are you being serious or playing with me?

 

If a rough idle is the only thing you noticed you should be ok. Call your local dealer and make an apointment. Read the letters so you know what you should be getting first. The Rotary engine is ment too rev, so bring it to the buzzer once a day. You might enjoy the car even more!

 

Well they ran the compression test and it turned out fine. They didnt give me exact figures but what they did give to me was a range for each rotor. The acceptable range is between 7.0 and 8.5 and all of my rotors came in right under 8.0.

 

Well kinda. See this car was made to be reved up or you get carb build up and thats bad. I cant remember the other car maker but they had probs with carbs and had to get the max rpms moved down.

 

See, this really bugs me. I am hoping to get an Rx-8 used next year, either an 04 with a new engine or an 05, but it seems they have not fixed the problem if some of the rebuilds are failing. And this is not the only one, I have read others. I'm not complaining, I simply cannot afford to pay 16-18K for a car and then be blessed a year or two later by a busted engine. On most other cases with bum engines, it was discovered and disclosed what the problem was, but I do not remember reading anywhere what the problem was. As I understand it now, they are replacing some engines now that show certain characteristics. But since they cannot narrow it down to serial number ranges, that means ALL engines are affected. It is likely they might fail well past the warranty period and the owner will be out of luck. I don't think Mazda is going to replace an engine for free on an 80 thousand mile car. And it's not fair for me to replace it then either. It's a shame, there's really NO other sports car I want, but I am still waiting to hear definitive explanation of what the problem is and how I can avoid a car with this issue. Extending the warranty by 10K miles is no favor. Who's gonna help me at 80K? And I think very few of us here on this forum are OK with paying for a new engine at 80K (I know some are).

 

GT looked at the car yesterday and found that the cat is completely burned out and that the rear oxygen sensor (factory) was half gone as well... I guess that counts as a burned cat. There was my issue.

They will be sending me pictures shortly and i'll post them up. Thankx again Swoope for the suggestion about the cat being clogged (in another thread).

 

Pics.. Not pretty..

 

Good freaking lord!

 

Thats what RP said when I showed them the pictures. The first thing out of his mouth was that he had to get his hands on this cat to see the damage.

It appears to be about 90% blocked.

 

16-18k? I payed 32K for my 8 and guess what? After they replaced my 1st engine they still need to do the compression check to see if all is well.
In the end I love my car. But dam I fell like I live at the dealer
I just want it all to be over so I can spend more time in my car

 

Well after about 3k miles my car is starting to run a little rough and will bogg down when in 2nd gear and reving to 6-7k???!!!! It also smells like oil when I rev it high. Anyone have any ideas besides going back to the dealer, spending a day without the car for them to tell me nothing is wrong?

 

I took my 8 in yesterday for rough Idle. The service manager came back to me 5 min later stating they heard a hissing sound from the engine. Which I never noticed but if I did I never knew it wasn't normal.

Today: Call back from the service manager after doing all road tests and tests on the CAT. All tests failed.... My car exhibited power loss which I never noticed because I very rarely drive wide open throttle which is required to feel it. My cat also failed tests for emissions and the such. They followed the flow chart mazda sent them to follow for the "if this problem exists go hear" thing and it led them to call mazda.

Which will probably result in a new engine after mazda sees the results my car posted being below spec. I won't get the official word until tomorrow.

I have owned my 8 for almost 2 years now and have 42,000 miles on it. I have always put 89 octane in the 8, changed the oil every 3,000 miles at the dealer and as far as I know it isn't synthetic... they use valvoline, I live in New England a non hot zone, I shift my 8 over 5,000 rpm all the time. Usually around 6-7,000 rpm. I have always let it warm up before driving as it states in the manual.

I have taken every precaution in the manual and maintence protocol in the manual with my 8. After taking all the care advice in the manual and following it my engine apparently **** the bed.

My only concern is... is replacing the engine the FIX for the problem. Or will the "new" engine have the corrections that caused the problem.

That is what I want to know. What causes this problem? Is there a solution for it?

 

So check this out. From day 1 this has been a issue. Only till recenly has this issue(s) been seriously look at by Mazda due to the current issues from "loss of power".
Notice the time date and year.


I still love my 8. Infact I get all squirrley lastnight and was burrrrrning rubber it was great

 

They are such ********!

