KCCO.Rx8

Hopefully that's the sound, the cat will be replaced with a mid-pipe Monday once I find one that has 3 day shipping. Just having trouble figuring out which one I want/would work best. So the car wont be started up again until then. Will also be cleaning the MAF and checking for the vacuum leak as tza mentioned.

Coldwound

iTrader: (1)

Is it the factory cat. or an aftermarket? Because to my understanding only 1 aftermarket cat. really works and its about $1,300, all the others overheat, blow and clog.

Cliffjumper126

The way the car sounded when starting up definitely sounded like when people with low compression are trying to start their engines. May be the combination of poor ignition/bad cat and flooding though. Check the cat out and clear it if it's clogged. Then I would clean the MAF, check the air filter condition, Clean the Crank Sensor, and put your new coils on. Make sure your wires are in the correct order/places when replacing the coils. Then cross your fingers and hope for the best. Keep us updated

tza0001

iTrader: (2)

So which one are you talking about?

All cats with will eventually fail in our car. The failure could be due many factors but most importantly due to poor ignition system. There are people on this forum with aftermarket hiflow cats at the $150 range that do well (e.g. Davesport, and also a member has been very happy with a Magnaflow). You can buy the OEM cat for about $1200 from mazdaonlineparts.com.

There is lots of good information on this forum around mid pipes, cats, highflow cats, ceramic v. metal cats, etc....Please do some reading.

KCCO.Rx8

After doing some reading/many youtube clips I decided to go with the BHR Midpipe. After I get it all set up upon arrival I suppose I'll have to find a good catback to go with it. I assume my stock exhaust is filled with pieces of my destroyed catalyst. And if she still wont run with these changes I've scheduled time to get my engine replaced for next Friday.

Coldwound

iTrader: (1)

I've done plenty of reading, maybe you should try going over a few things like how most catalytic converters aren't designed for such high heat exhaust that the renesis motor produces, and the fact that (which is a leading cause of cat. failure) un-burnt fuel makes it's way into the exhaust system, melting the cat. when finally burned, when the engines cold.

So please save me your patronizing comments.

tza0001

iTrader: (2)

^I just asked you which one you are referring to. And you still have not provided an answer. At least I am trying to help the OP with specific information and I am not repeating things that have already been mentioned in this thread. Anything you said in your last post has already been mentioned in mine...Maybe you cannot connect the dots but that is not my problem.

KCCO.Rx8

UPDATE: My BHR pipe I ordered wasn't in stock.. so that still wont be here for another week?

So I decided to just change my wires/coils. Did so and started my car up - started almost instantly? Yay. Idled at around 1900 I think? Gave it some gas to 3k for maybe 2-3mins. Idle dropped to 400 and gas wouldn't increase idle. Got it back to 4k a second later or so - was brief. Decided to take it out for a run around the block and back just to see (if it failed I could push it back). Avoided going down a hill and did a U turn in a driveway - stalled. Started back up just fine.. Idled at 900 again. Went around my block(loop) which is around 2miles 4-5x. The power was there, everything felt fine-ish. Got her up to 100 a few times and whipped around the corners - was happy. Put here back in the driveway and turned it off. Some fan came on? I've never had it turn on after I turned my car off before.

NO WARNING LIGHTS
DSC // stayed on
IDLED @900
Stalled once

Thoughts anyone?

Please ask for more driving info if needed. I tried to pay attention to how she reacted.

tza0001

iTrader: (2)

Fan coming on after you turn off is normal and could happen to any car. When engine is reaching the temp that fans need to open they will open. Here is one thing I do not understand and I have pointed it out before. Why do you rev the car to 3k for 3 minutes? In an earlier post you stated that you were revving the car at 7-8k rpms for several minutes while warming up. No need to do any of this...Just turn the car on, wait for a couple of minutes and then drive. Until it gets warmed up shift at about 4k rpms.

Coldwound

iTrader: (1)

Would give a good tip off that he melted his cat.

KCCO.Rx8

I don't always rev it to that. The time I revv'd to 7k I didn't leave it there, I was unflooding the engine so I was trying to assist it by increasing the rpms. The wheel was off so I couldn't exactly drive it at that point.

