Why won't my car break?
 

Break as in parts fail, not brake, as in I can't spell, or I mean that the car won't slow down properly.

Just thought I would slip in my little thread in amongst all these other threads of Series II oddities, and report on the fact that my gf and I went for our first longish highway trip since buying my '11 Sport last March.

150 miles of pretty much straight highway at high speeds (anywhere between 65 and I'm not telling) to go for Mexican Food at one of our favorite restaurants in Colorado City today, and then another 150 miles back home.

This lead to my first ever time breaking the 20 mpg mark on my car since buying it. In fact, I slid right past it, and on both legs, averaged 21.6 mpg.
That's all highway cruising, with the a/c in full swing, as it was a really warm day, with temps between 87 and 92 the whole trip down.

I guess I must blame myself for the car not breaking.
Just yesterday, I was caught under the car, installing a new oil filter, and even pulling out the spark plugs from the rear rotor housing, and scraping off the carbon from around the trailing plug's center electrode tip. It's possible that bit of carbon build up was insulating the spark a bit. Not too bad with a smidge over 15k miles on the car.

I haven't even gotten the rotors to make the brakes pulsate with excessive buildup of brake pad material. By 9k miles, my '07 Altima needed the front rotors cut. This car is still going strong 5k+ miles past that point.

I must be doing something wrong, because reading the forum, it seems that if I were to sneeze too hard while driving the car during a full moon, it should set off the CEL.

And no, this isn't a thread making fun of the people who have had issues with their cars, but it might be poking fun at the ones who have an issue, and go overboard, saying the sky is falling, and it's the worst car on the planet.

Well, I do have to say I'm thankful that it has been kind enough to steer clear of the dealer's service department. If it had behaved like my gf's '08 Crossfire Roadster had before we got rid of it in September, I might have set it on fire. That car just wasn't happy unless it got to spend a couple weeks in the shop every year, it seemed.

So, has anyone else's Series II been making them feel like the Maytag Repair Man in the old commercials?

BC.

i had my transmission pulled at ~28k with my S2 touring 09, but uhh something happened and then i got a upgrade to the 40th anniversary S1.

my mazda dealership said i had 8% left on my brakes, they wanted 800 to replace it so i laughed and told them id be getting better rotors and better pads for half the price including labor. (my S1) it has 34k on the original pads and rotors i believe.

but dont worry, it will break soon enough. In 3-5 years you will start hearing about it once people start rackin up some serious milage on their S2's. Most problems occur at around ~100k and onward.

From what I've noticed is that people that have problems have lots of problems, and are vocal about those problems. People that have stable cars aren't as forthcoming.

Remember many "fixes" were implemented in S2 cars. I know that all my problems have been self inflicted, but all-in-all I am pleased about how well she is handling my abuse.

Give it time, the S2 will show their flaws, eventually.

my s2 problems
 

My 09 s2 R3 24,000 miles. Ive had the right front wheel bearing replaced, and the transmission rebuilt twice. Both rebuilds happening within a 3 week time span. Other than that the car has been great.

sometimes its just luck of the draw, youve all heard about the female rx8 owner who changed the oil for the first time at 100k miles. or the rx8 with 300k miles on the orignal engine.

Some are very very lucky, some have more problems than a ferrari lol.

You know I’m in the same boat BC. But I like you maintain beyond what’s probably necessary. I’m at 21,000 miles now and just changed my plugs. My electrodes were clear of any carbon and looked normal with the usual tan build up. I’m probably going to have them cleaned or clean them myself and swap them back in at the next interval. I’ve been changing my air filters at 10,000 mile intervals, transmission and differential fluids first at 5,000 miles and then again back in April when you and I got together at 17,000 miles. I’ve been wasting oil changing at less than 3,000 miles it seems and doing double flushes too. So, its not like I’m giving it reason to have issues. Also, once mine is warm I drive it like I stole it for the most part redlining at least 6 times a day with my average commuting RPB being around 4,000 at about 80mph minimum for 30 min ea way and regular track days too. But, I’m budgeting for a 10,000$ rebuild at 100,000 miles just to be safe. Like I told you back in April I’m dying in this car one way or another.

As far as fuel mileage Im averaging about 18-19 day to day but I did get 23/gal to and from the track last month and got about 8mpg on the track as usual.

One of the only ways you can drive a rotary and not be scared of it blowing up in your face is to have a engine rebuild slush fund. I have 5k saved up and it kills me that i could dump it SO easily on parts that would make it sexy.

rx8s are hardy cars. Id like to see what happens when they turn 20 years old like the FD's.

Im hittin 70 000km on my 09 r3, tranny is getting noisy in 4th gear but no notch or grind. Ill way till im near the end of fhe powertrain warranty to complain. Change diff and tranny fluid at about 50k km. Did the plugs once and some air.filters and still lofs of brakes left. I seriously have nothing to complain except gas milleage lol wich i was well aware. Planing on replacing the belt and coolant before next winter and hopefuly every thing holds up. Here in quebec we got the worse driving condition imaginable (roads and weather) but everything is tight and alignement still strait

^ooh a white R3.... you know.......

with about 5-8k you can essentially make a spirit r rx8.. Bake open tails and headlights and paint chrome black, powdercoat wheels bronze, reupholster recaros to blood red color, big brake kit.

nobody would ever notice.

anyway, wow.. this post had nothing to do with this thread. go me.

like i said above, my s2 tranny was out of the car at 29k miles by the owner before me. I only knew because it was leaking tranny oil and had to get it serviced to find out what happened.

The simple answer is: most RX-8s work just fine, yours included, but people who come on forums like this are usually people looking for solutions to problems they have, or people who are looking for problems to worry about, or people who want to make modifications and end up causing problems in the process. You're not going to find happy, content, well-adjusted product owners on a support forum.

There's a reason I've averaged about 100 posts a year since I joined this forum, and the reason is, I haven't really needed diagnostic help or sympathy for my car problems, and my previous car burned me out on modding, so I haven't had much to say here. Most people in my position probably wouldn't even have an account here, but I like to hedge my bets.

I had 5th gear replaced in my tranny. It's starting to catch in 3rd when I shift quickly now. Not every time, but once in a while. So, will most likely ask for a total rebuild the next time I take it in.

My R3 just passed 30K miles a little while ago. I commute nearly 80 miles both ways with her 5 days a week, and I don't baby her. I'm crossing my fingers here, but everything's OE (powertrain-wise) on her and she's running like a top with daily doses of redline. Hopefully though, by the end of the summer, I should be telecommuting full-time.

I do have a full maintenance and extended bumper-to-bumper warranties on her.

So far, yes... but who knows what tomorrow will bring.
At almost 55,000 miles the car runs and looks pretty much the same as the day I bought it new. It has been as close to flawless as any car can be at this point. It has been so reliable, consistent, and trouble-free, that I find myself taking all this for granted. Other than tires and regular maintenance consumables, everything is original including the battery (which in most cars I would normally replace by now). Even the brake pads look to be at about 50%. The tires would still be original, except I had a non-repairable puncture on one, so I replaced the whole set ( i reeeely wanted a set of Continental DWS).

I think it depends on the owner.
It sounds like whoever owned your car before, either tracked it or beat the hell out of it. If your track your car, obviously your brakes are not going to last as long. My first 8 (04), I purchased with a "bad engine" for $9,000, ended up putting $6,500 in it (drove around 30k miles on it, sold with 86,500) and it still wasn't perfect so I decided to just sell it.

I bought an '07 with 41k miles, currently have around 44k on it, haven't had a single issue with the car besides the credit card key fob not working. My other 8 never went this long without experiencing some sort of problem. :dunno:

Now that's fantastic to hear.

I hate to ask, but have you considered taking it in to have a compression test done on your car? So many Series 1 cars on this forum have reported having to have their engines replaced due to low compression by that mile marker, that to me, it would be interesting to see how one of our cars stacks up after the same mileage.

Thanks for posting your mileage and experiences.

Hopefully you'll go another 55k miles still without any issues.

BC.

I don't see any reason for a compression test at this point. The running quality is like new. Performance feels the same as new. Oil consumption has not changed. Fuel consumption has not changed. Starting behavior, hot / cold, has not changed.

I do all my own maintenance and repair, and I really don't want anyone else touching it unless absolutely necessary. That said, as I approach the end of the engine core warranty in a couple of years, I will probably have a compression test done as a precaution in case I need to invoke the warranty provisions.

alot of it has to do with the owner and that these engines are all hand built.

...with white gloves, no less. I don't think I've *ever* seen photos of a piston-engine assembly line where people were wearing white gloves and installing parts with tweezers. You'd think they were building microchips.

Yes, love the hand built engine.

I love threads like this, being a 13 year owner of an FC, I always felt these cars were hardy as long as you gave them proper attention and care.

Reading around on this forum has scared the living crap out of me.

I have 1 month left on my bumper to bumper, I went to Mazda yesterday and got a quote for an extended bumper to bumper, I was quoted $2500 for a 6 year 60K mile extended warranty. I am going back and buying it.

Haven't had no issues out of my 04 S1, and im at 93K

BTW - I am going to take my RX8 on a 730 mile trip each way to the Dragon and back to chase some Porsche friends around. I do this trip 1 to 2 times a year in my 1987 RX7 so I would hope the RX8 is up to the task.

GREAT RX- DUO THERE MATE.....

LOVE YOUR CARS...YOUR car STABLE....your Sig pic..

PERFECTiO!!

Gratzi gratzi....

My thoughts exactly.