RedRotaryRx8

Hello all I have been experiencing many problems with my 8 lately and they all happened to day on my way home from the airport. I am so frustrated at the car and the incompetence of my dealership. I did some searching for several of these issues and didn't see much help so I might have missed it. If you guys could provide me with any help/insight it would be great. I plan to call up my dealership and give them a piece of my mind.

First off I drive an Auto 8 with 29K on it. I just had it serviced last week for its 30K maintenance and the car is still screwing up so there went 300 down the toilet.

Here are my issues sorry it is a repost I am just so upset right now I need to vent.

1. When I am driving my 8 down the freeway and driving in the manumatic mode when I get around 5500-6000 RPM I hear a horrible crunching noise coming from my car. It sounds like a car being crushed by a car cruncher. If I shift to 3rd it is fine it happens almost always around 5500-6000 RPM in second gear. It drives me crazy and scares me like I have a major problem.

2. I did a search on power loss and a lot of the threads seemed to reference a loss of HP. My power loss issue deals with my car completely shutting off. It happened 5 (yes 5) times on my way home today. If I am slowing down for traffic/stop light and I get below 5 MPH my car completely shuts off and dies. I then have to put my car in Park and restart the car. The startup always sounds rough and it is really frustrating. I live in the Washington DC area and traffic is always a problem and this same issue happened on 5 separate times while on my way home tonight. So less than 5 MPH and the car completely shut off. Talk about frustrating

3. Often when I am at a stop light/stop sign/or in traffic and have my brake depressed - after I let off the brake and coast my car shakes really bad. I mean it shakes horrible and I don't know why. It seems to happen a lot lately.

4. Also it seems like I am not getting the full HP from the car lately. When I used to hit the gas hard it would be quick and responsive now it is like there is a 1000 pound weight in the trunk. My performance has really gone down and it seems like the car is sluggish when I am accelerating.

As I mentioned I just took my car last weekend to have it serviced for its 30K and again I mentioned each of these problems to my dealership and each time I have gotten the typical "we can duplicate the problems when we test it" so I continue to get even more pissed off.

It is frustrating to have a great looking car with so many problems. And whats worse - I can't even get help with it.

I also use high octane gas only ususally from Texaco or Exxon.

So if you can please provide me with some info for my issues so I can go yell at my dealership it would be so awesome. Thanks

Tigster

I would find a new dealership.

lure3o1

i agree wit tigster. goto a another dealership to service ur car.

Nubo

You really need to take the mech for a ride so YOU can reproduce the problem. But even that may not help if you're doomed by slacker mechanics. We had a car (Ford- ugh) once that the seatbelt warning would chime everytime we went around a right hand turn. Mechanic "couldn't reproduce it". Yea, ummm what did you do take all left-hand turns? So I took him for a ride and got a "Ding" on the very first turn. Some dealers just don't want to deal with s**t. Even after we demonstrated the problem and they put "their best guy on it", they still couldn't fix it. After a WEEK.
"Duhh we couldn't find the problem"
"You mean you're not going to fix it!?"
"Duhh we couldn't find the problem"
"Well, it's wires and buzzers, how hard could it be?"
"What do you want us to do?"
"Are you kidding me? Have you looked at the wiring diagram?"
"Our guy couldn't reproduce it after you left"
"You know what, I really don't want you touching my car after all. Go back to reading the comics. Stay away from 'The Jumble'. Don't hurt yourself."

Took it home and found the problem in about 20 minutes.

Schuistheman

The problem sounds like a mix of transmission/ maf sensor problems. You might be able to really clean up the idle shutdown issues by cleaning the MAF(mass air flow) sensor. Also check the color on the dipstick of the tranny fluid. If its sh*t brown might be a good idea to change that as well.

Nemesis8

iTrader: (3)

Search motor mount

RedRotaryRx8

thanks guys - I have printed out this thread and another motor mount thread to take with me to the new dealership tomorrow. I am hoping that they can figure out what the F is up with my car.

Terrance26

get your pcm calibrated or reflashed, I can't remember what they did but I know they sent the pcm to california. I can't find my service sheet to find out what they did specifically but it was one of those. The same thing used to happen to my AT 8. It used to drive me crazy too.

zoom44

yep they need to be calling the tech line with your symptoms. whenthey do the tech line will tell them to send your pcm in for fixing. might also get a compression check.

Napboy

also consider a clogged cat... that may be the 1000 lb weight in your trunk.

Like Whoa

did this happen after your 30k maintaicne? If they cleaned your injectors, they might've fucked up putting them back on. causing the engine to misfire but i dunno. i hope you get this problem fixxed.

Like Whoa

"I had a very similar experience, what happened was the float in the gas tank got mis aligned, and I actually ran out of gas, but the gauge showed me at half."
quote from Shaolin

RedRotaryRx8

Just an update:

I dropped my car off to a dealer up here in the DC area this morning. I have used this dealership in the past when I ordered and installed my snow tires. I printed out this thread along with some discussing the motor mounts. The tech was very pleased about me bringing this information. I told him I wasn't trying to tell him how to do his job I just wanted to pass along some information. He was happy about me giving this info because the more info he can get about possible causes the better job he can do with finding the root cause.

