You've lost a coolant seal. Time is limited before it fails to start at all. But you put on some impressive mileage.
We have a local that got 134,000.

 

Yeah, it's a bit disheartening. I had no problem getting 150,000 miles and I would think another 25,000 miles wouldn't be a problem since it's only daily driven. I'm short in cash for a re-manufactured engine or a rebuild, so I'm kind of eying on this member's engine that comes with the transmission in the FOR SALE thread: <22K~ Miles RX-8 13B Renesis Engine

 

your motor is on borrowed time.

 

Thanks! I may reach 175,000 miles after all, before the engine actually quits.
TIC-TOC TIC-TOC

 

I have not yet replaced a coolant hose, but I have had the hose clamps on a couple replaced/tightened as they were leaking... seems to have done the trick so far, that was about 10-15k ago.

I also had the drain plug on my radiator replaced. It had completely rotted out and was leaking...

The coolant hoses were/are close enough to the engine that I could smell the coolant as it evaporated off of things and got sucked in through the clean air intake. The coolant plug on the other hand... did not really reveal itself until I parked on a slight hill sideways and a river of coolant ran down the hill... the problem with spotting the radiator plug leak was it started slow... and would form a puddle on the engine shield that runs under the engine compartment... so I never saw a puddle on my garage floor, and I'm sure each time I drove the car it slowly would get dumped as I drove.

Once I saw the leak parked on the hill sideways I took the car in and they found the rotted drain plug. Unfortunately the dealer did not have one in stock and had to order one... so I drove the car for another day with a bottle of coolant and an eye on every guage. By the time I got the new bolt, a day later, I was putting like 1/2 gallon in my car every 25 miles!

Have your dealer check for leaks.

Oh, and if it is a rotten radiator plug... then have them inspect your front oil cooler lines as well, really sucks when they go. Mine have rotted out twice from rust. Man, the things New England roads and salt will do to a car in the winter! (Oh, and Mazda has a new revised set of oil lines to fix the rusting issue... however, and I wish I had known this earlier, Racing Beat makes a nice set of Stainless Steel Braided Hoses that are about 50-60% cheaper than the stock lines which run $1100+.

Of course, if you are sure the smell is coming from the exhaust... then the issue is probably inside the engine... and that is not going to be good

 

Temporary fix: Barr's Leak. It's almost two months since I used it before I posted about the symptoms last month. I didn't mention it since I wanted to see how the results are. Half of the bottle and it's holding everything up; no more smoke and the sweet smell, CEL and misfires disappeared, car starts up immediately, and I'd have to flush the system since there's still residual gunk from the solution I poured. P2259 comes up once and a while which I doubt were related.

 

I wonder how long that's gonna last?

BTW, 235,068 miles and going strong here ... just did a routine oil change

 

I hope until I have funds for a rebuild or one with a low mileage(linked from previous post) engine. Although, I would not mind see it reach 200,000 miles

 

I wonder what Elf's car woudl dyno at. That would be interesting to see.

 

In February 2011, it made 165 HP at the wheels with about 205K miles on the odo.

 

Ah ok, so there is some significant power loss.

 

Im on my 4th set of tires, I don't compare to the original engine but I have 158,000 miles on my odometer. Is the club for original engines ore anyone with 200,000 miles lol. got a fresh engine in now with 400 miles on it.

 

I think there is room in the club for any 8 with 200k+ on it (no matter how you got there??? Horse and buggy???)... however I think the gold stars are awarded to the origional engines lol

I'm around 194k now... I've given up any hope of catching elf! But my new winter sneakers just went on... so I'll be putting miles on all year round, as has always been the case for my poor 8. New England is not friendly to a car... but with the right studded sneakers, these 8's do freaken awesome in the snow!

 

This is one of, if not the best, threads on RX8club.com

Thanks, Elf.

Since I can't find a car that feels more tailor made for my body/mind after two years of looking for a replacement vehicle, I plan on driving my 2005 6MT for as long as possible.

I'm hoping to drive my 8 for another 5 to 7 years.

Snow is no problem at all in the midwest with Hankook iPikes (NOT Hankook Icebears, which are terrible snow tires; the iPikes are epic).

I have only had the battery replaced in year 3 of ownership, and done 3k mile oil/filter changes, a flush and refill of the coolant system with Prestone, and other normal maintenance 'stuff'.

My car drives like it did when it was driven off the lot new, tight as a drum, with ZERO rattles.

This is the most underrated car ever, IMO.

 

No way catching elf now even if we do cross country

 

What oil do you use?

 

Just cleared 240110 miles on the original engine a couple of days ago ... routine oil/filter change and tire rotation ... all is well in high-mileage land

 

grats man thats awesome

 

Those are Toyota truck numbers man good stuff!!!!! It'd be nice if we could all get up there with ya!

 

What milages do you have now? ELF

 

That's super awesome

haha, so true!

i've seen some of those trucks with over 400,000 miles on the original engine

Let's see how long mine will last

 

I have 60xxxKM :P But I whant to have 160000km without new engine ... everyone say this is imposible in my coutry

 

Elf, I looked for this but couldn't find anything, so if you could link (if it exists) your interval changes for coils and spark plugs-wires I'd be thankful (also, OEM or not?).

Also, how often did you do coolant changes and did you do a true flush?

Thanks.

 

Can't help but smile. Only on this forum would this be "news".

 

The first post in this thread lists both of these details: