Peter Sawko

I have had zero problems with my RX8 that I'm aware of. Power is very acceptable to me and gas mileage, (I have 1000 miles on my car) is about 17.5 city and increasing.

I have two concerns. One is the amount of engine heat sent into the cabin. This is especially bothersome after you have driven for awhile, make say a one hour stop and then get back into the car. I'm used to using the fan to cool down the interior except with the RX8 pumps hot air from the engine into the cabin. I have to run the a/c on recirculate to cool down the cabin even on otherwise very comfortable days. Shouldn't the electric radiator fans stay on for five or so minutes after shutting down to evacuate the excess heat from the engine compartment and prevent this problem? I've only once heard my fans come on and that was after a lot of hot weather driving.

I think it would be helpful if the threshold for the fans was lowered so they would come on at engine shut down from a fully warmed up engine.

My other concern is a really strange noise I heard coming from the driver side of the car. I was traveling at about 70 mph at relatively low rpm's when I heard a high pitch rubbing noise. The noise continued for about a minute and then stopped. I haven't heard it since then. Any ideas of what it could have been?

Appreciate any comments on alleviating the heat problem or on what this noise could have been.

Also, still holding onto the offer notice pending final horsepower reports from this site.

Thanks

mmjames

Haven't seen either problem on mine.

Wing

It's funny because in the summer when it was HOT I didn't notice the heat problem. Now that it has cooled down a bit it is pretty annoying.

You open the windows you can feel the air outside is COOL, so you close the windows on the highway and turn the fan on 1 or 2 for some cool breeze but it's HOT air ???

It was kind of pissing me off today, it feels like the heater is on! The problem is even with the fan off, the vents still blow air on your that is HOT.... GRRRR

jtimbck2

Look on the bright side -- between engine heat and the heated seats, these cars ought to be toasty comfy to drive in cold weather (as long as there isn't snow on the ground)!

8_wannabe

I've had the cabin heat problem all along. We had a fairly hot summer in San Diego, and sometimes if I wanted to just run the fan vice the A/C I couldn't. The air blown in by fan was hotter than the ambient air. So, I had to have a/c on or nothing.

Now that outside temps have cooled a bit, I see the problem dropping off. With outside air cool (like in the 50s/low 60s) the fan is no longer blowing in hot air, it's blowing it at about ambient temperature, which is fine with me. I can't explain why this happens but I'm glad it's not a problem now. Next summer, who knows?

I get the engine fan after shutdown fairly often, in hot weather. It sometimes blows pretty vigorously for quite a while (10 minutes?) after shutdown.

rodmeister

Just my wild guess, but maybe Mazda reduced insulation in order to lighten the car for better performance. Perhaps installing foil backed insulation under your carpeting would help. This would also translate into a quieter ride, but exact a weight penalty.

TomsterRX8

Sounds to me like you already have TWO problems with your RX8. As regards to the cabin heat problem.....Welcome to MY world! Letting it sit for a while after a drive and then getting back in really demonstrates just how hot it can get. Both mine and the passengers' feet get uncomfortably warm.

RodsterinFL

Yup mine has the heat thing too AND you are right about take a drive for an hour or so on a hot day and let it sit for a while then get back in and wow.

Friday evening I was coming home from work and apparently ran over a nail. My tire monitor light came on and a beep sounded. Today I went to a tire shop and had them repair the tire. I went on some errands and was in the store for about 45 minutes. During that time the temp outside dropped from about 92 to 73 degrees - a storm. I got back in the car just as it was raining and started home. Suddenly the tire alarm sounded off beeeeeeeeep and the light came on again. I stopped at a station and checked the tires. Three of the four tires' pressure dropped to about 24.5 psi. The weather? The tire that was fixed was okay. ANyway. I got home to pump the tires up -no change for the station air, and while doing so I reached in the car to plug in the pump. I dropped the tire cap in the floor and it went under the plastic housing that covers the front of the chair slide rail. I popped it off to retrieve the cap and discovered that the exposed nut there was really hot. Ouch hot!

