Ok, well... I had a thread about a month ago, about how my car had the CEL (small vacuum leak) and how they replaced the Intake Manifold.

Well.. yes, the CEL went off. But my car's been driving as if the CEL was still on. (delayed shifting, irratic idle)

I called my dealership and I told them my situation and yet again, they're trying to weasel their way out of doing what it takes to fix my car...

I told the guy at the service dept. and he told me that delayed shifting and irratic idle are to expected because that's "normal" with the auto. rx8. Well...that's not how the car was when I bought it from them in March. I don't drive this car hard at ALL! In the last 3 months, I have about a handful of times that i've actually red-lined this car in auto/manual mode.

I'm sick of being told that this stuff is "normal" because I know that it's not.

I just wanted some opinions on how to go at this problem with my dealer. I don't know if my car need's a new engine or transmission, but it needs something because the difference from when I first drove the car to NOW is night and day.

Any advice will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

The only thing I can tell you is me and you had the same problem, they replaced your intake manifold, and they just did a flash on my CPU.

I still have the problem too...

 

Mazda's service is the absolute pits. The dealer screwed up and is now on the hook for any repairs he has to redo. Maybe another dealer would do the work, give it a try.

....and welcome to the worst rated service in the industry, zoom, zoom, doom!

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking of doing but I keep trying to have hope for my dealership because I hate knowing that the closest dealership to me can't help me fix the car that THEY sold me as "certified", which I guess was some guy with one eye that walked around the car twice. 120 Point Inspection my ***.

It sucks because I used to have my own mechanic back when I drove an eclipse, but now that I have a rotary, my only option IS to take it into Mazda and have it fixed under warranty... I Just wish that my dealer didn't dick me around so much.

 

maybe you need to drive your car harder....

 

I've thought about that but I don't want to make the problem any worse. I want to get it fixed and then go from there.

 

I think alot of us are in this boat, love Mazda but hate the dealer..

Try another dealer then its worth it, even if it is farther away, if they do good work and you can 'trust' them.

 

Ah..... the idle condition is normal.

The shifting... Don't have an auto, but the MAF can be dirty or perhaps the air cleaner is clogged.

Irratic shifting has been linked to the MAF sending the incorrect amount of load to the ECU.

 

There are some great dealerships out there. One of them is fairly new located in North Tampa.

Wesley Chapel Mazda seems to be a great choice to get your 8 serviced. Members of the Florida RX-8 Club http://www.flrx8club.net drive as far as 100 miles to get there car serviced through Mario.

So if you are located around the Tampa Bay area, he's the guy to call. Just mention you are in the RX8club.com or FLRX8club.net and he'll hook you up.

Here are some pics at the event we had there too. https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Wesley

http://www.mazdaofwesleychapel.com/en_US/

 

Thanks for the tip NoPistonZ! I'm actually moving to Florida this fall to continue school I should be in the Cape Coral/ North Ft. Myers area. And i'll drive where-ever as long as it's done right.

 

haha just more of a reason to drive this car...not that we need it...

 

Does the rx-8 pick-up the idle condition as it gets over 20k miles? Because when I bought the car, it felt as smooth as butter. Now it feels groggy and sluggish. I'm going to go to a different dealership and ask them to check out what you mentioned, because I've heard of this MAF situation before but I don't anything about it...

 

haha exactly. I absolutely LOVE driving this car! That's why it bothers me that my dealer won't help because i'm not good with rotarys and I just hate to see my baby getting worse

 

No prob...hell, all you need to do is print this thread and bring it in with you...should suffice

 

Annnnnd my CEL just came back on and it's blinking.

Hard idle, feels like the car will stall whenever I give it a little gas when it's in first (AT)...And there's this loud knocking noise sometimes at idle.

I turn my AC off, the knocking noise and the feeling that the car is about to stall goes away. The idle RPM still moves up and down a bit, but no noise and I get good throttle response.

Anyone have ANY idea what's going on? Because these are the EXACT problems I was having when I took my car to the dealership 3-4 weeks ago and they said there was NOTHING wrong with it and reminded me to start using a higher octaine fuel.

This is just completely ridiculous now! There is obviously something with my car, whenever I start it up in the morning it drives great, but if I drive it for long enough it just starts to run like crap. (I guess that means after it heats up it runs like crap?)

I don't know what to do anymore =(