RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

I'd inspect before deciding it needs a rebuild...How many miles do u have on it? Any Mods? And have u had any problems with it before? If its just a quarter size droplet it it only happened once, it prolly was either the overflow *and it dried upbefore u checked* or it could be something else, maybe brake fluid.....Depends what brand of fluid u use.

skwidd

Well, this sucks. Today the 8 made a backfire noise (or at least that's what I thought it was) and all of a sudden it was like one rotor was not firing anymore. Total power loss plus it sounded bad.

I pulled over, car dies, and would not start and sounded extremely bad when I was trying to start it. Got it towed to DuCote and we'll see tomorrow wtf is up with it.

Another set back in getting my puddle lights installed. Ugh!

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

Ouch man.....the only consolance i can give you is that rotaries ALWAYS backfire....until tuned to japan specs or specific tuned after modifying. Because in the US the computer is tuned to dump so much extra fuel.

But other than that i dunno what to tell you, except to expect the worst. My friend who used to drive the yellow one, had the same sound and effect on his......It ended up being that, his cats clogged up to the point that no air could escape the exhuast and it caused the rotors to break *one shattered to pieces and the other broke off the shaft*.....Sorry to sound bad but just telling from experience..

NightmareX

Man dude hope it ain't nothing serious.

skwidd

I talked to Keith this morning. He said he thinks the car is backfiring through the intake. They are going to do a compressioni test and see what's up. Unfortunately, there are using the compression testing equipment on another 8 right now, so I'll have to wait until later on today.

I'm glad Mazda extended the warranty to 60K miles or 5 years. I only haved 45K miles on it and it's not 5 years old yet.

/edit: I'd like to point out that we have around 20 posts to go until we hit 1000 posts and have to start a new thread.

skwidd

Keith just called. I have no compression on rotor #1. I'm getting a rebuilt motor. He thinks it might be a blown apex seal. Should take about a week to get the replacement motor in.

What's really weird is I called him a couple of weeks ago to see when he would be at work on a saturday because the car was making this weird ticking noise, almost like a fuel injector was going out, or (if I was listening to a piston engine) a valve was going bad. He said he thought it might be bad gas, so I figured I'd run a couple of tanks of Chevron through it (I was running Shell since the Shell station is really close to the house) and bring it in this coming saturday for him to check out. Now we're not sure, but it is possible the ticking noise was related to this, like the apex seal was going out and not sealing. We're not sure though.

So I'll have a rental car for at least a week.

InuYasha

Well, it finally happened...

I went to start my 8 today... it cranks, but it wont start.

I've never had a problem before. Its a low mileage (15,000 mi) 2004 RX-8.

I have religiously had all scheduled maintenance, flashes, TSBs, etc. It was just recently serviced about a week ago.

Its started yesterday when I m oved it out of the garage. It started again, when I put it back in the garage, about two hours later.

This morning, it cranked but would not start. Although it was cold out last night, it wasn't that cold; in fact, its has been colder in the past.

I had the dealer change the batterry, less than a year ago, per TSB 01-048/06, regarding the "Engine Cranks, NoStart" complaint, just to get the higher capacity battery.

After about three attempts to start it, I gave up; I put the car on a battery charger and took my truck to work.

I called the dealer to report the problem, I'm waiting for a call back. I'll try to start the car later, after it warms up a bit and the battery has recharged.

I'll report back as news develops

InuYasha

I checked the car with my Kal Equip 9640B Scan tool... No Error codes, all systems functioning normally.

I followed the de-choke procedure outlined in TSB 01-048/06. After about 20 miniutes of fiddling with the car, I finnaly got a sputter. A few more cranks, and some more waiting, and then some more cranking, it finally came back to life.

BTW, I had the car hooked up to a charger with start assist. If i didn't have the start assist charger, I would have drained the battery from all the cranking.

I'm going to let the car come up to temp and run for about 20 mins. before i sut it down again.

I must say, this is not my first rotary. I had a highly modded '81 RX-7, with 100,000+ mi.; I never had this kind of problem. I've had my 8 for about 4 years now, and this is the first trouble I've had starting it.

Lesson Learned: In cold weather run the car to operating temperature befor you shut it off. No short run/stop cycles.

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

you hit the nail on the head with that statement man..

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

that sucks man, but atleast they arent giving you any bullshit about it and lieing to you when u ask about the car....*thank god for keith*

skwidd

yes...he also said that one good thing is I'll get the updated rotors that have a special coating that resists the carbon deposits.

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

well thats good. =)

whody

The moral of the story is thank god Mazda extended the warranty..

As far as my 8 goes, I can't seem to find anymore coolant leaking..

It runs fine, etc. etc.

The only thing I can think of is that I flooded it out when moving it in the garage for the first time since I've had it... I quickly got it restarted, but that's when I noticed the coolant on the floor.. and it wasn't a quarter sized, i'd say a dollar sized splatter of coolant.. lol

so who is this Keith guy? I might have to pay him a visit if my problems return

NightmareX

RXH8TED what else are u going to do to your 8?

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

well i just baught a WB Aero Package from a forum member *the greddy dude with the parts car*...and after that its exhaust....

Once thats done i'll prolly wait a bit and get rims and then prolly leave it like that until the warrenty is up.

