I've always loved the RX8 and being a rotary fan, I am considering one for an everyday vehicle. I was wondering if anybody had information on longterm reliability on the RX8 and how it's been holding up for them over the miles. I understand that rotary powered vehicles can be great for track, but having an RX7 for a short period of time, I am curious to see how long the RX8 would last before any major issues come up.

 

Here are a couple of threads that may answer your question. https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/like-rx8-but-nervous-about-rotary-engine-72887/ and https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/how-many-you-think-youll-get-100-000-miles-your-rx-8-no-major-repairs-71248/

 

This is a tough question since the car has only been around a little over two years. Many have experienced 2 years of trouble-free driving, though some have not.

Only time will tell.

 

By and large, normally aspirated rotaries are bulletproof - treat them well and they last forever due to the lack of vibration and moving parts within the engine. "Treat them well" simply means keeping up with normal maintenance - oil changes every 3000 to 5000 miles, but no longer than every 3 months, keeping the coolant maintained and clean, which means flushing and filling every 2 years (or by mfr's recco - I seem to remember the Renesis' coolant is longer-lifed) and EXERCISING the car - as in, driving and enjoying it.

There's another thread just like this (might have been referred to above, I didn't follow the links) that speaks of one owner who is on his fourth or fifth rotary and every one of them lasted 150,000 miles + when the car was taken out by a calamity - in other words, no idea how long he would have ran.

Where you do get into longevity issues is when you turbo the engine - unless carefully tuned, turbos are hell on rotaries, and even the factory FD's weren't that well dialed in.

I'd say don't worry about it.

The ENGINE has been sold in the USA since 1972 in incrementally changed form. Yes, the car is 2 years old, but that's like saying the new C6 is an unknown liability when in fact the Chevy engine it's based on dates back to the 1950s!

 

Without getting too technical, can you explain why this is?

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT

 

Stew: Based upon my personal experience, I would have to agree with you entirely on how reliable naturally aspirated rotary engines are. My old RX-7(87 GXL) wasn't rebuilt, had well over 100k miles on it, and I've taken it to three autocross events, and several other track events along with putting about 20 miles on it daily. I assumed the previous owner took very good care of it using nothing but OEM parts throughout the car as well as having preventive maintanence work done ahead of time. I was blessed with a good owner.

I am glad to see that the majority of the owners on this website love their cars and the 50k+ mileage post really helped my decision. Now, if only if I can find a blue one. Thanks everyone.

 

I've seen 2nd Gen Rx 7 with 150,000 miles using the orginal clutch.

 

Very simple - detonation, heat and pressure. Turbos can increase the opportunity for detonation because of increased cylinder pressure and heat. Detonation in a rotary is catastrophic. Detonation in a piston car generally isn't unless the detonation occurs quite deep in the piston upstroke. Usually on a piston car, the detonation occurs just as the piston reaches top dead center (TDC), but since a rotary has no TDC to speak of, and much broader faces for the detonation to act on, it causes more damage.

Honestly, I'm not the turbo expert having not put a turbo into any rotary, but my experience with older RX-7s is that what breaks is NOT the engine core, but instead the car. And that's at a LOT of mileage.

But, turbos add heat and pressure to the engine. Detonation occurs under extreme heat and pressure. You have to very carefully tune a turbo car to control this and most "tuner" cars are not that controlled. Even the stock FDs had longevity issues due to the extra heat generated by the turbo.

I had a 1985 RX-7 that unfortunately I only had for a year. I've been looking long and hard to find a replica of it to buy just for fun (and the fact that it will be only $1500 or so) and recently drove one that was the right car, wrong color though. The rotary ran as smoothly as a new one and this car had 168,000 miles on it. No overhaul.

The steering box on the other hand (this was back when RX-7s had recirculating ball steering rather than rack & pinion - this due to the engine placement - the engine was further forward in those cars, leaving no room for the steering rack) had about 3" of slop in the "center" of the steering, half of the electricals didn't work and there was sunshine showing through the floor! LOL Wasn't exactly the best car ...

If there's going to be a weak point on an RX-8, it is NOT going to be the engine.

 

The herds of FastNFurious and Drifto fanboys will probably disagree with you :D

I dont know about long term, but 2year term of my 8 tells me all is well and in all likely hood, will continue to be so. I can't say the same for some of the other cars I've owned.

 

do you work for Mazda????




Last time I checked I technically didn't need the factory Recall since the aftermarket exhaust system kept heat off the underbody

Oh and starting the car in -20F was difficult until I got an aftermarket Optima yellow battery

btw I love mazda but come on :p

 

I'm just saying the vehicle seemed to be serviced regularly. The only issue I had was the differential mount. Other than that, most of the replaced parts on the car were original parts.

 

[QUOTE=RX8Bliss]The herds of FastNFurious and Drifto fanboys will probably disagree with you :D
QUOTE]

I believe this thread was about longevity, not horsepower.

 

Only time will really tell.

The NA rotaries of the past have all been very reliable. The Turbo rotaries were less so, because of the insanely high heat that the turbos generated in conjunction with an already super hot rotary. The twin turbo setup of the 3rd gen was rather complex. And to make matters worse, the aforementioned 2fast2furious crowd would mod the heck out of those cars.

The Renesis rotary in the RX-8 looks to be as reliable as the rotaries of old. Mazda entered the RX-8 in a UK endurance racing series this year, the most grueling form of racing there is. It recently proved itself by finishing strongly in a 24 hour race at Silverstone.
http://rotarynews.com/node/view/685

However, as a counterpoint, there have been a few engine failures that have yet to be explained. The majority of those have all been in Las Vegas. Seems to be something about the very high dry heat of that environment combined with the weight of the engine oil being used. Other than the Las Vegas incidents, most folks on this board have found the engine to be trouble free. I've had my car for a year and half and have had zero issues to date.

 

[QUOTE=StewC625]I wasn't actually commenting the horsepower, but rather the myth of the overheating engine and blown seals. But hey, I guess it works both ways.