In may of 2004 I bought my daughter a RX8. We have had no real problems except forgetting the cold start a few times. I have had all updates/recalls at original dealership. At 58,000 miles cold start flood had hauled in. They kept the car a week which was unusual for them. I picked the car up and heard a slight scrapping sound at one point in transmission rotation. It quit with clutch depressed. I started home and 3 rd gear scrapped like syncro was bad. My daughter drives approx 120 miles a day and learned to shift slow into 3rd and syncronizer would work. At 62000 miles she stopped at a light and when starting off heard a loud whine in trans. Drove 30 miles home and the sound now is a scrapping at one point of rotating assembly. Mazda will not fix the transmission, warranty has expired... I have taken the transmission out and found the teeth chipped off of the counter shaft at the back edge of the reverse idler gear. It looks like the fourth gear retainer ring has slid foward onto the teeth. I don't have the gears off the shafts or out of trans. case. It looks like a design flaw and with all the forums I have read many others are having the same problem. I called the dealer in hopes that Mazda might replace the bad parts. Does anyone have any suggestions? Ideas or leads.

 

If you know how to take the tranny out urself repairs shouldnt cost too much.

Forget about it, buy the right part, and rebuild it.

 

right, apparently you've never priced out the parts ... the labor is the cheap compared to the rest

 

What about getting a tranny from one of the 8s being parted out in the for sale section or what about going to a junk yard to get a tranny off one of those?

 

He is out of warranty anyway. Thats why I said it might be better to do it himself.

 

If you contact Tony @ AWRRACING.com or Tom @ Sevensonly.com, they MIGHT ba able to help you with some of that acient chinese art. Although, the failures that they are referring to do not seem to be yours, although, they could be related.

 

Many Many Thanks for all the advice, Cheapest counter shaft
I found Waynes Mazda in New Jersey $352.00 and 1 syncro $127.00. Dieffenbach Mazda in Rockingham, NC. is where I bought the car. The service manager ( super nice ) said he would try to help on the price but I haven't heard back from him yet. I do want to fix it right.

 

this car has been a lot of fun to drive when it is not in the shop being repaired! we are in the process of having the 3rd transmission installed by MAZDA...warranty expires at 60,000. we are at 58,691.
they also are having problems with "exploding clutches" and then try to say it is from abuse. cold starts, exploding antifreeze bottles, but no radiator light on, we either noticed it when checking oil or because it was pouring from under the car. gunk in the oil so bad that it is hard to check it...replaced rear tail lights due to them retaining water and rain.
too many times the check engine light has come on, once they said it was the gas cap not replaced properly, after 1 year of the owning the car and filling it with fuel too many times, I think I can replace the gas cap, now, this last trip in to have them check the check engine light and grinding when changing gears to have them do what they do to make it go off, and they now say the catalytic converter has gone out, due to "aftermarket intake" and not covered under warranty. hmmm... I have had to file a report with NHTSA in order to get Mazda to do something about the failures of this car. file a report with the NHTSA, maybe they can help you get this resolved as it is a safety issue when the car unexpectedly dies and becomes inoperable.

 

im on my 2nd new tranny....1st one was rebuilt and 2k miles into it i hae a 5 gear grind...the dealer is already giving me a hard time. what is this NHTSA and will this help me get the tranny fixed under warranty? these trannys are garbage...car has less then 20k miles

 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration