So this morning on my way to work it was a chilly morning so i thought nothing of it until the car warmed up and the check engine came on. The car is a 2004 RX8 with less than 50000 miles on it. It was running really sluggish and would not idle at a dead stop it would die. It would at times sputter a little bit and then act like normal again but then the check engine light would come back on and the car would again get louder like the exhaust was muffled and lose quite a bit of noticable power. By the time i got to work the 35 mins the light was off but did flash right before i turned in my parking lot. I then pulled in a parking spot and let it idle which it did fine but i am concerned what this might be. Never had any problems with it before this morning. The check engine light was never constantly on it would flash instead. Any ideas?

 

When was the last tme the coils were changed? Aslo spark plugs at what mileage?

 

I got the car at 31,000 miles and now it has 49,000 I myself have never changed the coils or the spark plugs and don't know the service record on it. So how are is it do this myself and also how much will it set me back?

 

Dealerships are known to charge 400 for spark plug changes. This is a pretty easy Do it yourself. I successfully did it and it was the first spark plug change I've ever done on any vehicle.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-spark-plug-change-31872/

Here's a DIY.

 

Also could be a clogged cat. I would bring it to autozone or somewhere you can get the code read for free so you know what's wrong. If you get a misfire code it's your coils. If you get a cat. code it's your cat. converter.

 

man they making cars now days where you can't even work on them yourself what a pain in @ss to just change the plugs!!! There is 4 total plugs correct? How many coils? 4 as well?

 

I am thinking this is a possiblitiy too because of the sound the car was making and i actually checked my tailpipes because it seemed like someone shoved something in them because it felt like it was having problems breathing. I guess my best bet like mentioned is to get it scanned at autozone.

 

Yep. If the cat is bad it will be replaced under warranty. Keep in mind that a bad cat. won't always cause a cel. So if you find it's a misfire code, replace your coils, and still feel like it can't breathe you may still have a bad cat. The dealer will need to physically unbolt it and look inside to see if it's melted or not.

 

Now that you mention melted. It smelt like melted plastic in my car at certain points on the way into work.

 

sounds like the cat to me too. mine went on my 04 at 29k. main symptom was it had no power over 5k rpms. i recently replaced the coils and plugs too, but that was to fix hard starts and a rough idle. i'm at 85k miles now. cat has been my only major issue.

 

^^yup that sounds right.

 

When my cat went i had no power in the low rpms and it took forever to hit like 30mph downhill. Also i had no check engine light

 

Well update guys. That very night on my way to the dealership from work the car went up in smoke and i had to pull over to the side of the road and wait 2 hours for a tow truck. The word from the Mazda dealer is the check engine light was on for a random cylinder mis-fire and the oil barely came up to the dipstick tube so it was very low on oil with no traces of leakage. They wanted all my service records the engine is toast and they need to replace it. I told the guy that if it isn't leaking because i have no oil spills on my driveway then it had to be burning it, oil doesn't just disappear. So it sounds like they're trying to do anything and everything not to have to replace the engine for free because it is under factory warranty.

 

you do know that the rotary engine uses engine oil to lubricate the apex seals in the combustion chamber. So the engine burns oil by design from day one. You have to check your dipstick periodically and add oil between oil changes, usually about 1 qt. Also you have to get an oil change every 3,000 miles because oil degrades faster in the rotary engine.

 

oil was changed 2000 miles ago.

 

there is a thread here stating the sway on the dipstick, can't find it at the moment. I think its about 1 quart between the 2 marks. So after 2000 miles, it barely coming up to the bottom of the dipstick is probably normal. A little high on the oil usage but not out of the ordinary.

You gotta start checking your oil sooner then 2000 miles. I check mine every other fill up. I usually put in about a quart at about 1,500 miles. Also to note, that if both sides of the car were jacked up when you performed your oil change you have to put in about 4.7 quarts of oil compared to the recommended 3.7 for an oil change.

Although if this was only done a few times it shouldn't mean a smoked engine and hopefully they will replace it under warranty (8 years, 100k miles).

 

Yeah well I told him I am not a mechanic. I said if a light comes on I take it to AutoZone for a diagnostics scan. I get the oil changed and I have them change the filter if needed. I have had the car for 8 months and I have had the oil changed on a regular basis and never had any lights come on other then tire pressure light the entire time I had the car until Thursday morning. That’s when everything went to hell in a hand basket. But like I said I bought this car from CarMax and they mentioned nothing to me about having to check the oil every other day on it or any service advice on it. I have owned 15-20 vehicles in my life from old beaters to new cars. Never once in my life have i owned a car that went through oil like this thing apparently did. My guess is they're going to screw me over on this and i will have to pay out of pocket for this motor which is not cheap i have priced it already! Maybe i'll just throw an old twin turbo rx7 motor in it. lol