would contribute to the blown engine. Now if he has somehow been playing with the computer then yea, just trying to save him a headache that some dealers like to give.

 

It actually kind of sounds like maybe you lost the front main bearing... when they go the rotor tips can actually make contact with the rotor housing and you get loud clanking, it’ll also cause the corner seal tip area of the rotor to make contact with the end plates. This comes from experience of having one of my 13B's in the FD come apart on the dyno boosting 1.7kgcm on a T70. Since it's a renisis I could be apex seal peice imbedded in the rotor that couldn't get extracted threw the side ex ports grinding on the rotor housing as well. In any case a 13B making under 250 hp shouldn't be coming apart like that under the conditions you were in with out a failure of something important. Did you look to see if it has oil pressure when you had it running afterwards?

 

ok guys welp engine is deceased, they didn't tear it apart to see actuall failure but they have put an order in for new engine. i'm also going to get them to check the oil metering pump for failure. i got a rental for now so things are pretty good. i'll keep you informed on what i find out. i doubt that i will find out what failed because they are pulling engine and sending it to mazda.

 

crap. i really want to know what happened excatly to the engine. looks like nowadays nobody really knows about this new rotary engine. i am kind of worried. Mazda says 238 bhp. most people only have around 180-90 bhp. then here comes the greddy which has no understanding over the eninge. Oh. i forgot. then there is the mazda again calling everyone who has the blown transmission abusing their cars. HAHAHA. i wonder what will happen to my RX8. which

 

yeah i'm debating about trading in and going back to focus svt cause i know it will last and isn't much slower

 

DON'T trade it in or go to an svt.

This IS a great car. (Despite this issue)

Besides, your car will be good as new after this

 

At Seven Stock they had the formula 1 car in blue. It uses a Rx8 motor. They run it all seaon long and never have to tear it down.

There are other race teams that use it and don't have a problem. Most people that buy the car are young youths. So every time I read this, I believe that there is a strong suspision of abuse. While the engine can take some abuse it doesn't make sense you can race a car for a whole season and never have a problem and then a few street cars have problems.

Anything can happen, but only the owner knows the true story.

 

I really don't see what the problem is. With the exception of Abbid (who I'm willing to speak to if he ever takes me up on my offer), Mazda has seemed to step up to the plate and has replaced engines or made all repairs in accordance with their warranty provisions.

I"m honestly telling you guys that I basically had multiple cases concerning a sludge build up issue affecting Toyota 3.0 liter engines, and Toyota refused to recognize the problem. Instead, they tried to blame the owners.

As it turned out, class action lawsuits had been filed by the, among others, the California state Attorney General, and legal action was required to force Toyota to replace or repair those engines that had seized.

Experts consulted claimed the problem was too tight of a tolerance between the pistons and cylinder walls, and that excessive carbon buildup led to the seizing.

Mazda appears to be honoring its obligation quite nicely, by comparison.

 

All engines have a particular type of weakness or issue. Look at the mazda 6's for example. Few dollar PCV valve breaks and gets stuck open, next thing you know the intake manifold is sucking oil out of the crankcase with a straw, BAM, oil starvation, BAM rod's go spinning.

**** happens.

I agree with RotoRocket that "most" of the dealerships are working with the owners and mazda to take care of the owners who fall under these situations. At least we aren't dealing with mitsubishi here, who tends to void warranties for any tiny inconsequential reason.

 

I had one of those before I bought this car, no way I would go back. The difference between the 2 are night and day, besides rwd is so much more fun than fwd.

 

sometimes i just want to curse and this is one of them. "Mazda says 238 bhp. most people only have around 180-90 bhp" not that i want to have an hp debate here but you realize your talking about hp claimed at the engine and hp measured at the wheels?two completly differnt measures. then you mention greddy- most people with the greddy turbo using the emanage are having no problems. there were a bunch of early adopters tha thad issues yes. but those have been resolved. lastly there have been plenty of tranny /shift fork problems that have been fixed under warrenty talked about on this forum. so its not every owner nor every dealership.

makes me wonder if we cause more problems on this forum than we alleviate.

 

Well everyone always complains about things rather then praising them. I'd say the # of complainer posts outnumber the praising posts by a factor of 100 to 1 if not higher (on the 6 boards). Its understandable, cause the forums would get kinda of stupid if everyone posted...
"My brakes are so fantastic and wonderful and make no noises!"
or
"My car has exactly the amount of horsepower and torque I want!!!"
or
"My engine works perfectly fine today with no problems and good mileage!"

The best thing to do is look at the total population of members on the forum, and figure that if someone isn't posting about a problem or complaint, that they must be happy. If you look at it that way, the actual # of problems on the forum are relatively tiny and minor...usually only a % or 2.

Example: 21,000 members.
100 members with engine problems/trouble.

Thats 20,900 happy members, or 0.47% of the population with engine problems.

 

Just cross-referencing your two threads. Something tells me it relates to your engine failure... you think?

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...=1#post1094907

 

productions vehicles WILL ALWAYS have problems...how else is the manufacturer going to make money off of you??

 

^touche and to be 100% honest with you people i've had the car for 3k miles and have loved every minute, save the engine death. but to be completely honest i DO NOT ABUSE my car. grant it i've done some spirited driving a few times but i can't afford to be w/o a car and my payments are much higher than i am used to so i need to be very careful with it. i wish i knew what failed i'm having the dealer check the oil metering pump and everything else he can. i haven't lost faith in this car just a lil discouraged right now. but the dealer is being extremely kool about it and hasn't made the slightest comment bout abuse or anything of that nature as a matter of fact he ordered the engine the day it was towed there. so i hope this is a good sign of things to come

 

well...business is going to die down now in the shops. they need work...hahahaha.

 

"i had been babying it, like never going above like 5k ..."

Why do folks think low revs are good for the car?
--R.

 

Because many rotary experts say it is.

http://www.racingbeat.com/FRmazda4.htm

Click on "How to break-in your new RX-8"