Yesterday; when I let it sit at 3k, I had just got it running again stable. So I wanted to make sure it could handle me giving it some gas before I drove off to test it - I was trying to avoid the possibility of having to push it back to my house.

Today; I drove it around with no issue(faulty idling, no stalls, quick starts). As far as I could tell my car is acting normal (idles at around 850-900) now, it didn't use to so I didn't think this was normal in my previous post. Did notice some noise coming from the exhaust - my cat is definitely fried, BHR is apparently shipping my pipe (late this week) so until then I'll run it as/is.

I still don't believe all my issues were from faulty plugs/coils/wires.. Still making me nervous to drive my car.

Coldwound

iTrader: (1)

Don't drive it until that cat. is replaced due to risking the integrity of the apex seals.

Cliffjumper126

Don't drive it with a bad cat, you could ruin the engine. If you gotta drive it before your midpipe comes in, hollow the cat out.

tza0001

iTrader: (2)

^I am afraid that the OP is driving and pushing the car for a long time with a destroyed/clogged cat. I do hope that the engine is not damaged.

Cliffjumper126

It would definitely seem that way. Definitely don't want to cause even more damagew though

KCCO.Rx8

Yes, I do not wish to cause anymore damage. Since the start of thread the car has only been ran twice. The day I replaced my coils/wires was the first day I ran it - I had a normal exhaust flow coming out the back so I assumed it wasn't 'clogged' and good to go for the time being - just that it wasn't converting the compounds. I didn't drive it today - my pipe will be here maybe Monday..

KCCO.Rx8

Update.. For anyone following this. Got my BHR midpipe yesterday.. FINALLY after over a month and many emails with false promises... Wont be ordering from them ever again especially since the final product wasn't the one pictured either...

Anyways, spent around 5 hours trying to remove my old cat with no luck. The nuts just wont release and they're now almost perfectly circular.. Since it's Sunday and the local shop isn't open and just got off work, going to go bananas with a sawsall and see what happens. So no tests on how she drives until tonight if I'm lucky or tomorrow

rickeo

iTrader: (1)

BHR is probably one of the greatest companies to deal with in the RX8 community. Care to go into detail about your trouble with them?

KCCO.Rx8

Advertised shipping 2-3 days from order, didn't receive an email stating they didn't have the part till 5 days after order date.

Mentioned they wouldn't get the 304 steel (or something) for few days - took 10ish.

Then mentioned they wont have resonators for a few more..

Told me a couple more days, took quite a few more days.

I understand delays happen when dealing with smaller companies but more accurate timeframes would have been nice - even if he would have told me 1 month from the very start. Instead of telling me it may be a week or so and would include a 'token of his appreciation' to entice me to continue the purchase which was apparently some stupid toy monkey. Although he did offer me to cancel my order a couple times but I was already settled in.

I ordered from them because they had by far the best reviews for their midpipe. The part has fantastic craftsmanship, I'll give them that - I'm quite happy. I was expecting something polished as pictured however - although I suppose it doesn't matter since my car sits low enough you can't see underneath it unless you have a mirror and a flashlight.

EDIT: He sent it with 1-2 day shipping I believe, I do appreciate the $60 he spent on shipping.. But more accurate reporting and coordination among his team and contractors would have fixed that.

KCCO.Rx8

FINAL RESPONSE;

Got my cat off and installed my pipe for the final fix. My cat was pretty mangled so I'm glad I didn't run on it for the last month while waiting for my order. The weather in Washington has been quite nice today - for the last 3-4 hours I've been driving on the backroads testing out how these repairs worked out. The car appears to be in full functioning order so will no longer need this thread. I'd like to thank everyone who gave helpful responses - I truly appreciate it.

As for my final opinions on the BHR pipe.. Aside from the long wait times.. I'm extremely impressed with the product. It sounds absolutely incredible from both inside the car and out. The tone on the pipe is such a low mellow beautiful tone when idling and low rpm driving.. and once you get her up past 6k or so she really picks up on the sound - fantastic! In the end I'm glad I stuck out the wait. They definitely know how to make an excellent product. I don't have any of the exhaust leaks as some people have mentioned on other threads regarding the pipe either although I didn't swap in the new OEM springs for the rear connection as the ones installed were larger and of much better quality to get a more secure grip.

Thank you,
KCCO