 

Hummm just a red x now...

 

It's official... I'm joining the new engine club!

I've been trying to figure out why my 8 seemed to really lose power on hot humid days. Well, after letting my it sit over the weekend, it wouldn't start Monday morning. The starter would go, but it never engaged to turn over the engine. I had it towed to the dealer (on Mazda) and was told that it needs a new engine. I don't know how it goes from not starting to needing a new engine, but hell... I'm hoping it's trouble free and I'm basically erasing the 34k miles I had on it.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying the rental. I got a Nissan pickup. It's nothing fancy, but is fun to drive in a much different way than the 8. I had to knock 20-30mph off my cornering speed for fear of rolling it! The dealer is estimating 2 weeks before I get it back.

Does anyone know how many rx-8's have had the engine replaced or what percentage of the total number manufactured is? I'd imagine Mazda isn't sharing this info. Can we do a survey of everyone on this forum to see what percentage of member had this done maybe? How about what percentage of engine replacements had to be done again?

 

I don't know how vaild a survey of RX8Club responders would be to an "engine replaced?" thread, but I can assure you there isn't anything I've ever been able to dredge up on the subject and I have looked.

I can also tell you that the first time I joined the new engine club, the scenario went down pretty much as yours did. I had been reporting "loss of power" on several service orders from about 48K to 56K on the orginal motor. Each time the service diagnosis was "No problem found". Then one day I couldn't start my car. By some strange twist of fate, that was the break-fix circumstance that forced the dealership to do a compression test and find out - amazingly - that my motor had gone to shat. Among other things I learned from this sorry tale, one is that you need to pay a few hundred bucks each year to have a compression test done on these beasts so you have hard evidence on the condition of your powerplant.

 

I've looked (to a point without reading all thousands of posts) but still haven't found an answer to the question of... "is the problem really fixed in the 2006/2007's?"... or in the replacement engines, for that matter.

This whole thing has me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. I love the car... but the car has problems... but I love the car... but the car has problems... etc, etc, etc.

My lease is up in a little over a year. I'd love to know if the new engine (and all the other new parts I've had installed under warranty) will last the test of time, or if I should just plan to dump it at the end of the lease. I'm getting to the point that I've had so much replaced on it that it hardly has any of the original 2004 parts... at least few of the known recall parts. I guess I have over a year to make up my mind... but a little piece of mind in making a preliminary decision now would be nice.

 

It seems the smog rules have caused most of the US owned RX8 to fail, the rest of the world are haveing less engine failures. I wonder what the % are by continent....Moderators?

 

I'm in the process of getting a new motor. I'll have my car back on 3/8 hopefully. I really wasn't having any issues and then it just went kaput. I'm at 74k. Mazda is picking up the motor but I have to cover the labor. I wish someone knew what the problem was so I could try to fix it or something because I don't want to be replacing my motor again for a while.

 

I just got a call from the dealer saying the new engine is in it! It's only been a week and a half. I'm excited to be getting it back and have my fingers crossed hoping that this isn't going to lead to more problems.

 

csuttman, dump it when the lease is up. Not because of the car, but because buying the car at the end of a lease is never good. It would be cheaper to dump it and buy a used one.

Mike

 

I got my car back with the new motor and the loss of power on hot/humid days that has been driving me nuts seems to be much better. It was only 74 degrees out, but in the past 74 was enough to make it slow. I'll have to see how it goes long term.

I only had it for an hour or so before I decided to bring it back to them to address other issues... mainly the passenger side window that is choppy when rolling up. This is the 4th time in for this and still isn't fixed.

 

Add another one, '04 with 30,100 miles. My wife's car, auto tranny. Trouble with foamy oil + water. Said they added EGR valve, then back to shop in three days, only to be told the needs to be replaced. Told it will be ready in 4 to 5 days. They must be experienced with this by now.

 

Mine died while driving. Dealer tested no compression. 2004 Manual, 31,500 miles - warranty is up Aug 08. I never broached the question of being covered by warranty - am just ***uming since I'm still well within and am certainly not the first this has happened to (not to mention all the dealer trips leading up to this). I did ask if I could turn lemons into lemonade and have them put in a MS flywheel. Don't have an answer on that. Engine should be here by next Wed.

I hate the thought of 2000 miles of taking it easy.