Hi,

I have ordered a UK spec 190ps in Titanium with leather and I知 looking forward to it, I only found this forum today (post ordering!) so now I知 a little worried as to whether or not I have made the correct decision with regard to problems such as flooding, oil refill, engine life and general torque problems. Can anyone help put me at ease (don稚 say cancel your order please!!!)

 

Like anything else... a few people complain loudly, blows things out of proportion.

First, flooding: Not a big deal. Yes, it can happen, but it doen't happen often. Here's the scenario: Car's stone cold, start it up to move it across the driveway and turn it off. No guarantee it's flooded, otherwise you'd see more RX-8s being flat bedded to the dealerships than on the road. To avoid flooding, you'd let it idle for a couple minutes and then rev the engine to 3500, and hold the needle there for a few seconds, then drop the revs before turning off the key. There is an emergency restart procedure (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). There is a D.I.Y. forum where someone outlines how to do a procedure the techs use to restart the engine (there are access ports/valves on the manifold, you can inject a squirt of washer fluid, the water bonds with the extra gas and helps the seals regain compression)

Next up: Oil Refill. The latest flash lowers the amount of oil that gets injected to the seals. I used to go through a quart every 1000 miles, now it's more like 1 quart every 4000. I keep some disposable paper funnels I got from an aircraft supply catalogue and a quart of oil in my trunk. I used to check the oil every 2 refills at the pump, now I check once a month. People on this forum have stated (I don't know, just repeating) that other high revving sports cars (S2000) eat oil also. In any case, it is a sports car, needs a little more attention, esp if you drive it hard.

Engine life: Who knows. The old RX-7s needed new rotor seals every 100,000 miles or so, but I don't know what to expect of the Renesis. I'm sure it's longer than that, with new materials and technology.

Torque problems: No problems, no torque. Just kidding. Not a lot of torque under 4500 RPM. So unless you're looking at drag racing, it won't be a huge issue. I cruise on the highways between 3500 and 4000 rpms and downshift prior to passing. Keeping under 4000 rpms also saves gas big time. I get 22+ mpg highway, 18 mpg normal driving and 15 mpg when I'm having lots of fun. Mixing Torque and Autocross is a little tougher. One strategey is to get on the gas earlier coming out of a turn. Cars with higher torque would punish you and throw you into a spin, but with the 8, you just need to anticipate the time to accelerate.

What is a UK spec? Are you in the UK? Or you just want some option not available in the US (rear fog lamp or something)

 

Keep your order, you'll be glad you did.

 

pretty much every thing pcimino said.

the whole flooding issue is blown way out of proportion. yes, it can happen (like was explained), but doing such behavior can flood any car. so, be conscious of it, but fret over it too much. when it was a slightly bigger concern, it was with the earlier models, and the problem has largely been addressed with software updates. (btw, oct '03 build, 22k miles, never flooded)

oil consumption. yup. the engine consumes oil by design. but not a lot of oil. the actual amount depends on how you drive though. drive it hard, it'll use more oil. drive it more leisurely, and it will use less. i get around 1qt/3k miles. at all an issue. i had a car in college (piston engine) that would consume 1qt ever 200 miles, so this rate is nothing

engine life. while the renesis is a new design and we can't say for certain, old n/a rotaries could easily run 200k-300k with little to no maintainance. the FD typically needed work in the 60-100k range, but that was mainly for the turbos.

torque is also a non-issue. don't believe the hype. the car has plenty of torque. it doesn't have v8 torque, but then again, it never claims to. the engine revs so quickly that you aren't in the low rpms for long if you don't want to be.

keep your order. you'll love the car.

 

We've had our RX-8 for 7 months, and have had no problems with it. It hasn't flooded (although we are careful not to shut it off cold).

AFAIK, there's no reason to think that the engine life will be shorter than other engines with similar power/torque.

Oil consumption is not a big deal. Every few weeks (or months, depending on how much your car gets driven), you put a quart of oil in it. Ours has eaten two quarts of oil in 5,000 miles. Something that requires monitoring, but not a big deal, IMO.

It's short on torque only if you're comparing it to a muscle car. For any legal activity, it has plenty of torque. If you want to drag your car, you bought the wrong car.

You didn't mention gas mileage, which is remarkably poor, and the only real blot on an otherwise fine car, IMO.

 

all things considered, i don't think the 8 gets that bad of gas mileage (after its broken in). i average 18.6mpg 50/50 mixed driving. high is 23.4mpg and low is 16.3mpg. Compared to the fd, the 8 is a down right long distance machine

although, if it got better mileage i certainly wouldn't complain.

 

My wife replaced the Honda Odyssey minivan she drove to work with the RX-8. The Odyssey got an average of 19mpg on that driving; the RX-8 gets 15-16mpg on the same drive, same person. That's pretty gruesome gas mileage.

 

Totally different vehicles, engines. trans (?), etc. They really don't compare. In fact my Rx-8 gets worse gas mileage than my BMW X5 3.0. I don't compare them. One is a sports car (which I would expect to get bad mileage) and one is a suv (which I would also expect to get bad mileage).

I get about 18 to 20 mpg on a 45+ mile drive to work. 1st 20 miles is very high speed. 2nd part is more or less stop and go. Costs me about $60 - 65 a week for gas. I used to have more efficient cars that would only cost me about $20 - 25 / wk for gas. Don't care. I'm having fun and to me thats what life is all about.

A good friend just bought a Toyota Prius. She get like 50 mpg+. I wouldn't drive one of them unless they were the only car made. Can you say BORING. I can.

The Rx-8 is a sports car (ok a sporty car) so if mileage is such a big concern (except for people that get like 12 mpg) then get a Prius.

This isn't a knock on any individual but come on people you didn't exactly buy a Prius. I don't remember people on the rx-7 forums making such a big deal about mileage and my 3rd get would get much worse mileage than my 8. 'Course it wasn't stock

 

This is interesting excuses, but I couldn't disagree more.

A 3000 pound car, with a manual transmission, getting _much_ poorer gas mileage than a full sized minivan, and that's to be expected? Nonsense.

A sports car is expected to get poor gas mileage? Nonsense again. My S2000, in similar driving as that in which the RX-8 gets 15-16, averages 23-25mpg, and gets well over 30 on the highway.

And the S2000 most certainly is not BORING. :D Neither is the Elise, which gets better gas mileage than the S2000. Good gas mileage absolutely does not have to equal BORING. Heck, the Corvette gets much better gas mileage, both in town and on the highway. Are you telling me that the Corvette is BORING? Can you say EXCITING; I can. Can you say EXCITING _and_ good gas mileage? I can, and do.

You're accepting the worst gas mileage of any small car, anywhere this side of Mercedes-Benz, as if it's normal for light, relatively low-powered cars to get gruesome gas mileage. It's not, and the RX-8's mileage is a significant blot on an otherwise fine car.

Heck, our RX-2 and our RX-3, 30 years ago, got _much_ better gas mileage than the RX-8.

We love the car, and certainly will keep the car. However, if we had known just how far off the EPA "estimates" are, and just what horrible mileage this car would get in her actual use, the MCS probably would have won. And that car is hardly BORING either.