Read my story. It's tragic....


So I ordered my used black 05' rx-8 with 11k miles on it from a dealer in ohio.

I was ticked that it took over 20 days to get here but the day finally came where i could pick it up yesterday.

Went to dependable auto shippers (not so dependable) and they brought my car out after 25 minutes (seemed fishy) they left my car on while i was inspecting it. When done I got in the car and drove off.

I was excited to finally have it.

Then all heck broke loose. I was at a left stop light to get on the freeway and the car started feeling wierd, like it was dying. And boom, it died! Stuck, kapoot. I couldn't start it back up. I panicked cause it was a busy street. And had trouble finding the ever so obvious Hazard lights! lol. I found them after being honked at nearly 20 times, and turned them on.

They went on for about 5 seconds, and then just died! Then the car made a staticy sound. Everytime i turned the hazard lights switch on it made a staticy sound, i was like.. what in the world.

So. I called "Dependable auto shippers" they said they COULDN'T HELP ME! even though i was only 1 mile away. Ridiculous. So I called Mazda roadside. Then was like wait, I'll just get someone to bring me a battery, so I called my dad and they went to pick up a battery from auto store. THEY DONT SELL MAZDA BATTERY'S THERE! What the. Meanwhile I had cancelled roadside, because I thought that I was gonna get a battery from my dad. I had to call roadside back up and I wasted 30 minutes there!

They took me to the dealer, and the dealer said they'd look at it.

Meanwhile i'm 2 and a half hours late to work!!!

So I got a crapy chevy colbalt rental car, and went to work. Expecting the dealer would have at least looked at my car by 3:00pm I had the car there by 11am. They said they would look at it within 2 hours I called them. They said they hadn't even looked at it yet! And that they wont get to it til monday!!!


So I'm RX-8 less for another freakin weekend, and really ticked off.


Does anyone know what the problem could be? Do you think the battery got drained somehow?

Let me know!

 

Sorry to hear about the misfortuane, but I don't think it's the battery because you already had the car running so I don't see it getting drained while your car is on. Maybe the engine wasn't getting enough fuel? Do you know if the previous owner had any mods on the Rx8?
But let us know what Mazda says, and obviously auto shippers knew there was something fishy with you car they just probably didn't want to discoulse it with you.

 

i would be so pissed. i know the anticipation of having to wait for the car. i don't know if it was the battery because you already had it driving and the alternator should have been working already. you should report them to mazda north for selling you a lemon and not fixing it in an appropriate amount of time.

 

Actually it could have been the battery ran out if the alternator wasn't charging.

Did you run a carfax on this car to see if it had issues before you bought it?

 

yes i ran a carfax, car was fine.

I'm thinking maybe they were jumpstarting it in the back, that's why it took them so long to bring the car out?

Then.. it just died. I've never seen a car just die like that while driving it. I was like.... whaaaaaaaaat?

 

The previous owner made no mods that I could tell. I bought the car through a dealership so I thought I'd be somewhat safe.

 

Yeah, I suspect they took so long to bring out your car because they had to get jumper cables and get it jumpstarted, which is why they did not turn it off after they brought it out. Of course they "couldn't help you"; they knew full well the car had a dead battery.

I just had to get the battery replaced on my 2004 after 38k miles; the dealer pro-rated it as it was covered under warranty so it cost me $85 to have it replaced.

 

I'm just hoping it's just the battery and nothing else! What an unlucky day yesterday!


I WANT TO BE DRIVING MY RX-8 AROUND THIS WEEKEND! DANGIT!

 

It sounds like the battery. On my 944 if you didn't get your rpm's over 2K, the car wasn't generating enough juice to meet the cars needs and charge the battery. I'm not sure on the 8 but it sounds like the battery died sitting in transit and the 10 minutes it was running wasn't enough to charge it up, meet the cars needs and keep it going.

Also, an unfortunate fact of mazda service is that no matter what you bring your car in for, count on them taking all day to fix it.
good luck...

 

Sorry to hear that man! Hope its nothing serious.

 

That sucks dude sorry

 

Sorry to hear about the bad luck ... but if I were you I'd call the ****** who sold you the car and say that your dropping it off and you want your money back. I would not feel comfortable at all with a car like that because who knows what could be wrong with it now and down the road. Do yourself a favor and return it and make a clean break and find yourself another used one .... not like there's a shortage of them!

Cheers,

Zoomby_U

 

i vote for a battery issue too. The alternator in the 8 doesn't seem to charge much at idle. I took my wife in for a test drive of the car we were going to buy. The car had been sitting on the lot without starting for weeks so the battery was dead. They jumped it for the test drive and it sat idling for 10-15 minutes while they found a salesman to come with us. I let my wife drive since I had already done test drives. She killed it a block from the dealer and it would't start. They had to bring a portable jump starter. So if your battery was dead, a few minutes of running the car isn't enough to charge it, especially since the stock battery is barely strong enough when fully charged.

Let the dealer charge up the battery and make sure nothing else is up with the car and you'll be good to go. This car is so much fun, in a while that initial bad experience will fade away and you'll be able to look back and laugh.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the opinions folks.

 

If u had anything plugged into the charger, like a phone charger or something. it messes up the electrics, sometime. with a shortage. It happened to mine. I left my cheap radio shack phone charger plugged, and left it overnight. it didn't turn on the next day. i jump started the car, to go. Then when i got to my destination and turned the car off. it would stay off and would want me to jump start again. So i took it to the dealer, they told me cause of the lil charger, the battery got fucked. they had to replace the battery and some fuses. y don't u let them check on that. The battery just dies!!!!! when u plug cheap *** radio shack phone chargers.

 

blown motor? If it's automatic... possibly compression is low and car dies??? something like that...

 

I'll let you all know tommorow what the problem was.

 

return to seller...not good

 

Similar situation happened to me before. (Although it wasn't a RX-8). Basically, the car all of a sudden fell very sluggish and then it just slowly lose more and more and then the engine died.
Its was the alternator. After it died, you start using all of your reserved battery power and as the voltage drops, the car starts losing power until it cannot produce enough energy to light the spark plugs s in the engine.

Usually when this happens, it is best to replace both the alternator and the battery.

 

I don't think dependable auto shippers would try to hide anything. They are merely a transportation company hired to deliver the vehicle. I know they usually require a vehicle to be in running order to pull on and off the trailer. If the car doesn't they usually charge extra for that.

Reed

 

Dang that sucks and yeah sounds like maybe the Alternator is bad, maybe there was a partial flood (is there even such a thing???) or something. Does the shipping company know about rotary engines and how to treat them?

You, and us cause I want to know what happened to your 8 also, will just have to wait for the dealer.

Sorry about missing your baby...I would go nuts without her too.

 

oh man, that sucks.

Let us know what the dealership says.

 

I'm afraid to report that it wasn't the alternator. Unfortuntely, the car died as a result of using square tires and rims. It just couldn't handle it.

 

My mom's MPV had that happen a couple months ago. The dealership said her EGR was sticking and was needing to be replaced. The shop took it apart and did something to it and put it back together and said that should keep it running and "unstuck" until they could get in the new one.

 

Well, the dealer says they have no idea what's wrong. they said they tried to start it using some special mode they have of doing it and couldn't get it started.

this is some bs.

they told me it could be the electircal system or something worse than that. They told me they had to call the "mazda hotline" or something like that. i was confused. I was like, don't you know how to fix a car? what in the world do you have to call a hotline for? They must be stupid.

The dealer is moving really slow providing me with no updates ever, i call them they said they have no futher updates from this morning. So basically they did no work on the car the whoole day.

I'm pissed. Can I call mazda and complain or somethinig?