I am 90% sure I will be buying an 06 RX-8. I love everything about the car. Not to beat a dead horse, but the one drawback is the overall power of the car. Does anyone have any practical solutions for getting another 25 HP out of the the car with out voiding the mazda warrantly. I think Mazdaspeed offers an exhaust and flywheel upgrade, but I'm not sure if installing a cold-air intake or any other major hp upgrades will void my warrantly.

I'm not a gear head by any means. Just future RX-8 enthusiast looking to get a little more out of an already great car. But to do it practiaclly.

Any suggestions/info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

bolt on a nitrous kit, in the event of a motor failure or service call, simply unbolt put back to stock and take it in.

I have 17,000 on my odometer and never taken it in for service, except for the visor and AC **** mafunction. Did all my own oil changes and did my own unflooding procedure in my driveway. I wouldnt worry with all that I/H/E crap youll get 10 hp max and its $$$. I say go with a user friendly 55 shot

 

I wasn't really thinking that extreme (Nitrous). I would also like it to be street legal. I live in PA. Thanks though.

 

Have you looked at the high HP section of the forum? You'll have to wait to see like the rest of us what the new ecu is going to be able to produce. The one thing that we know right now is it is $1700.

 

Good luck with that (read: not possible at this point)

 

But is it legal though as far as bringing it in for service

 

ECU? Sorry, bare with me.

 

ECU - Electronic Control Unit

Basically, they are trying to free up HP through bypassing the stock computer software settings

 

thats the kinds of things that cause the car companys to be so 'anti-mod' with the cars! They know that chances are if you have one mod, you probably have others.

Take some responsibilty for your actions! Its one thing if you bolt on an intake and your differential fails or something, there was obviously a problem with it, but when you push the car so hard it breaks, thats your problem and you have to deal with it.....its not mazdas fault the car cant handle a turbo or whatever, so if you destroy your car, deal with it.

/rant over

As far as more power goes....have you driven the car yet skeedaddy? Many people look at the cars power numbers and compare them to the other cars in their class.....wrong, go out and drive the car, its got a pretty good ammount of power for its weight and size, granted it could use a little more...but its not bad, or slow by any means! It feels a lot faster than it is, the power band is great once your moving and you can scoot around at a pretty good pace.

For more power, there are a few options... the problem is you picked out a number of 25 more HP, is there a reason for this? Anyway, the only power options you have are :

Maximize the airflow thru the engine (basicaly improve on what you got) by adding an intake, and exhaust....that MIGHT net you 10-15 hp.

Maximize the fuel you can burn in the motor, by adding a turbo/supercharger system...this will give you from 50-100hp with proper tuning but it will be expensive to do right

Tune the ECU (engine computer)...companys are still working on this, but when someone gets it right and puts it on the market it will be very popular and there is evidence that it could get you 20-40 hp more.

Here are the problems, turbo will instantly throw away the warranty on your drivetrain. Intake, exhaust....ect will be looked at different by some dealers, some will work with you, if its keeps all the stock emissions equitpment, others will throw your warranty out if they see anything. The ECU tuning stuff is also iffy.

Theres not really anyway to get more power and not void the warranty.

I love the car, and Im willing to wait for a good ECU to tune the car with, and maximize the intake, header and exhaust....that is the best way to get more power IMO.

 

warranty and lots more power simply don't mix, at least for now

 

Nice rant KYLiquid. If you want more HP then get a different car : ) the 8 does not need more hp

 

read the magnusson moss act http://www.google.com/search?client=...=Google+Search

and then check with your inspection station on what is legal in PA. or if you have lived there a long time you might even be freindly with the Inspection people in which case you can probably get by with something that you normally wouldnt for a case of longnecks

 

Thanks for the info. I'm not trying to scam Mazda or anything. I'm just curious what the warrantly provisions will tolerate and what they won't. Obviously mods like Nitrous and Turbocharging, won't work. I will be swinging by a "Mazdaspeed Certified" dealership tonight to see what they offer. I'm preparing to spend another $1K-2K for performance acessories, I'm just curious if anyone has had any experience or first hand knowledge of Mazda's warranty provisions or what Mazdaspeed offers as far as HP upgrades that are not on already on the web. (exhaust, flywheel). Thanks!

 

Like I was saying, its been my experience that as long as you leave the stock emissions systems in place, many dealers will be 'cool' with it. By that I mean you can mod the exhaust AFTER the catalytic converter and mod the intake BEFORE the MAF (mass-airflow sensor) of course that also means youll get the smallest gain from those 2 mods, but some users have found they do help improve response and MPG, although for the most part its just a change in sound and look.

The Flywheel will not make any more power, but it will 'waste' less, so response will be improved, as well as acceleration, more so in lower gears (1,2,3).

I would make friends with the service manager at my local dealer, and talk with them. I think a Cat-Back exhaust (racing beat, greddy, hks, borla, hymee, JIC, ect...ect) and get an intake (racing beat, HKS, aem, KN....ect) and a flywheel (would have to be mazdaspeed for warranty.

Thats a start, of course for all those parts (with install for the flywheel at the dealer for warranty reasons) your looking at around 1500 if you go with the cheaper parts!

 

Then after you read the Magnusson Moss act realize that most car manufacturers know you're not going to take them to court when they violate it. If you do, they have a lot more money and a lot better lawyers than you do. Sad but true.

 

yep you got to use that 6 degrees of seperation thing and make a lot of noise with that reporter freind of a freind. they may have lawyers but you can bring the kind of pressure they dont like

 

Not to mention taking them to court even for a blown engine is a small claims matter ($5000 & under). No lawyers. Make it a pain in the *** for them, and they will probably settle.

 

One pissed off DELL customer with a blog is credited with tanking DELL's stock price.

It's the old saying, a happy customer will tell 3 people; an unhappy customer will tell 10 people. In this case, he told millions.

That's an ongoing problem with traditional businesses like car manufacturers and their dealers. They underestimate the power of electronic communication and time and again it will bite them real hard.