Noob and low compression thread
 

First post. Hello everyone.

I have an 04 RX8 AT with 71000mi (it's the wifes toy). About 3 weeks ago, it would occasionally stall out at a stop light. The problem started getting worse, so we took it to a 'mom & pop' shop (no flames yet, didn't know better). They told us it needed a decarb, plugs, and wires. Let them do the decarb, did the plugs and wires myself. No dice. In fact the problem got worse. At this point I have to power brake it wherever it goes and keep the RPMs around 1.5 to keep from stalling as it's now getting harder to start back up when warm.

My wife got fed up and took it to Pep Boys. They said they didn't know what was wrong but that Mazda had a TSB on it and the tech kept putting tranny fluid in it to keep it going (?!?). Took it straight from there and power braked it to the dealership (with white smoke from the tranny fluid pouring out the back).

Dealer called today and said there was a coil that looked bad and that the compression was low:

237 RPM
R1: 650 627 644
R2: 631 629 645

Normalized @ 250 RPM
R1: 677 654 671
R2: 658 656 672

Basically telling me it was going to need a new engine. Other than calling Mazda corp and begging for a mercy replacement (almost 3 months out of ext warr), I'm looking to see if anyone here has any additional opinions. Have not changed coils, and the cat has not been looked at (to my knowledge). If the compression is low, is that it? Is a clogged cat getting fixed or bad coils getting replaced going to change that? I have gone through about 30 low compression threads, so I have searched. Just wanted to see opinions unique to my situation.

I'm no mechanic nor even a novice, but I can read basic English and count to 10 on a good day. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Low compression is low compression.
Changing plugs/coils, replacing CAT or even doing the decarb will help for a bit. But, it won't increase compression.

You're probably on your own for this, considering you are outside of warranty :(

^+1 low compression is low compression.

Time to start begging, or shopping for a rebuild/reman.

As a follow up, my wife and I have been car shopping to replace the 8. We're also toying with the idea of replacing the engine. The dealership would replace it and have a 1 year 12k warranty on it. They priced the engine at around 4400 and after labor would total around 5700. Told me it would be replaced with an '07 (brand new) Renesis or later.

Can anyone tell me why this would or wouldn't be a good idea? Also, if anyone has had this done, can you tell me your experiences? Lastly, does this affect the title branding on the car? We've been looking for about a week, but it seems anything we've looked at is a downgrade from the 8.

Thanks for reading...

Why replace with a new engine when you can rebuild your current one, that way you can re use parts ect, housings, rotors most likely will be re usable, find a rotary specialist in your area and get a price for a re build from them.

I would consider that, but it is a dd for the wife. The dealership told us they could have it back to us in two days versus the possible multi-week to month long downtime for a rebuild.