Just wanted to say hello.

I'm not new to vehicles at all. I'm 38 with 5 kids. I am new to rotary's though. I got the itch to start messing with them. The hunt began on marketplace. I live in small town Missouri. I found one in the same town. The listing had a couple pictures, which must have been taken when the previous owner first acquired it. It was listed for $600 USD obo. The car was a 2006, red, six speed manual with 205,xxx miles. The listing claimed the "motor went out" and transmission was "on its way out but still got the job done". That is where my research began. From Google, to YouTube, to forums and to my uncle who races RX7's in Fla. Fast forward to this past Saturday and I went to go look at it.

I arrive to see the car in question sitting in the driveway with a spare bumper in front of it. The kid comes out and we start talking as I'm looking at the car. I ask what he meant by the motor went out. The kid explains that the car sat for a couple weeks then wouldn't start. He took it to his mechanic who said it needed a new motor. (Keep in mind small town missouri, so probably not many mechanics around here work on these.) I ask what's going on with the transmission, is it just synchros going out or something else? The kid says no, the synchros are fine, it just grinds going into 3rd and 4th. (I'm starting to put together this kid is not mechanically inclined at all.) The car has clear coat peeling in some places and the passenger window won't roll down, but the kid cranks it over. I can hear the compression as it's cranking, so I'm sure it has a little life. I offer the kid $500 and put it on the trailer.

I get home to an upset wife because we're now late for a birthday party. I leave the car on the trailer and go to the party. While there i start researching a rotary sitting then not starting. (The kid claimed he had researched this but found nothing.) I start seeing tons of articles and write ups on flooding. Now I can't wait to get back home.

We get home what feels like an eternity later. I get help and push the car off the trailer into the garage. My oldest son (15) uses my jumper cables to start his truck occasionally. I can't find them anywhere. I call my father in law who lives across the street and borrow his. I hook the car to my truck and start following the deflooding process. The car starts trying to fire but just won't quite start. After about another 10 minutes the car starts! It's alive. I can't breath (I had rolled the car back into the garage off the trailer), but there's not a mosquito in my county anymore! I pull the car out and let it warm up. It gets up to operating temp and I go for a quick spin down a rural road. It definitely grinds going into 3rd and 4th if you're not absolutely babying it and then some, but holds the gear and pulls through it. With never driving one of these before, I can still feel a power loss and misfire (flashing cel). But it's alive and I now have a rotary!

Now to start this journey. Sorry for the long read, just wanted to say hello and I'm pretty proud of my $500 car that runs!

 

Nice catch. Sounds like a new ignition is in order.

 

New plugs and wires and it runs great. The battery had run down so I let it sit in the driveway and it started to overheat after about 20 minutes of idling. Now on to figure that out lol.

 

And coils? Have a read at the New & Potential Owners thread to get it fully back to a clean bill and stave off bigger problems.

Overheat: these engines don't tolerate it and the needle only starts to move off center when it's already at risk. Might want to check for exhaust gas in the coolant (before you change the coolant to fresh Mazda FL22). Are the fans turning? Does the car have its radiator undertray? Sounds like it may not have had the best care in the past, send pictures, might be able to offer more pointers.

 

Hello Brians06, welcome to the forum. congrats on your new RX8. a pic or 2 would be nice to see at some point

when doing your repairs ask lots of question of info you can't find reading the forum, I know there are people on this site still willing to help.

i will only recommend lots of cleaning of sensors before replacement and first Buy for you car is a good OBD2 code reader.

happy driving

 

No coils. They all tested good and it doesn't skip a beat now. Fans come on and shut back off at 206*F. I'll have to look into the tray. It definitely didn't have the best life, but it'll be brought back.
I'll have to figure out how to upload pictures. My phone saves in mp4 format.

 

Torque app ftw!

 

 

Welcome