I went to showcase mazda today for some coolant for the motor and one of the service advisors told me somethin weird. I told him that my coolant light has kicked on twice and then goes off after a minute or so (this is while drivin regular). He told me that they have had to replace TWO different cars motors cause of that. He told me if it happens again while the engine is at temp to take it there and get it looked at. How here is my question, was he just blowin smoke up my a** to get me in there for work or somethin? or should I even worry? My levels are all ok and the motor has 9800 miles on it.

Any feedback will be welcomed.

 

I use Showcase exclusively for my service, and have since '98 when I originally had a Miata. I haven't heard of a situation such as you described, but I can say I've had top-notch service from Showcase for 7 years running. They have 1 of only 3 rorary masters in the valley, another positive in my book should I ever need that kind of work.

If you do question it, heck just take it to another service dept for a look-see.

 

bill beckett is the rotary master at showcase. i also will only use showcase for service. who was the service advisor that you talked to? was it ur rx-8 that is causing you trouble? how is it tht he is blowing smoke, is not ur car covered by warranty? i'd be happy getting a newly built engine

 

Hey Pret, the guy I talked to was a shorter chubbier guy. I hear to talk to the younger taller guy that works there, but I was just askin where to go to get coolant and then he tells me that. And yes my coolant light poped on twice in the past two weeks while ive been drivin. As far as smoke, none that i can see. i get a lot of deposit on the exhaust but that normal i assume. And as far as warranty im not too sure. I got mine from a Toyota dealership, bought it used. I knew the manager there and got a good price and it only had 4700 miles on its. I will say as far as that dealership service goes i have yet to hear anything bad about them, but i was wonderin if anyone has heard anything about that or this happenin to other people. Like i said he said they have had to change out two other 8's motors, brand new motors too.

 

First through third-generation RX-7s had a lot of motors replaced for overheating through the years. There's no reason to believe the Renesis will be any more tolerant because it's still designed with multiple layers of different metals with different heat properties and those water seals are just glorified O-rings -- I'm careful not to take my 8 over 3k until it's up to temperature and I watch my coolant level at every fillup or more often.

The coolant level sesnsor on first generation (and some later) RX-7s was placed at the very top of the system and was extremely sensitive, so it took only a few bubbles to get an alarm condition. Mine went off several times a year. This was an annoyance but you did have to ask yourself just why there were new bubbles (ususally cracked plastic on the overflow bottle siphon tube in my case). Ignore the alarm at your peril but don't panic every time.

 

Well I was workin on the car a bit today (rotatin tires and checkin the coolant) and i added 1/4 water and 3/4 coolant this mornin, didnt need much. But the light didnt kick on at all today and I drove about 90 miles. So the problem may have just been it needed that extra little amount (about 2cups if that). I appreciate all the feedback and I will reply to this is anything new happens.

Ryan

 

That is funny Ryan, I dropped my 8 off for an oil change at showcase on 11/26 and mentioned my coolant light came on and low and behold it was a quart low on coolant, which I added immediately. I talked with Peter, who said exactly the same thing. He kept the car over night and pressure tested the system and also idled the car for two hours. No signs of leaks. He mentioned they had to replace two engines on other 8's and this was a problem on some of the 8's. It was all covered under warranty, (even the rental, although I had a pontiac vibe). I think they have great service techs although the car runners are idiots. I watched/listened to the kid attempt to get my car in reverse while he smashed the transmission around and stalled the car. I went over and explained you need to push down to get it in reverse, not exactly what you want to see as you drop off the car.

 

made my scheduled appointment for routine maintaince, seems like tom u (svc. mgr.) is no longer there......

 

Dont you even freak me out like that...I need to take mine in too. I never work w/that other guy...surely Tom isn't gone? Tom Urbina is the shiznit!

 

the guy on the phone, peter, said that tom went to showcase pontiac. now if bill becket goes there, that will be my new service department !

in the year i had the 8, i never had a problem calling for an appointment. I call this guy, and he can not make any arrangements for the date that i wanted (called on tue, request fri date). so now im going today. i will be noting THAT on the customer return card!

 

Hmm sounds like I should check my coolant. i'll miss the gurgling/swishing sound on startup. For me Showcase is a far drive, so for now I'll keep going to Bell Rd Mzda.

 

agreed pret, let me know if bill ends up moving as well

 

You can now make that three engines. My check engine light came on so I took it in and they told me that I had coolant in the engine and that they were going to have to replace the engine. It took them three weeks in all. The first week they ordered the wrong engine, the second week was them trying to find the right engine, and the third week they had to order a new cat. Well I am glad that that is finally over!! I don't think I could driven that Taurus another day! I think we need to petition to have Tom back NOW!

 

If motors keep dying like this, there are a few 20Bs on ebay.

 

GoDevils, it sounds like you're telling us the water seal let go with absolutely no warning. You didn't ignore a low coolant alarm and overheat -- the first notice of a problem was burning coolant in the exhaust and a check engine light. IOW, unless you've found a clever way to abuse it that was a bad engine from the start. How many miles on your car?

 

You think they would put that in under warrenty? :p

 

My check engine light came on the first time the day after I bought it. They couldn't find anything wrong at the time so they reset it and sent me on my way. This time the check engine light came on at 11,000 miles. There was no indication of anything being wrong, the car ran the same as always, no hard starts, no idle problems, just an annoying red light. I'm hoping for no more problems because I really love this car.

 

So maybe the seal was leaking a little bit all along and took a while for it to throw the sensors off.

I hope Mazda does a teardown on it. I can picture a slight defect in the seal, or maybe it was never seated exactly right. Or something else. I hope we don't hear they've seen so many they don't tear them down and look any more.

Somewhat related -- I just got my first emissions inspection on an OBD II vehicle for our 2000 Honda minivan. There was no dyno run. They just plugged into the OBD, noted no error codes, checked the gas cap, took my check and sent me on with a Pass. We complain about the pita of OBD but there is that small payoff every two years. And you got a warning light instead of waiting until you got a dead car.