Power Problem (UK)
 

Hi Guys n Gals, sorry in advance for the length of this email but im at the end of my nut here.

I have an RX8 231 from new, about two years into its life (so still under warrenty) it started having power issues. Very randomly it would not give full performance, difficult to describe in text, but it simply felt like someone had tweaked it to 90% instead of 100%. Then one day I was driving up a hill and it would not pull up the hill at all, stuck at top speed of 40-50mph no matter what gear.

This happened on and off for a while, until one day I got what reading on here is the dreaded 'marbles in a can' noise at around 6-7k revs. Whilst this noise is going on the car will hardly accelerate at all. This seems to happen more commonly when the car is 'hot' so motorway driving, and in sunny coniditons. However that said it has happening in rain, but definatly more common in heat.

Over the last 18-20 months the garage have had this car back more times than I can remember. Replaced just about every part (other than engine) you can talk about, but yet again a few days ago it all happened again.

This is an intermitten fault, and I cannot replicate it, the garage say now that they see no fault, and as it is out of warrenty they are getting a little shifty at helping. Mazda UK just pass the fault back to the garage, and im going round in circles.

I want to sell the car, but cannot ethically do that knowing it has a serious fault, so am stuck. The garage will part - ex the car but I will lose about £2k which is not fair on me - legal action will cost more again.

Anyone know what this fault is? or a way I can replicate it in front of the engineers so that they can see it first hand?

Really annoying thing is one engineer has witnessed it, but has now left the garage and when contacted says he doesnt remember, very odd thing to forget.

Whats the general view out there? Oh ive tried different oils and petrol, no difference as far as I can tell, although it is tricky as the mables in a can noise only happens every now and then, although im sure the engine is down on power almost all the time these days, but ive driven it so much im 'used' to it.

One other thing! (sorry to go on) One day about 2 months ago, it randomly stalled at the lights, and would not idle unless a bit of throttle was given. This has since gone away but lasted the whole day, even between engine cooling.

help me!

Dave