The heat problem is not new to my family and our cars. My MGB had the same problem as does our 2001 Miata. Weve come to expect it out of this kind of car - sportsy sit near engine car.

mikeb

The car is very hot wheather driver or passenger side
especially items in the center console

PoLaK

iTrader: (1)

Errrr... The most logical explanation is that in a sports car such as the Rx-8 the engine is front mid-ship mounted meaning that its closer to the driver and passenger. The trade off for the better performance is you feel the engine heat more then if it were a regular car.

ridged84

Well i just got my RX and i cant stop driving her . But let me tell ya something about heat in the cabin. I own a 72 vett and if you ever had one you would know what cabin heat is like.I drove it one day with my shoes off and burned my feet on the pedals.The shifter gets just as hot.I know its a old car and todays cars should be built better to prevent this heat thing but next to the RX its like ahhhhhh....zoom zoom zoom:D

PS ask a vett owner about
cabin heat

TomsterRX8

Err.....that is exactly the correct explanation. But, err, how 'bout Mazda realize they have an engine that runs extra hot sittting directly under the center console and spend an extra $100 installing EFFECTIVE thermal insulation?

TomsterRX8

Hmmm....1972 on the one hand and 2004 on the other.......hmmmm. Why is it when a negative trait is brought up about this car someone always has an "well you should see how bad my 19xx POS was!" retort?

Bitching here and to the dealers and their reps is a good thing that leads to future fixes. Go ahead, take a shot!

PoLaK

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure they did however in reality no amount of insulation will prevent it from feeling like a normally monuted engine.

RX8by

"My other concern is a really strange noise I heard coming from the driver side of the car. I was traveling at about 70 mph at relatively low rpm's when I heard a high pitch rubbing noise. The noise continued for about a minute and then stopped. I haven't heard it since then. Any ideas of what it could have been?
Appreciate any comments on alleviating the heat problem or on what this noise could have been"

You could have picked up a stone in your brakes. My 1988 323 did that one day. I stipped and backed up and it came out. Sounded like hell in there. As to the heat, I notice it riding in the passenger side. We got stuck in traffic for 15 min and Hot air was blowing in. I thought theheat control was on. I turned the A/C on for a minute and it went away. Seems it needs more air flowing at low speeds. I don't recall the cooling fan coming on ever. I like the foil idea, although would't they put such a simple fix in?

RodsterinFL

Tomster, I dont think it is that people dont want negative to be mentioned but rather many car issues that have been posted seem to be "normal" for sports cars. Even though the RX-8 is a hybrid per se, it still will have certain sports car attributes - heat, more noise, lower gas mileage, rougher ride, etc. There have been many complaints about these things here and other people are trying to put it into perspective. New people are scared to death thinking the car is plagued with serious problems. There are issues and people SHOULD share them. Miatas have the same heat problem- we have one. At least that is what I was thinking when I mentioned the MG and the miata before.

TomsterRX8

I appreciate the thoughts. I will say that this car is much hotter and gets worse gas mileage than either my RX7 or S2000. I don't it has to be the case that just because its a sports car/sedan that it has to run hot and get crappy gas mileage. Harsh ride, however, is a given.

I know it cost $6,000 more than the RX8 but my BMW 330Ci had great acceleration, was terrific in turns, breaked superbly and got 24 in the city and 30 on the highway (weighing 500 pounds more than the Mazda). It's not so much a sports car trade off as it is a rotary vs piston trade off.

RodsterinFL

hmm. I have a clunk when I first take off in first in the morning but not sounds from the doors.

RodsterinFL

Yes, your right there - on price and better mileage. I had a 328is '96 and it got 19-20 mpg (5spd) on my run I am getting 18.2 mpg in the RX. That particular car though was the standard model without sport pkg suspension and 190 hp. I REALLY liked that car. I am much happier with the 18.2 mileage turning the TCS/DSC off than I was with the 16.5 avg with it on. I noticed that Porsche Boxster S (one comparison car in yamaguchi book p. 35) gets 18 mpg in town according to Porsche's website.

pgtr

So is the problem unique to running the car and then letting it sit and compontents around the engine heat soak? Then next time in (if say within an hour or two) the cabin is heated by convection?

Is the problem general insulation around the firewall/tunnel or is it the ducting, lack of airflow efficiency or the fact that airflow is poor and/or poorly insulated from heat sources?

