I just purchased a 2005 Shinka and it is my first Mazda. It has 39,000 and was just serviced. I checked the Carfax and all looks good. I am wondering if there is any specific advice I can get on care and maintenance? It is my first rotary engine. I have read a lot of bad reviews, but am also seeing alot of dumb people writing them. I want to ensure I take proper care of the car so it runs at peak performance for a long time. I am new on here and any help is very much appreciated!!

 

If you can, find out of it's had the plugs and coils changed. If not, it's a good time for you to do it. Might as well get the whole tuneup kit from Atkins Rotary ($323 shipped). There are "how to" threads on just about everything here. It's a great way to become familiar with your car and save a ton of $$ not having the dealer do it. I just did all this Saturday. I'm not exactly a "handy guy" and I had it done in 3 hours. I really took my time since I didn't want to screw anything up.
Welcome to the forum!

 

Exactly.

Welcome - and don't panic. Spend enough time reading this forum so you can figure out who the non-dumb folks are. Read the stickies. Follow the scheduled maintenance (Schedule 2), change the oil every 3000 miles. Don't turn it off when cold.

That's pretty much it. Enjoy the ride and the hummmmm.

Ken

 

Check the oil level regularly as it's designed to burn some. As Ken cites try not to turn it off when cold, or if you must rev to 3k, hold it there for 10 seconds, and turn off as it spools down.

Other than that, just the maintenance you would do on any enthusiast vehicle, such as 3k oil changes and more frequent 'plugs, etc. The 'severe' maintenance schedule is a good proactive measure to better assure reliability.

As rxwarrior cites, if you can't find maintenance history then best to do a full service now to establish a known-good baseline.

My '05 Shinka is running strong, so .....

edit: you may want to check the enclosed for the build date, as early '05 Shinka builds had the older starter/battery which was upgraded in the latter year builds.

Also check with Mazda for any MSP/TSB's performed, the most significant of which are the MSP16 and 4206F (there should be a sticker under the hood, but sometimes they forget to affix).

 

So'more stuff for your reading room.

btw: you may aslo want to consider having the clutch pedal bracket welded and/or installing the Race Roots bracket. Weak pedal baseplate welds are a known issue, so another good proactive measure. There's a group buy for the bracket ongoing at a great price.

 

welcome and congrats! i hope you like the car and the rotary engine; it's hard not to, especially when you get into the groove of taking care of these cars. in addition to what the others said (spark plug, ig coil), i'd also recommend reading the discussion on premix and consider it