Hello guys, I have always loved Rx8 since I was in high school and recently I was offered one but it has some issues but that doesn't bother me because to me it is a fixed upper and it is the chance to own one of my dream cars. So it is a 2004 with 125,000 miles on it. Now the owner of it said it has been heating uup lately and will shut down and won't turn on until it cools down, any ideas of what that can be? Also it shakes on iddle and it shakes when you start to break to slow down. I want to buy it because the owner doesn't want to mess with it and selling it for 1600 but I am worried there might be more than í can handle. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like the engine is failing.
Get a rotary specific compression test.

 

If it is failing, is it the engine itself or could it be the seals?

 

Do not buy it! The reason the owner is selling it is because it's on it's last legs. You will end up pouring a whole lot of money into it. Unless you consider replacing the engine a "fixer upper" item. Save your money and wait for something more reliable to come along. IMHO.

 

The engines fail when the seals go...so same thing.

Think of the apex and side seals like the rings in a piston engine. Sometimes you can do a rebuild with just new seals...and sometimes you need to replace other parts as well

That's the tricky part 😁

 

Yep, sounds like the engine needs a rebuild.

 

Kind of the same thing.
Engine failing/bad seals= rebuild or replace.

 

Last time I looked, a decent one with a bad motor was around a grand. At that price, it should be beautiful, leather and have a mini-fridge.

Best best is to look for an engine and someone to put it in, and then look at the overall price.

 

If the body is in perfect condition it's worth at least $2000 but I wouldn't do much more than that

 

Just to give you a rough idea what you may be letting yourself in for with the "fixer-upper" plan, I offer the following personal experience.
Engine developed hard starting issues. I immediately took it to the Mazda dealer as he was the nearest likely to have the proper equipment and experience to do a rotary-specific compression test. The results showed that the engine was pretty near stuffed. Estimate to replace with a rebuilt engine was a sniff over $4300. all in. BUT... When I bought the car, I had paid (foolishly, as it turned out) for a third-party warranty. Avoid them like the plague! But, I digress. The warranty company tried to get out of paying until I threatened to have them investigated for fraud, at which time the agreed to cover $1500. of the engine job. Sound like a win? Read on and see.
The catch was I had to take the car to one of their "approved shops". Sort of sends a chill up your spine, huh? The nearest approved shop was about 30 miles away from my home and work so, believe it or not, they agreed to pay for a rental car. A little suspicious-sounding considering that the difference in dollars between their shop and the dealer was a mere $129.00 which would probably be eaten up by the rental costs which would have been negated by the dealer who would have supplied a LOANER saving them money. Now for the really ugly part. I agreed, stupidly, and dropped off the car. In the course of the repair, though, they damaged the rad and, claiming that it was ready to fail anyway, proceeded to tack another $200.00 onto the repair total. This was a cost I thought would be covered by the warranty's "cooling system coverage". WRONG, again! That coverage didn't include rad, heater core, water pump, hoses, belts etc. In short, it was worthless. And the hits just keep on coming!
When I picked it up, it immediately started throwing codes just about the time they had closed for the day and I was 2 to 3 blocks away. One, I cleared right away as they had neglected to reset all the profiles to accommodate the replaced engine but one drove m and the Mazda service team crazy for 2 months. The inept fool that did the engine swap had left a somewhat concealed vacuum line unhooked. the bright side, if you can call it that, was that in the process of trying to track down the problem, a semi-stuffed cat was discovered and replaced (oh, joy! More expense) and, after 2 months of searching, testing and reading, I finally narrowed down the search area and, with the service manager and a mechanic looking in the new search area, the problem was finally found. Just another day in paradise, right? I wish!
Two weeks after the dealership saga, I was at a plaza across town from home and, when I started the car and backed out of the parking space I was in, it farted a rather large and lengthy cloud of smoke as I pulled away. At that point, I saw red, a condition that continued for about 2 weeks until I corrected the entire sad situation. I cut my losses and ran, or as close to it as a half-crippled fool can muster. I found a dealer that wanted the car, took a loss on it and moved on in a Mercedes E350. I had peed away a touch over $6000.00 in the course of about 5 months BUT, I learned a valuable lesson. Look before you leap! Learn all you can about potential "dream car" purchases. Then, keep reading and learning both from books, online articles, forums like this one and one-on-one discussions with owners of said "dream car". Otherwise, that dream car could easily turn into a money-sucking nightmare.

End of sermon.