Corvettes had horrible cabin heat problems due to lack of insulation and fiberglass construction up thru about mid 70s. This was remedied by a change in materials w/ more metal and less fiberglass as well as insulation in those areas.

79-83 Rx7s had notable heat thru the vents (particularly in dark cars) that was dramatically remedied in '84 w/ reworked ducts.

These problems are SIMILAR but not the same. So what are we dealing w/ in Rx8s? One, the other or both?

It's an important disctinction - insulation can always be added under the carpet but there's not much one can do about duct work save maybe wrap it if one were so inclined as to yank the entire dash out (not!).

=================

I'm a little intrigued by the 328is comparison. The 19-20 claimed is well below both the EPA ratings and my own experiences. We get mid-low 20s in town and very high 20s on the highway. There is no optional 190hp engine on that car as was implied. If you had a 328is you had a 2.8L engine and they all had the same output - 190hp. Remember this is a 7 or 8 year old car offering this kind of space/performance/mileage. Modern 325/330's retail for prices on both sides of the Rx8 depending on options and such.

I doubt the average typical Porsche buyer cares about mpg though the Boxster is reaching to new Porsche generation... interesting comparison

ezradg

Hi Everyone,

I took delivery of my 8 about a week ago. It has satisfied two basic needs in my life: (1) a car that is an absolute thrill to drive; (2) accomdations for a new family additon--daughter born one month ago. I can't wait untill it is broken in!

Unfortunately, I have also experienced two problems with the car:

--The widely debated poor performance of the AC
--The not-so-widely debated "problem" with interior heat

Having read this forum for 4-6 weeks before taking delivery I knew about the AC going in. Hopefully Mazda will get this fixed (although they never did with a Protege I owned). The problem with interior heat has not received nearly as much attention. Indeed, this thread was the first I saw of it (never mentioned in the press, and please do not flame me for not reading the entire forum!).

As others have mentioned, I find that the center console begins to heat up noticably after about 30-45 minutes on the road, depending on outside temperature. Same is true for the trunk area. Earlier this week, I got stuck in traffic for over an hour (outside temp of 80 degrees), and the console (not to mention the cup-holder area and trunk) became positively hot. This plus potential other unidentified heat sources made the car truly uncomfortable (e.g., sweating through back of shirt). I have also experienced the heat "after one-hour pit stop," which surprised me since it was only 70 degrees outside, and the car was in the shade.

Is this really normal and expected as some have asserted? To me, this should be a non-ssue when spending $30,000 for a 2004 model year.

As well as having to cart around our kid when the Jetta Wagon is not available, other practicalities of life intrude: I must drive to work, including during the summer, occasionally wearing a suit, and almost always getting stuck in traffic. I must also be able to drive around colleagues and clients. This will be quite difficult if the interior heating and AC issues are not resolved. Indeed, with such simple practical issues outstanding, it makes it difficult to confidently assert that the RX-8 can satisfy both our sports car enthusiast and real-life needs. A big selling point, at least to me.

RX-MEN-8

I too have "felt the heat". An intresting note was that yesterday when I removed some packages from the trunk, they were pretty warm on the bottom.. It seems like the heat just permeates all the way to the back of the car.
At least my mpg have incresed to about 17.5. i currently have 750 miles on the car.

IwantONE2

I find this suprising. I guess outside temperature must have a very large effect on this. I'm in MN. My wife and I took a trip on Saturday. The drive home is all freeway, outside temperature was 65, and I went about 100 miles at 80 mph. When I pulled into the garage, I felt the bottom of the cupholder and it wasn't even warm. Maybe a hair wamer than the cool plastic on top of console, but barely noticable. Also when pulling stuff out of the trunk. It was a little warmer there but again barely noticeable.

If it gets up to the 90's again(unlikely), I'll let you know if I notice any difference.

ezradg

I have experienced the same. Temperature in Boston the past few days has been 65 and things are much better. It seems that when it is cool out, the engine heat dissaptes eaily, which makse sense. The only strange thing that has persisted is that the seat warmer switches get noticably warm....

Are there any folks out there from the south our west that have more experience with hot weather?