Is there any way to turn off that annoying beep?!

 

Why would you want to turn it off? It sounds soo sexy.

 

The first time I heard it I thought it was an engine warning noise or something. It's distracting!

 

/\ It's to tell you ur redlining and you dont have to pay attention to the gauge

 

A redline a day keeps the carbon away. <-- Adopt it and live by it, or die from it. Who ever here baby's their engine, do me a favor and look up the Zoom Zoom Mazda Cleaner thread and perform this engine cleaning. All of the smoke comming from your tailpipe is carbon. If that isnt proof enough that our cars build up carbon excessivly, then idk what is. Why not redline the car once a day or once every couple of days? It's fun!

 

What prevents Mazda from enlightening us all on this germ of info?
Better still, why did Mazda bother to put a red line there, if it actually suggests incorrect behaviour? They could have just left it out as a cue to owners. but no, they have it. To me this is akin to a doctor saying, don't use cholesterol medicine, when you have cholesterol. What kind of dumbnut business would do something like that to their product?

To me, this doesn't add up. In fact, if this redline theory was true, I would be very disappointed at Mazda because it points to a major design flaw. One should redline as a matter of choice, not because if they don't something will go wrong. Personally, I enjoy trotting about and letting Cooper "asses" and "***"Ti and GTi boyscouts flying around like they are at Silverstone. They are not worth it, I just trot around enjoying low speed exhaust note and fresh air. There are many people who enjoy a car without having to speed and time they 0-60 miles/hr.

 

I don't need no stinking beep to tell me I'm approaching 9500 rpms! That's an all to familiar pitch to recognicze.

 

Technically, you're not at 9500 RPMs, you're at 9000. The gauge is off by 500 RPMs when your car's at 9000.

 

First, you can redline in 1st or 2nd gear and be going the speed limit. Second, this isnt like a Dr telling you not to take cholesterol medicine when you have high cholesterol. This is like a Dr telling you to take medicine, excersise, and eat better while you decide to only take 1 of the multiple actions recommended.

EDIT: RIWWP Said it better

 

I think you have a serious misconception here. At no time did we say that we redline to be asses or time ourselves, or speed, or any other actions you deem "not worth it". That being said, having a sports car of any type, engine, design, etc... encourages more lively driving. I'm not bashing you wanting to ride slowly and peacefully. I understand that, and accept it. You always do have a matter of choice in redlining or not. Just if you don't, be prepared to address the carbon buildup in another manner, because it is critically worse for us than piston driven cars.

And you might want to take note that it is not a 'design flaw' that the engine loves and accepts high reving. Actually quite the reverse. It is a light well balanced engine that doesn't have very many moving parts, and each combustion builds on the last combustion, rather than a piston engine which each piston has to 'start over' (for lack of a better term). All of these point to letting an engine rev significantly higher. And Mazda isn't the only manufacturer seeking high revs. Every single maker of every sports car recognizes that with the same torque, higher revs means more power. A rotary is simply designed for it more than a piston engine.

If you are implying that it is a design flaw that clearing carbon requires high reving, check what I said again. High reving will clear carbon in any engine, including piston engines. Just piston engines don't have the trouble from carbon build up that we do, and can't handle higher revs nearly as healthily, so they address it with all the dozens of fuel additives on the market.

You have the same option of using the fuel additives to clear your carbon. Most of us don't understand why you would take this route when the alternative is quite a bit funner and questionably less expensive, but it is there all the same. Most owners that don't give their engine a good wankling are also owners that don't pay attention to the need to keep the carbon clear period, so aren't likely to use any fuel additives. Just the fact that you are on the boards suggests that you are much more likely to address the needs of your car more than 'those other owners'.

Buying a car with a drastically different engine from historical piston preconception doesn't make everything different about it a design flaw. Seriously. If they wanted to make a piston engine, they would have made a piston engine. (and do, for other cars). If you put a nuclear reactor in the RX-8, I am 100% sure that it wouldn't have carbon problems and it wouldn't burn oil. But you would have to deal with plutonium and radiation. Does that make plutonium usage and radiation waste a design flaw? It's not a piston engine. Piston engine mentality needs to get thrown out the window, the same as if you were going from a piston engine to an electric engine. Or nuclear. Or steam. Or coal driven. Or horse pulled.

Think about it....

 

Again, find me an engine oil that burns without leaving residue. Carbon buildup is more pronounced in rotaries because they have to inject engine oil inside the chamber to provide lubrication. Piston engines do not have to, and so they burn a lot less engine oil. That difference alone should give you a clue that it isn't a design flaw, it's how the engine is supposed to work.

Why is there a redline on this car? Because running the redline for a long period of time will kill your transmission. Just revving it up there once a day isn't harmful to anything (except maybe the environment).

 

Incase you didnt know, our engine was made to burn oil. Typically, about 1 qt every 1000 miles. If this happened in a piston engine, there would be a problem.

