For those that remember my previous thread, I had decided that since my RX8 already had over 500 miles on it, I would take it to Santa Barbara for the weekend to put it through its paces, while getting a real feel for its capabilities as well as what kind of toll a long road trip would take on me.

Well, I was happy to report that I had a blast. The car acted beautifully the whole time, except for the fact that on the return trip, at around 1000 miles, I started getting an intermittent oil light. While driving along, at any time, it would turn on for a few minutes, and then turn off.

When I dropped it off at the dealership the first time, they diagnosed it, and told me that it was a quart low on oil...a buy-product of driving a rotary (suddenly remembered the rules from driving RX7s all those years, 2 stroke motors, meter oil into the engine for lubrication). So folks, don't forget to check the oil level in your RX8s about every other gas stop, they use a quart of oil 1000 miles.

So I get the car back. Next day, while driving to work, the oil light comes on again...OK, I think, what's the deal here!! So, a couple weeks later, I take the car back, now I'm at 2000 miles. The service department takes the car, low and behold the car's low on oil again. "That's not it." I say, "Fill it up and take it out." So, they take it out for a test drive, and the light comes on again...hmmm.

A long call to the factory yields the result: Apparently, in the early models, there is a defect in the oil pans, whereby the baffles that keep the oil from migrating to the back of the engine and away from the oil sensor is not sufficient, therefore setting off the light.

I finally got the car back a week later, and with a new oil pan assembly installed. Since then I've driven the car another 300 miles and Huuurray!!! No oil light!!

Dean

 

Which is a known fault and sorted in Japan I believe (with replacement baffles or whatever).

 

WOW, it must have been amazing taking that car to Santa Barbara.....thats def. one of the stops ill be driving to when i get my 8.

 

My VIN number is: JM1FE173840103111

As far as who is affected, I couldn't get that answer from the dealership. What I would like to know is, in what place did my car come off the assembly line?

All I know is that it was assembled on 7 Jun 03. Do you know where I might be able to find out? The dealer was no help.

Dean Rudenauer

 

Dean: My car was built 5 days earlier than yours (vin 2192). I also have over 1k miles now. My oil light has never come on yet. Maybe it will start soon.

As far as where the 8 was built, I thought every single one was built in Hiroshima.

I look forward to seeing you on the 10 frwy someday. I have yet to see another 8 on the road in L.A.

Pup

 

Great !

Good to hear that one of our issues had been resolved and there is a proper solution out there for it !

Thanks for the post !

 

Wow!! So your production date is five days earlier than mine and your VIN is over 900 cars earlier?

Could they possibly build 900 cars in a week? This seems strange Puppy. Do they skip VIN numbers or something?

What I meant to say before was in what sequence did my car come off the line? It also seems hard to believe that, having ordered the car back in January '03, with a VIN number and everyhing, that it would be the 3111th car off the line.

I think I need to investigate this more.

By the way, you and I have the same car!! Good choice! Which way do you go to work in the morning? It would be interesting to put the cars side by side somewhere and watch what people do. I personally have never seen another on the road since getting mine as well.

 

Known fault? I thought there weren't any known faults in Japan, as described by Jt-Imports in the RX-8 Problems thread...is there anything else we should be aware about?

 

900 cars seems a bit much in just on week until I did the math. Mazda is making 60k RX-8's a year. Divide that by 52 weeks in a year = >1k cars per week. So it makes perfect sense.

I drive west to Santa Monica every morning.

 

My oil light start coming on at highway speeds around 1200 on the odometer, have an apt for Monday to get the work done...

 

The oil light and its fix have been discussed on this board, the only place I've seen it.

 

Interesting. While coming home from a ride down PCH I also got a low oil quantity light at 4500 rpm. Slowing down to 4000 rpm extinguished the light. Everytime I sped back up to 4500 rpm the low oil qty light would illuminate and slowing back down would put it out.
I stopped and added 1/2 qt oil to bring the oil level to exactly between the two lines. Driving the rest of the way home the oil
light never illuminated (up to 6000rpm) My car was built on 5/31 with a VIN of 173040100509.
As an aside these engines are very similar to jet engines. Start
'em up and they burn a little oil. They require a period of idle before you run them up to high rpm after start to replenish the oil you burned on start. Low oil press and qty are more dangerous than high due to the oil injection system. And inevitably they consume oil as they operate.
This forum is great for finding out about our new toys.