NightmareX

Nice. Yeah wait til your warrenty is up so u can be the first with a twin turbo 8 lol boom! Dam u blew the engine.

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

nah not TT, debating either going single turbo with a GT 30R or maybe a t3/t4 63 trim 85 AR

Or going N/A with ITBs and pro tune......

skwidd

Keith is a service manager at Ducote Mazda on the Worst...I mean, Westbank. If you call Ducote service, ask for him. Tell him you were referred to him from the RX8 board.

He's straight up, works with you, and is really good at communicating. And he's just a great guy. Call him if you have any issues with the car.

whody

thanks, man.. that helps out a lot

i had a pretty much pathetic experience at the mazda in slidell.. i mean, the quality of work was excellent, but the service guys that take your car in suck..

my throwout bearing went out, they sent me away with no repair saying it was just my clutch.. basically threw me out the store..

so i went back with my father (the car's in my own name), and all the sudden things changed, and they said if the throwout bearing was good, they would charge me like 600 dollars to change out the clutch.. but if the bearing was bad, they would recommend putting a brand new clutch in while it was all apart..

spent 360 after it was all said and done

like i said, quality of work was excellent.. it was the people up front

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

lol **** mazda of slidell. I only deal with paretti in meterie and don ducote on the westbank....

My buddy has dealt with slidell, hammond, and baton rouge....all suck.....
Slidell mazda rebuilt his tranny the first time it went out, and they didn't attach the fluid lines inside the tranny correctly. So 1 week later the tranny overheats and goes boom again. So he brings it back and they put a brand new tranny in.....this time they forget to hook up the lines all togeather....so 2 weeks later, BOOOM again.......Then it goes to paretti....no problem, replaced and returned with no problems.
Next it goes to hammond when the motor went out, and they refused to work on it. Kept lieing to him about why they wouldn't warrenty it, then said they would, then changed their mind soon as he got the rental car, and started harrassing him to return the rental, less than 20 mins after calling to say it wouldn't be warrentied. After that they started telling him **** like 9and these are exact wording from mazda of hammond)....*because your intake is aftermarket, it sucked up dust and sandblasted the engine*...i know cars and thats the biggest load of bullshit ever.....Next they told him and me to our face *your car has no air filter*, while we were standing there staring at the filter........next they told him that the motor had no compression and that rotor 1 broke the spindal, and rotor 2 shatter.....but yet they never took the motor apart and acknoledged that they never ran a compression test. After 4 months of this **** they god tired of us calling out their lies, so they sent the car to baton rouge.
Baton Rouge mazda sat on the car for 4 more months, they finally decided to fix it *only because the service manage was a cool guy, and he went over the head of his supervisor and had it done himself.

skwidd

4 months???? So, wait, let me get this straight, he had a rental for 4 months because these guys were asshats???

They paid 2x the cost of the engine in rentals alone. oi vey!

RXH8TED

iTrader: (1)

no, if you read...he did not have a rental, because they refused him one....cause they refused to warrenty the car.....he had a rental for ONE day, when they said *yes we will be warrentying it* and the next day they took it back....

skwidd

oh...sorry. What a bunch of asshats.

NightmareX

Was this at Diamond mazda or Hollingsworth mazda. I take mine to Diamond I really don't have a choice but yeah Diamond sucks. I remember one time they try to get over me I was coming in one day to get my motor mounts replace under warrenty, so like 5 hours pass an I was like wtf taking them so long I get up go to the shop area I see the guy who was working on my car standing up eating fruit snacks doritos. Then he'll get his tool an start tighting up a few things then sit down. I thought it was just him doing it but then I look over an the other dudes would just stop what there doing start talking and eating **** I'm like dam I can't be sitting here all day waiting on these numskulls taking there sweet time. I go talk to the head person an ask him why its taking so long even though I know why. He tells me a whole bunch of bs an say when they replace motor mounts it takes nearly the whole day. So I just look at him with one of those yeah right looks an sat down outside. Another hour pass one of the chicks an the head dude comes outside an tell me my car is done. So before I can say a word they tell me that my pads an rotors are bad an need to be replace talking about its gonna cost me around 760 dollars and gonna ask me do I want them to go ahead an order the parts I look at them stupid an laugh. I told them I ain't paying for that and left. A month went by I had strip my wheel lock nut an I couldn't get my wheel off took it to them they use something to get it off but anyway they did a full circle check of everything tires in green, fluids in green, brakes in green wait hold up I though my brakes were bad I ask the tech guy did you all check the pads an everything else he was like yup there all good. Hmmm good huh from than day on everytime I went there they were good until I neeed my tranmission fluid change they told me my front pads needed to be replace $99 each ********. There was only one time I went to hollingsworth the guys over there look like they're **** your **** up lol. I went over there ask them how to take the stock air box out they didn't even know how to take it out looking all confuse. I went through five guys didn't even know until this asian guy came out the back an show me what to do. Everybody was saying if he didn't knew no one would. It would seem fitting that the asian guy would know. You can tell they would all be lost without him lol.

MazdaMonkey

Yeah thats Nahn Lee, he is typically ranked in the top 5 Mazda Master techs for the country every year in the Performance Champions contest.