Hi,

Just bought a beautiful 04 GT with 68k in Brilliant Blue. I bought it not running. It's absolutely gorgeous inside and out. I bought it at a very low price thinking it was quite likely that the previous owner had just flooded it since he was selling it cheap due to it not starting. I've done coils, wires, plugs and cleaned the MAF and ESS. The car is starting to improve, it starts fine from cold now and will start from hot with some cranking. It sometimes dies when I put it into neutral at speed. It's showing a P0301 CEL, or front piston (rotor) misfire. I'm starting to think it does have compression issues but I'm really not sure. I will be taking it in to the shop for a compression test soon. I'm really hoping it does not have compression issues and can be fixed, but I don't think it's likely at this point. If it does need a rebuild, and I decide not to get it rebuilt, what would the car be worth with the problems? I understand it's a general question and I've searched the forums extensively, but any insight would be appreciated. I've been lurking here for a while and there is a wealth of good information that I've already used to fix a few things on my 8. Really appreciate any insight you can give me, thanks!

-mushroom09

 

Even a clean 04' GT is only worth maybe $3,000.00 on a good day with a blown engine and usually less. My buddy buys, rebuilds, and resells them and he paid under $3,000.00 for the last one he bought which was a 2008 with 70k on it. He has done a few 04 GT's and an 06' Shinka recently and even the Shinka he only paid $2500.00 for, all are purchased with blown engines of course.

As a typical engine rebuild and install will cost between $4,000.00 low side to $6,000.00 high side (dealer) it just doesn't make sense financially usually even if you can do the work yourself because you can get a clean 04' GT with a freshly rebuilt engine for around $6,000.00 or so.

 

Gotcha, thank you for the quick reply! I will be doing some small things today, maybe trying sea foam and cleaning some sensors. If they don't make a big difference I'll be taking it in to a local rotary shop for a compression test, fingers crossed. Thank you for the help!

 

Just an update:

I was thinking of selling the RX-8 but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I had a post on Craigslist for a private rotary mechanic and a guy gave me a call who rebuilds rotaries in his spare time. He's going to rebuild my engine for a very reasonable price so I'm gonna keep her. Very excited to finally put some real time in this car and get her clean and running well. Thank you rx8club for your help!

-mushroom09

 

Hi

I'm new as you in the forum ... so maybe someone else can approve what I'm gonna say...

First of all , when you says

" I had a post on Craigslist for a private rotary mechanic and a guy gave me a call who rebuilds rotaries in his spare time. He's going to rebuild my engine for a very reasonable price"

Except if you know very well that person and you have really good feed back of him, don't give money to someone you don't know to rebuild a rotary engine ... I saw a lot of people broke their engine because of a bad rebuild ... You maybe gonna create some issue that you don't have for now.

Your car is only 68000km ... start by checking around the engine .. You said you replaced Coil, spark and wire... What did you put ? OEM stuff ? I don't know your level of mechanic ...so maybe you can double check if you did not made a mistake re-plugging everything ?
You cleaned the MAF and the ESS ... did you think about the SSV ?
It can be a emission issue ... pomp , leak ...etc
Do you have more CEL code ?

But yes, of course start by a compression test

 

Thanks for the input olivierapex

I got the compression test done and both rotors failed quite spectacularly, low 5's on both. I verified his information, he works in a shop and does rotary rebuilds on his own time. He gave me a receipt for the work and has demonstrated enough knowledge that I'm confident he's on the level. I will be very careful but I'm fully convinced that he is legit and very excited to get it up and running. For the record I did all of the usual, replaced plugs, coils, wires, cleaned ESS and MAF, new air filter, etc. before I just got the compression test done.

Thanks!