 

new car break-in and rpm question.. let me hear some opinions. Mazda owners manual says that no break in is required however if you want it to last do a few things for the first 600 miles... I'm ready to let it go but have been reserved in the RPM range and not letting it go past 7K for short bursts not that I'm at 700 miles. Most of the driving was at no more than 4500 up to 600 miles. Thanks!! 2009 R3

 

haha i feel ya. mine just stares at me and says my full name. its kinds funny cuz she cracks a smile but i dont wanna **** her off.

 

Although it's kinda hard to do(damn near killed me), try and follow at least what the manual says. You will find others doing more or less, it's like anything else.

No special break-in is necessary, but a few
precautions in the first 1,000 km (600
miles) may add to the performance,
economy, and life of your Mazda.

1.) Don't race the engine.

2.) Don't maintain one constant speed,
either slow or fast, for a long period of
time.

3.) Don't drive constantly at full-throttle or
high engine rpm (over 7,000 rpm) for
extended periods of time.

4.) Avoid unnecessary hard stops.

5.) Avoid full-throttle starts.

Not really sure why #4 is there, but oh well.

You sir have reached the somewhat conservative threshold......................Let her rip!!!!!!! The smile will never leave!

 

with normal piston engine the power is below the redline, especially diesels. my civic redlines at 7200 with the v-tec but most engines it would be lover around 5500.
the rotary would produce more and more power the faster it rotates.

 

I just got a new engine so I did a lot of reading. There are a few methods that are used the most common. I read all three and used my best judgement. I am doing the following.

During the first 5,000 miles, do not use any synthetic oils. During the First 2,000 miles, do not go WOT.

For the First 1,000 miles, vary the revs as much as possible with the maximum rpm of 4k. After 1000 miles change oil and oil filter.

For the next 500 miles, vary rpms as much as possible with the maximum rpm of 6k.

For the next 500 miles, vary rpms as much as possible with the maximum rpm being the redline. Change oil and oil filter after 2,000 miles.

After that, be rev happy and enjoy. This is a mix between all of the methods I have read. This seemed like a decent procedure to me.

 

Once the engine's broken in, the oil consumpsion should probably be a bit less than that. I typically burn 1-1.5 qt between oil changes (I tend to go 4-5k as long as the oil on the dipstick looks pretty clean) and only rarely have to top it off - for some reason mpg and throttle response seems to suffer a little with the oil near the top of the dipstick range so I tend to let it stay at or below the middle but always ad a qt if it gets close to the low mark.

I do remember burning about 1 qt per 1000-1500 miles early on, as well as getting 11-13 mpg, but both of those improved gradually up to about 12-15k miles and have been pretty steady at .3-.4 qt per 1k miles on oil and 15-17 mpg in town (as high as 22+ on highway trips).

 

how much of a difference did the Racing Beat springs and sways make?

 

Thanks to all that have contributed to my question about break-in. I've hit 7k rpm's only a few times, very anxious to let it rip. all is going well for the R3. I topped it off once and guessed wrong as to how much to add...overfilled by about 1/2 qt. I had to drive back home about 20 miles to drain the oil and get it back to at or below the full line. Lesson learned.. cursing the whole time. Of course the manual says Never overfill, could cause engine damage... I hope driving 20 miles with 1/2 qt. to much (never exceeded 4k RPM's) did any engine/seal damage. Anyway thanks for the break in tips... I'm lovin the new 8, I traded an 07 mazdaspeed 3 (great car, to practical) no regrets at all.

 

I've had them on for so long now that I can't really remember what the stock setup felt like anymore. I ran out of daylight doing the install on the suspension kit and remember that the week I drove with the front upgraded and the rear stock was wierd (kinda made the car feel like a FWD, but I didn't really get on it to the point where power oversteer would kick in).

I know the car corners on rails with the RB set (the sways are somewhere between 2x and 3x the stiffness of the stock), although a co-worker commented that there wasn't exactly much body roll before. The main thing I know for sure is that the car can handle more lateral force than I've got the ***** to try on the street and I've never taken the time to get it out on a track or skid-pad.

I've since added a set of tokico d-spec shocks and a MS front strut brace (one day I'll update my sig), and I did notice a difference entering turns with the strut brace but that might be largely in my head since I do aerospace structural analysis for a living and couldn't believe there was much stiffness in the factory brace setup with the amount of flex that there looked to be in the brackets connecting the brace to the struts. There's definitely a difference in the brake pedal feel with the little master cylinder brace that's built into the MS tower brace. The last handling mod I'm planning is to get a rear strut brace on it, but I'm waiting to see a price on the resesigned gtspec brace before I make a decision on that one.

 

Good info on the sways. I've been trying to redline at least every other day. Still hard to get my mind around the fact that it's a good thing. Fun, tho.