So I was talking to olddragger about some tranny issues I was having and mentioned I had 73K miles on my 8. He said that was the highest mileage one he'd heard of so I figured I post this up to make others aware of what I'm going through at the moment.

On Sunday I lost the clutch, would engage when I pushed the pedal down. The car has been in the shop since Monday and my mechanic just called me with an update to whats going on. They currently have the exhaust system, transmission, and drive shaft out of the car. Purpose of the fix is really just to change my flywheel, pressure plate, clutch disc, and bearings. As a courtesy they are inspecting underneath the car. This is what they came up with.

1. Oil Pan Rusting - apparently the oil pan is rusted almost to the point of leaking. They suggested a replacement. I will be replacing it with the GReddy oil pan before the winter comes (has anyone installed this oil pan themselves?). Had they not told me this, I would have never known until I was leaking oil all over the place and the car shut down. The mechanic said the oil pans rusting out are a common issue for Mazdas. If you drive you car in the winter and you have above 50k miles, I would at least check it.

2. Shielding around drive shaft - Same issue. The shielding around the drive shaft is rusting through and there are small holes. This could cause some damage is something kicked up from the road and damaged the shaft.

3. Clutch completely worn - Now this may depend on what kind of driver you are. However, the more research I do, the more I read that the clutches in our cars are only meant to last around 70k miles. If you baby it maybe 80-85K. I will be replacing it with ACT Prolite Clutch and Flywheel.

Just wanted to pass along some info for those northern folks who drive in snow. When all said and done, new clutch, new flywheel, new oil pan, new drive shaft shield, labor, this will all cost about $1800 in repairs.

 

It would help to know where you're located (I see "northern", but maybe you could be more specific, some states have reputations for being crueler than others w/respect to salt etc.) and what kind of winter(s) and road treatment conditions the car has been through.

I also have a relatively "high" i.e. 55k, miles Rx8. IMO, the car has been relatively bullet proof with regard to ordinary, non "wear & tear" mechnical issues. I have had a leak at the back up light sensor in the transmission, and one electronic key fob failure, both covered under warranty. No signs of the rusting you mention. The car has been kept in Colorado and driven mostly in the Rocky Mountain West, racking up miles on r/t excursions to Las Vegas, Utah, Iowa and Kansas for track day events. Of course, IMO, Colorado winters except for CDOT highway "gravel" road rash are not as corosive as winters back east. Things just tend to stay dry out here. The highway department is using less salt too, and claim the new road treatment, mostly magnesium chloride, http://www.cotrip.org/winterdriving/...treatments.htm is supposed to be a "kinder, gentler" chemical on vehicles. The gravel unfortunately, is still gravel.

FWIW, I was going to replace the Rx8 with a Cayman S, but .... so far I believe the Rx8 is, in its modified form, is substantially quicker around a road course than the Cayman S in totally stock form. I get better valet parking treatment with the Cayman, but that's not why I bouight it. I just may have to keep the Rx8 around for awhile longer for HPDE days. It drives quite a few of the German Car marques, and others, a Ford SVT Club HPDE comes to mind, nuts once the drag racing is taken out of the equation and a few corners are thrown in :-)

 

Please also let us know what this could cost. At 72,000 miles I figure on a new clutch for me next year.

 

No problem mlx8. I'm located just outside of Boston MA. The car has been through 3 New England winters which can be rough. The do use quite a bit of salt on the highways here. However, on the secondary roads they are going to a minimal or no salt mixture because of all the state parks and protected lands up here. My car has also been extremely bulletproof. Not counting the money I have spent on mods, I have spent NO money on repairs for this car, this is the first repair its had.

Expo1, I decided to put the ACT Heavy duty street clutch, ACT prolite flywheel, and new bearings in. The parts were around $825, and the labor will be around $600. If you just did the clutch, you could get an ACT one for $375. I decided to do the flywheel because it was no extra labor since they would have to remove the stock flywheel to resurface it anyways.

 

I drive mine every day so I would not go too heavy duty on a new clutch, but I also would change the flywheel when I do change the clutch. Jersey winters are not too bad and my 8 sleeps in a garage so rust is not a major concern of mine.

 

Interesting info. I've never heard of Mazda's having issues with oil pans though. For the 10 years I've owned cars, they have almost all been Mazdas or Mazda powered and never had an issue, nor have I ever heard of that on any other Mazda. Hopefully it was a freak case, sucks for you though.

 

What, mazda got rid of the automatic oil pan oiling system to prevent rusting of the pan that was on earlier 13b's?

 

Just an FYI, changing the clutch disk is a do-it-yourself job.. you just have to be willing to tear apart most of the underside of the car..

Last I heard is was something like $1200+ to get it done.

 

just curious, did you ever spray down the underbody of the car in the winter?

i've been doing it every 1-2 weeks last winter, just go to a coin-op wash and try to spray the salt down. however, i don't know how effective that really is as the car sits pretty low and it's not easy to aim for anything in particular.

 

Also, do you garage the car and if so, is it a heated garage?

 

We have changed oil pans because of rust but only older cars--323s and the like.On RX-8s we have not seen a problem other than rust on the surface.You may want to check it yourself.

We have not seen a problem here.You may wish to check it yourself.

So do want the clutch to last forever?73k miles is not bad and as I read above your clutch disc was worn out and not a component failure.l