Trueblood97

Hi there. My names Dustyn im 17 years old and all my life i have been a car guy and thats what i live and breath is cars and have always been fascinated with the Mazda RX line with the Rotary motors since i learned they had unique motors back when i was like 5. While the RX-8 isnt my car it is my dads car so thats why i will refer to it as ours or we instead of mine. We own a 2004 Mazda RX-8 Grand Touring 6 speed model (with the 250HP instead of like 213-225 the others have) in the Velocity Red paint color almost fully loaded in options including the Navigation that it seems most people decided against for the addition thousand dollars or so. Only things this one doesnt have is the front air splitter on the bottom front bumper (we want to put it on eventually) and the rear spoiler ( looks better without in our opinions.) We bought the car on December 3rd 2012 with about 70K miles on it if i remember right and currently its sitting at like 102K miles on it. We have loved this car since the day we bought it and have not had many problems with it. In the just under 2 years all we have done to it is a new clutch (Shoe got caught on the clutch pedal while driving and burned it up), Oil Changes, and put in the front fog lights and new Plugs and wires when we bought it. Sadly for about the past week we had to have it towed home and its been sitting in the driveway since then and we are hoping to have the time to get it in the garage this weekend and try and see whats wrong with it. Currently we have to do the following things
-New Brakes and Rotors
-Convertor and CO2 sensor
-Replace cracked Coolant overflow container (new one just arrived)
-New Spark Plugs and Wires
-replace what ever got damaged or broke leaving us stranded on the freeway last week

Despite that we still love this car and hate seeing it just sit and we will get it back up and running. We also just bought a SUV to replace this as the daily driver for my dad and will be using it more as a weekend car when its just my dad and i going places or just him so we dont wrack up the miles so fast anymore and can save the car longer. Also while we love how much power the car currently has and although we are usually are not ones to want to modify a car past what it comes stock (Besides better perfoming Sparks, Air Filters, Brakes and just stuff like that when they need repalced anyway just replace with upgraded ones) we would love to put a turbo on this thing or maybe possibly a twin turbo one day. Ok well sorry for the long first post ill get photos up possibly tomorrow if i get the time to take some.

mscamp02

iTrader: (3)

Alright for starters lets talk about what actually happened to your car and why you had to have it towed.

What were the symptoms for the break down.
Will your car start fine after you have driven it for a while?
Have you ever replaced the engine coils? (I noticed this wasnt on your list of things to do and youve owned it for over 30k and could potentially be time to do it)
Do you have any CEL's
Is this the original engine?
Have you had it tested for compression on all 6 rotor surfaces?

From your original paragraph I am not sure what you mean by "(with the 250HP instead of like 213-225 the others have)." Also from your last paragraph I think you need to read up on the engine health and the cost to "put a turbo on this thing or maybe possibly a twin turbo one day" as I am not sure you fully understand the cost and difficulties it will take to do this with a healthy engine, let alone the 5k engine rebuild you are probably looking at.

Sorry to be a downer but I think you could potentially have engine compression issues but it is hard to say with the lack of information provided and I think you or your dad will need to read up on forced induction and the cost to do so with the 8.

vbaez24

im on the same boat.
im on my second rx8 but i made a different account so now i have to post 5 more times to be able to post a WTB add...

vbaez24

and yes, keep it NA. Do a light street port and get it tuned and call it a day

04Green

iTrader: (1)

Welcome, and what he said.

Got any more details on the failure?

I suggest reading the 2 posts in my signature...

Trueblood97

As far as what happened. It was being driven down the freeway and the car infront tire blew up and a piece of it got ran over by the mazda. Shortly after the engine started making like a metal clanking noise almost as if their were little pieces of metal dateline around in the engine. The moment that started the car was put into Neutral and slowed it to a stop on the shoulder of the road and that's when it died. When getting out their was oil pouring out from under the car all over the road (after getting it towed it it looked to have been pouring out somewhere around the oil pan area). So after getting it home and it sitting for like I week I just filled it up with more oil to try and see if it will start to move it into the garage real quick so we can jack it up and start looking at it but the car won't start now. I can hear the starter try and start the car and the RPM needle jumps and drops like it normally does when starting the car but it sounds like the engine itself won't actually fire up.

mscamp02

iTrader: (3)

I would not t ty to start the car again at all . It sounds like the oil pan and possibly other areas of the engine suffered physical damage. Until the car is inspected and necessary parts replaced do not start the car, grab a couple friends and push it where it needs to be

04Green

iTrader: (1)

sounds like the piece of rubber was moving when you hit it. that is a collision with a moving thing, as opposed to something that was sitting in the road.

Sounds like that moving thing whacked an oil line, or ripped something off the oil pan and dumped the oil.

Check, but I think a call to your insurance company is in order. This could be covered.

It would be different if there was just a chunk of something sitting in the road, but the fact that you were in a moving debris field is usually the important part.

good luck, and yeah, do not try to start it again until you figure out where the oil came from.

Good luck.

Trueblood97

Hmm I'll have to look into the insurance but if it is covered would hate to see them try and total the car if it needs a new engine. Probably gonna be getting it towed to a shop today and have them look it over and get a estimate to repair it. From what I could see since I can't get under the car in the driveway (was trying to get it into the garage so we can jack it up) the oil appears to be pouring from around the sensor that's plugged into the pan since that's covered in oil and parts of the oil pan and chassis around that area are also oil covered as well. Only reason we tried to start it was because when it finally got home that night from the tow truck their was still just enough oil in the engine to mark the dipstick as low so we thought there may be a chance the engine was undamaged since the moment the car started acting weird it was pulled out of gear and let slow to a stop where it shut off. Only hoping now maybe it's just the seals gone bad in the engine causing the low compression not allowing the engine to start instead of the entire engine needing replaced.

04Green

iTrader: (1)

A direct hit on the oil level sensor by a moving piece of something large would do it. Frankly, that is the only think I would think flying rubber could impact.

If oil was still coming out, that migh tbe good. There may have still been oil in it. You mechanic will have to tell you.

I would consider it unlikely that this would total the car, but you never know. Good luck.