Kevin McMahon

I have an 05 manual bought in March of 2010 with 40k on the clock. Had it checked by a Mazda dealer before buying, had a new engine put in at 25k.

A couple weeks ago I started to notice Hot starting issues. It usually was not too bad, but after taking an hour trip down the road to meet my cousins for lunch, it was not budging. Even sat for about an hour and could not get it to crank. A jump was all it needed that time, and off I was.

Since then I have driven it very little. Took it to the dealership two weeks ago to have them diagnose. First time the service guy came in he stated they thought it might be a compression issue. Of course a million things went through my head. Eventually they actually checked the coils and said they were bad, and also claimed I had a CEL for a valve being stuck. Quoted me 1500 bucks for repairs so I took their suggestions and ran.

Replaced the plugs coils and wires Sunday since of the things they said was wrong, it was the most probable cause for the hot starting problem, and the other problem should be fixable with a decarbon. Low and behold, new plugs coils and wires have not fixed the hot starting issue and the CEL has not come on in weeks. I also checked the battery and my charger says im holding at 12.8V when the car is off at 100% charge, it was replaced last winter.

I am going to take it back to the dealership Thursday and demand a compression test because all of their proposed work does not look like it would have helped anyhow.

I have read through many of the other hot starting threads, and would at least share my story to give some insight to others, or hear some ideas that I have missed.

Thanks

Bladecutter

Did you check to see if you have the better starter in your car?
Does it crank quickly, or slowly?

There's a thread with videos of slow cranking starters vs fast cranking starters.
You should search for it, and see which category you fall into.

BC.

Kevin McMahon

Ill check the number when I get home, assuming it is visible by inspection when I get the car jacked up. If it is the newer one I will definitely be taking it in for a compression check, and if it is the old one, I am not sure what I will do because another 100 and something dollars to replace something that still wont help if its bad compression will suck.

I should have inspected it when I had it jacked up the other day changing the plugs

Kevin McMahon

So i could not get a good angle to get the bolts off at home, and because I read somewhere else here that you should be able to see the label on the newer starters, I bought a reman from advance auto. I took the car on base to the auto hobby shop threw it up on the lift, and less than an hour later, the new starter was in.

Sure enough it was the N3H1 starter from the 04-05 cars. I am less than pleased with my local dealer considering it would have taken him 3 minutes to check the starter when I brought it in with starting issues. If I had let them do the work they wanted to I would have been 1500 bucks in the hole, still having a starting problem. I will definitely give them the survey they want, and it may not be very nice.

I want to thank the forums for all the help and insight, because I am a little under 500 dollars in including the first visit to the dealer. It gives me faith in the RX8 to be able to work out the problems myself, with the help of all the information.

SPHINX144

im going to drop off my car at the shop this upcoming week to ix this problem. My mechanic is going to take off the current starter and have it rebuilt as an upgraded one--there is a shop that specializes on making starter for racing applications. my question is, what's the highest output rating I can go in the starter that won't damage the car?

Bladecutter

So, does this mean the new starter resolved your cold and hot starting issues?
Just want clarification for others come see this thread in the future.

BC.

Kevin McMahon

I first changed out the plugs coils and wires because it was time on the maintenance schedule and 2 of the coils were clearly sparking through. That obviously did not fix the problem, but changing out the old model starter fixed both the hot and cold starting issues.

Kevin McMahon

Or so I thought. I did continue to have hot starting issues. I brough it back to the dealer and asked specifically for a compression test. He still asked for symptoms but was like okay. They said a day because they were behind but 2 hours later got the call from the tech saying he already charged mazda for a new one and it was on its way.

All that being said, it is not a total wash going through replacing the plugs coils wires and starter because they all needed to be replaced, and the dealer got just a core and used a lot of the consumables off of the old engine. So I am really not out any money from self replacing those items.

Old Rotor

Are you going to get a new clutch and motor mounts? If you are going to keep the car it would be a good investment.

Kevin McMahon

I am up in the air about keeping it atm, as my future plans starting in December are anything but concrete. I am leaning towards selling and starting a drift build on a car that I wont care about being run into things, but it depends where I end up living. Plus we have talked about moving to Australia like a bunch of crazies so selling would give me a little more cash on hand to try and make that happen.

All that being said, thank you for the suggestions.