He said it sounds from my description that there is something wrong with the cat and will check out the other problems. I'll keep you posted on whatever I find out good or bad.

RedRotaryRx8

Well I just got a call from the dealership and the master Rotary tech could not find any problems with the car

He said regarding issue #2 - where the car keeps cutting off that the battery was low so he charged it up.

He also said that if I drive my car at 6000 RPMs in second then I should know I will be burning the engine and the car. I called bull#### on this since the rev limiter is 7500 RPM so it should not burn up the engine.

I am going to leave work in about an hour and go out with the technician to see if I can duplicate the problems.

I told him I don't know how you could not find anything wrong with the car when I have had these problems I listed in the first post over and over again. This crap is really pissing me off.

I asked about the cat and he said he checked it and there was no problems.

zoom44

what is the master rotary techs name?

also it could be a tranny issue. if the pcm doesnt get a proper signal from the Tranny Control Module(TCM) it doesnt know its supposed to idle. this could cause stalling. they should check the switches that tell the tcm/pcm what gear the tranny is in and when it goes to neutral. also speed sensors should be checked. did your car have the thermal damage recall work done?

RedRotaryRx8

Hey guys,

sorry for my long delay in responding. I have been on the road doing business travel for the past 2 months so I haven't had time to really drive my 8 for a long period of time.

After I took it to the dealership back on March 2 they said that my battery power was low so they charged it up back to where it was supposed to be. After this, I really didn't drive the car a whole lot since I was on the road for business. Well I had a few days off in April so I went back to my hometown. As I was on my way home (its a 2.5 hour drive) guess what? The car when it got below 10mph would just die Every light on the instrument panel would illuminate and I would have to restart the car. When I restarted the car it seemed like it had trouble restarting and when it did first start up it would stutter and shake until I got the car over 10mph. Keep in mind this is on the 495 beltway here in the Washington DC area which is one of the busiest roads in the country. I had this happen 4 seperate times while I was in heavy traffic.

I took the car to the dealership where I bought the car (in my hometown of Salisbury, Maryland) and they said that the battery failed so I had to pay to get a new one. So I figured great, now the problem should be fixed if it was the battery right??? WRONG!!!!!! I was driving Friday night on the way from the airport and guess what? It died on the road again twice.

So I know it is not the battery but it is something else. I talked with my Uncle who is a Auto Mechanic and he said that it could be an issue with the Fuel Cells in the car that the car is not getting enough fuel when it dips down in the 10mph range so it just cuts off. That could also explain why it stutters when I turn it back on when it dies.

I am taking the car the dealership near my house in the DC area tomorrow and hope they can find the issue.

Does the fuel isssue sound right??? Any other insight? I really want this problem fixed - it is frustrating the HELL out of me.

snkpkp

The PCM shows no error codes? if you have a CEL it may be easier to find out whats wrong. Usually the car WILL give a hard CEL if its a repeated problem.

XRX8X

sorry about your troubles with your car.you might want to try browns mazda on richmond highway in alexandria.they provide rentals and have a tech who owed a rx7. he has help me out many of times with my 8 and mostly problem solved.mazda #703-660-8400
ask for service dept.hope they can help you out if not roshenthal in arlington are good too!

good luck!! these are the only ones in our area that have a good rep.!!!

RedRotaryRx8

I have had both dealerships run diagnostics on the car and did not find anything. Atleast that is what they told me. They noted the battery issue and they replaced that but really couldn't find another specific issue to deal with the stalling.

Skythe

When your getting ready to stop, shift it into neutral around 20mph as your slowing down. This might help isolate transmission issue with the PCM.

alcimedes

Can you get a tech to drive with you in the car so that they can experience the problems? That might be the only way you're going to get this solved. Or have the tech drive it while you're in the passenger's seat.

Do you still get the god awful racket at 5k+ RPM's? At least that one sounds reproduceable.

RedRotaryRx8

I have mentioned that a tech go with me to try to duplicate the car dying. If they can't find anything tomorrow when I take it to them by 3:00PM I am going to the dealership and try to take a mechanic out with me and try to duplicate it. I'm at my wit's end - I love my 8 but have had problems ever since I have bought it brand new.

Regarding the noise above 5k RPM's. The tech in my hometown said the noise can be from spark knock. The car has not made the crunching noise in a little while but at the same time I haven't driven the car that hard considering the problems I have had with it. So I'm not sure if spark knock is a legit explaination.

alcimedes

It does sounds like it's detonating early, which is a bad. It shouldn't do that consistantly. What gas grade are you using? Does switching to premium help?

Sounds like it could be a fouled plugs/carbon build up problem. But hey, I'm not a mazda tech.

RedRotaryRx8

I only use premium. I have been using Texaco premium since September but I have recently switched back to Exxon premium.

I am not sure who has the best gas formulations but I have always felt that Exxon premium is very good gas.

yamajj

my wife's old car, it wasn't an rx8 but an automatic '98 626, was doing very similar things. finally, she was able to have the mechanic in the car while it was having the problem. she could throttle as much as she wanted to, but the tranny wasn't working. the mechanic said the automatic trannys in mazdas have been notorious for this. (take this with a grain of salt)

to make a long story short, $1500 was put into the tranny to fix, now she drives a neon. (the 626 is now my beater car)

good luck.

yamajj