 

I'm getting the same thing as well (oil light has lit up twice thus far) ...VIN ends with 5513 -- taking it to the dealer today

 

An8inLAS wrote "I stopped and added 1/2 qt oil to bring the oil level to exactly between the two lines. Driving the rest of the way home the oil light never illuminated"

I think this would mean you were a quart low, and the light should have come on. I am at 1600 plus miles, and checked my oil last night following the directions in the owners manual, and I am just now a third of a quart low.

Rudenauer wrote that he had a faulty oil pan, and within the first 2000 miles he had added two quarts of oil. The explanation was that the oil pan was impropperly baffled for the sensor to read right. My question to my dealer would be, I still used 2 quarts of oil in 2000 miles, oil migrating away from the sensor while driving, doesn't cause oil to permanently leave the engine, does it?

I have driven my car very hard for the first 1600 miles and as I said is one third quart low. Some of these cars burning excessive oil, could have something wrong with them, or as has been previously posted the oil is getting checked to close to turning the engine off causing a false low oil reading. Just some thoughts on the subject.

 

It's very likely oil consumption during the very early life of the engine will be a bit higher than later on. As the parts are wearing into spec, there might be a bit more blow-by than normal, causing slightly higher oil consumption.

Speaking of, RX-7's routinely have the oil light come on during VERY hard left-hand turns (like the kind of G's you pull in an autocross) due to the oil sloshing away from the oil level sensor.

I really wouldn't be concerned about oil consumption unless the car was leaving oil fog behind it.

Dale

 

It's funny to read this post - my 8 started doing this two days ago. I pulled over immediately (having driven the FB for a while - I respect the idiot lights) and checked her out. The level was half way up the dipstick, right in the zone. It had burned some since I bought it (I checked it day one), but it certainly shouldn't be setting lights off. My VIN is prior to Rudenauer's, so I guess I'll make an appointment - and maybe I'll get some squeaks/rattles sorted out as well.

Good post Rudenauer - I might have not thought too much about the intermittent light as a serious (new oil pan) problem before.

 

I am at 1700 Kms (1100 M ) on mine and i had this light go on once. i'll make sure they check it out when i take it in. My oil was right in the middle of the dip stick when the light showed up.

 

Could this oil pan retrofit be what the port campaign sticker under the hood of some of these cars represents? (I don't remember the campaign #)

 

Nothing to do with RX-8's, but a lesson from another Mazda driver. I had assumed that buying the top-of-the-range synthetic oils would be best for my Mazda Xedos ... how wrong could I be!! I was putting a litre in every 700 miles (after the car had done 75,000 miles). Recently put the car in for a service where they replaced the oil with bog standard non-synthetic stuff and I've done 1000 miles and the oil level has hardly dropped.

Anyone technical in the industry know why this might be? (and BTW - no I didn't have an oil leak)

 

i just want to comment on two things. i noticed doing research that they dont seem to build the cars in numerical order, it seems more likely that they build in batches of colors. for example with the fd's they will build 3-4-5 red ones in a row and then 3-4 blue.
two wierd things about that are, if they know they are going to build in batches of colors, why not make the vins match the build order. secondly evey picture you see they are not in batches of colors but mixed.

2. the 7th from last digit of the vin is the assembly plant. 0 is hiroshima, 1 is hofu, 5 is flat rock mi. the hiroshima plant is sophistocated enough that they can build the entire range of cars on one line.

mike

 

As I remember the manual says to wait 5 mins. before checking the oil. I assume this is so the oil can all migrate back into the pan so a correct oil level can be read. Maybe 5 mins is not enough time? But regardless, if you are losing 2 qts in <2000 miles I think a trip to the dealer is in order.

 

as long as you check it a consitant way it should be fine.

mike

 

I’ve had the same issue appear on my RX-8 with 1800 miles. I was driving it from Tucson to LA. I noticed the oil light come on when I was over 90 mph. When I lowered the speed to 85mph the oil light went off. It did not seem to be tied to RPM, just the speed. I’ll have to take the RX-8 in for service, I suppose.

Oh, and a truck threw a rock at my windshield and cracked it. Plus a piece of sheet metal was tossed at my front end, scraping the passenger front bumper and cutting into the fog light plastic housing.
Bottom line, stay off the I-10 in Arizona.

 

PS.. https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...+barbara+drive

 

Holy ghost from the past, batman