shimm57

what is the recommended mileage to get oil changes

every 2k miles?

Logan072

My dealer says 5000 miles with normal every day driving.
5 / 20w oil

TRZ750

The Rotary doesn't have blow by gasses so the oil stays in better condition than it does in a piston engine. The Owner's manula says 7500 for most drivers and it would be a waste to change more often. When GM was developing the rotary they were going to have no changes and have the engine and automatic share the same oil!

I changed my 8 the first time at 3000 miles to get all the assembly junk out of the oil. Now I will follow the 7500 to keep from having any warranty problems. My 84 RX7 and REPU I would only change the oil & filter every 12 to 18 months and add oil as needed. Never had any problems. Anyone that has overhauled a rotary has found a clean oil pan and no bearing problems, unless the engine had been run low on oil. Keeping it full of oil is the most importand since the oil helps cool the engine.

93rdcurrent

I changed mine the first 3k miles.

Now I am following a 5k mile regimen but I live in a cold weather climate.

NAVILESRX8

iTrader: (1)

I am retarded and crazy.....I change mine every 2000 miles.....

Winning_BlueRX8

I change mine every 3k miles.

w2aew

It's all clearly spelled out in the manual. 7500 miles for "normal" driving, and 5000 miles for "severe" driving. Severe driving is a lot of stop and go, etc. I've always followed the manufacturers severe duty oil change recommendation and have never had any oil related engine failures, with many engines going over 200,000 miles.

As mentioned earlier, the rotary engine is easier on the oil than a conventional engine. It is not just because of the reduced blowby gases, but also because of the dramatically reduced bearing/sliding/wearing surfaces. For example, no camshaft, cam bearings, lifters, rockers, valve guides, timing set, no rod bearings, wrist bearings, etc. The major bearing / wearing surfaces are the eccentric shaft bearings, and rotor gears.

Personally, I did my first oil/filter change at 1500, then at 5000, 10000, and will do every 5000 from now on.

I think 5000 is perfectly adequate. But, you can do what you like - you can never change it TOO often...

Senseny

I will stick with changing as soon possible or convenient after 3K. But I will not sweat it if I get up over 4K between changes. Hell if Mazda would continue paying in the preorder deal, I would change it every 500 miiles.

JeRKy 8 Owner

I havealways followed that 3000 mile oilchange car myth. Regardlessof whetheror not its actually authentic it Ido it every 3000 mileson my Rx8 as well since Iam too lazy to checkand add oil to the car every 1000 miles. Ive got 13000 mileson mine now and Ive never had to add oil eventhough I still check the oil levelafter every 2 fill ups.

SpacerX

Changed first at 3000. Changing again this weekend at 5000. Will change again at 7500 and 10000, then probably switch to 5000-mile intervals.

You might also consider changing out the tranny and diffy fluid after about 5000 miles to get the initial "break-in" metals out of those areas. I'm also changing those this weekend.

RX8by

I am changing at 3000 miles because you only change a portion of the oil. You replace only 4 qt. and it holds 6 qt. due to the oil coolers. My dealer recommends 3000 mile changes and for me free. i always lean to the change it often. Spend a extra $100 and save big bucks.

Twinturbo2800

so what oil are we soposed to use? and what do you guys reccomend? i couldnt find any info on it so i was using
10 w30 mobil 1 ? what should i use?


-josh

w2aew

This info, too, is in the owners manual. 5w20. Mazda's recommendation is for conventional oil, but many like synthetic. A search will reveal many threads on the subject.

Jeffjett

When checking oil, should you pull out stick, wipe it off and then push all the way down, or just push till the dip stick stops going in whthout pushing it all the way down? I usually do the latter.

Also, does anyone know where you can get a dip stick with a longer handle? The stock stick is relatively short and hard to reach.

Thanks.

SpacerX

You cannot go wrong with conventional 5w20 oils. Make sure it is certified API Service "SL" and ILSAC "GF-3". Look for an oil that achieves the Ford and the Honda specs for 5w20 (states the full spec on the package). Especially the Ford spec -- that means the oil will have been tested and proven to protect the engine to greater than 150K miles with normal changes. Given the comparatively benign environment of a rotary engine, WRT oil, I'm not doubtful of the 5w20 oil's capability to protect the engine.

SpacerX

Interestingly enough, ever since Castrol defeated the Mobil case against them (for marketing their "Syntec" oil as a "synthetitc" when it is really a highly refined mineral oil), the term "synthetic" is more of a marketing tool. It refers more nowadays to the level of performance (esp. base oil viscosity index or VI) you can expect from a particular oil, versus its actual origin.

The 5w20 oils are all very highly refined oils. I would expect any of the oils certified to all of the aforementioned specs to be a good choice.

Logan072

Where do you get 6 qts? The capacities says 3.7 in the manual.

And as for Synthetic, My drivers Guide that came with my car says use only non synthetic 5w-20 engine oil. My 2 cents is that if I got 200k on my 83 by following what manual said I am going to keep doing it.
P.S. I would have gotten more if my temp sensor had not gone out, so that I was not running my car hot for 2 months in the summer. Oh well I have a new engine in that car now and it still drives great.

Gord96BRG

No, it doesn't - it says oil change capacity is 3.7 quarts. Total capacity is 7.1 quarts. It is absolutely true that an oil change is only changing a little over half the total oil volume.

See this thread from July 31 last year - it was the first thread to discuss this issue.

In Canada, the recommended change interval is for the Severe service schedule, 5000 mi (8000 km). I let the dealer do the (free) oil changes every 8000 km, and at 4000 km in-between I change it myself. I don't believe changing only half the oil every 8000 km is adequate.

Regards,
Gordon

Logan072

SO were is all the other oil? is it in a holding tank? LOL
I thought that gravity would make it all run down into the pan, Its not there is a lot of places the oil can be stored in this motor. Just me being crazy I guess.

SpacerX

The oil is in the oil coolers and plumbing. It doesn't all just drain into the oil pan.

I recommend you use Gordon's link and read the thread.