I`ve just finished a 4 week battle with the dealer and feel pi**ed off and exhausted. My RX8 6spd is just about perfectly maintained, checked tire pressures every 2 weeks, drive it moderately, dealer rotated tires at 7000 and 14000 miles.

On second rotation, rear tires sounded like a Carribean steel band multiplied by Motorhead Overkill. Just to top it off, rear discs became badly warped between 10,000 and 12,000. Bridgestone denied any problem with tires and wrote a letter blaming it on the car, Dealer told me the tires were badly cupped and the discs had become warped. Had to replace both tires and dealer skimmed down the discs for free.

Anyone else have a similar tale?

Tom

 

I currently have warped discs at about 20000 miles. Havent got too far into it yet.

 

Usually you can tell if the front rotors are warped as the steering shake, or shimmy. How can you tell if the rear rotors are warped

Mark

 

Discs should not warp. They are generally designed to last for the service life of the vehicle and should not be considered to be a wear-out item. You should take the car to your dealer and have them skim the discs on warranty. This will do two things;

1. It will give you much more driving pleasure and it will help to preserve the rest of your suspension joints - bushes etc
2. If enough of us take our cars back to the dealer, the warranty costs will eventually force Mazda to release correctly engineered discs for the RX-8.

Good luck if you go for it.

Tom

 

Hi Mark,

Youre right about the front discs. Its generally pretty easy to tell when the rear discs are going out. Imagine you are on the freeway doing about 75mph and you have to brake reasonably hard as some **** in front of you is about to cause an accident by pulling out on you without indicating or checking behind them. After about half to one sescond of braking, you hear a distinct rumbling / drumming noise from the rear of the car which slows down in time with the car slowing down. Over a period of a month or two, it gets gradually worse and worse and you`ll start to feel the juddering in the seat of your pants and back rest as well. It is not a good situation to be in as you lose a lot of braking efficiency. Good news is , my dealer skimmed my rear discs for free and they are cured (for the moment).

Hope this helps

Happy motoring

Tom