RX8 dead?
 

Hey all!

I've searched this problem on the forums but found no answer to my question.

First off, I'm a proud 2004 RX8 owner.. its an auto.. and i've had a few problems with it through the years. But here i am now about to hit my 100k mile mark. A week ago I was driving home from class. Stopped at a gas station and only about 30 seconds away from the gas station it completely crapped on me. it stalled out and was only able to get it to run till i got home. in first gear it would shake REALLY hard, then it would hit second and get a little better, and so on.. when i got it home, i couldn't get it to start at all..

The only light that was on was the coolant light, and it wasn't on but a couple days.. I replaced a couple coil packs trying to see if it would fix the problem.. Obviously it didn't.. So I was wondering if there was anyway i could check if there was water in my gas.. i have an aftermarket intake on it and my local mazda dealership won't cover any work.. i've also looked for a stock air box with no luck..

any ideas?

the only way to check for water is with a test kit, you have to dip the tank or pull from a fuel line. Call your local junk yard for the air box. Certainly someone has crashed an rx8 and theres parts to be selvaged in it. You need a compression check, you also may have flooded it unknowingly some how when it stalled out.

As far as the water goes, a good key point to keep water out of a tank is to fill it when its 1/3 low. Ethanol in fuel attracts water, but a full fuel tank keeps that water to a minimum. The temp change from high to low through the night can form condensation and full tank prevents this.

^ good advice Doc. I rarely let mine get below 1/2 full.

sorry I have to update that. i meant when the tank is 2/3 full or when your down 1/3. You want to keep it reasonably close, unless of course your driving long distance because the fuels not in long enough to matter. Every chance you get run ethanol free fuel. You'll be amazed at the difference. I put ethanol free fuel in my tank and increased my mileage from 20mpg highway to 24.

I find it hard to believe the dealer won't warranty your car because of an intake. How do they even know its a warranty issue. You are going to have to pay something out of pocket for say a compression test. But if the numbers come back low this cost should even be waved. I had a new engine installed about 3 months ago and my car has plenty of aftermarket parts. The deal, as I mentioned above, was I pay for the compression test and if the numbers come back low they waved the costs and I get a new engine. This is exactly what happened. Try another dealer it sounds like your dealing with a bunch of assholes.

Wait,
Your coolant light was on for a couple of days? Did you check your coolant level? Overheating a rotary can lead to some bad news. Top off your coolant ASAP if it is low.

Just changing a couple of coils will get you no where. Change all 4, your wires and plugs. If this doesn't help the situation, make sure to tell the dealer that they are new. If you don't, they'll replace them and charge you out of pocket.

Check for For Sale section, there's probably a stock intake for sale.

Take the car to another dealer and get a compression test. Do this after the intake swap if you can. Be prepared to pay for the test. As stated earlier, if they replace the engine, you should get your money back. If they replace your coils, plugs and wires, you'll pay out of pocket for it regardless.

Good luck man

thanks for all the good advice!

I have an air box ordered and it should be coming in next week. Then I have a friend who owns a shop thats going to look into the bad gas situation. Hopefully its something simple. I will keep the gas tank advice in mind definitely!

hopefully shane can determine if its a minor issue. which i'm hoping.. If not i will try a different dealership.. and say what they say..

thanks again for the advice..

Buy a can of heat. that gets rid of water. Maybe you have a bad cat?

Running the car for two days overheating kills the engine on any car.

Check your coolant LEVEL, his thermostat may be bad also..... I get the coolant light every once and a while and my coolant levels are fine, just havent had the time to take it to the dealership.

As stated, start with coils, plugs, wires. If that doesnt work, drive your car spirited around the block at night and stop the car, immediately look underneath. If you see a glowing piece under the middle, that means your cat is toasted.

Best of luck

yeah.. its in the shop now.. but i didn't have any overheating problems showing up on my gauge.. But i will be sure to let the shop know..

i ordered the air box off of automotix, them seemed to be very helpful when ordering..

the thermostat would be an easy thing to check. But the odds of having one stuck closed are near impossible. Almost all of the new ones are built with a fail safe that locks them open to prevent over heating. That way when they fail they lock open instead of closed. This would lead to over cooling though and you would notice that your engine doesnt warm up well, which would also be an issue in a rotary since your supposed to drive them only when warmed up.

over cooling? Is there such a thing? We are in the middle of the summer here. Unless someone is using liquid nitrogen in their cooling system I don't think someone would have to worry about over cooling. If the engine is running the heat from the engine is going to inturn heat the antifreeze.

Not really the easiest thing to get to and replace though.

Correct. Thermostats have been designed to fail open for quite some time now. Do not ever run your car without it in. The thermostat (even a failed on) slows the flow of coolant to a level that it can soak up the heat. If your coolant moves to fast through the system, it won't pull any heat away from the engine.

Highly unlikely with a rotary engine especially in the summer. Our coolant temps are considered in the hot range for most other cars. You really want to be worried about oil temps not coolant temps as far as warming your car up. It doesn't take much to get the oil up to temp in the summer.


You don't have to wait until the car is warm to drive it. You just want to wait for your idle to normalize (this wait lets oil get sloshed around and injected). You only want to wait until it's warm to mash on the gas and use the upper rev range.


I doubt it's a thermostat. It has nothing to do with a low coolant light. The only reason it will come on is if he's low on coolant, or the sensor is failing.

Renesis07: you are probably having a very common sensor issue. There are a few threads about it. In a nut shell, the sensor gets corroded, or goes bad and your light will pop on and off or just stay on even if you're full of coolant. You can either unplug it or replace the overflow bottle.