Judge Ito

I am seriously upset. I know I drive my car hard, but I also drive every single rotary engine that I build harder and my engines don't break this easy. When I first purchased the Rx8 my rear was humming on deceleration. I figured Ill take it back later when I had time. Later my tranny broke 3rd and 4th gears. I still needed the car for everyday use so I got by. meanwhile I called the dealer and told them to give me a date for me to drop the car of. later on that day I was driving normal not even pushing the engine hard and the engine broke and apex seal. I took the car back to my shop and I did a compression test and the rear rotor was dead. previosly to all this failures I notice hesitation on initial start up. From day 1 the tranny was making a loud input shaft bearing noise at idle in neutral. Like I said I drive the car hard but I also have pushed many rotary engines to the point of no return and no engine damage was caused. I'm talking about 44lbs of boost and up to 250plus shot of nitrous on some Non turbo engines and no damage. to the contrary the power that is created at this levels of boost and nitrous is pure heaven. I'm seriously upset with the the Rx8.

Kev

Have you been running racing fuel in this engine? I'm not suggesting that as the cause, just curious.

Judge Ito

When I tested the car 3 weeks ago at the drag strip I used higher octane to prevent detonation. Only because I had tested and seen alot of timing advance under a load. Meanwhile weeks later Im using regular octane and doing my regular driving. and when I least expected snap,crackel, pop apex seal gone.

mikeb

that sucks
sorry

Tamas

iTrader: (1)

Oh boy... sorry to hear your misfortune - but at the same token, I sure wouldn't let you drive my car :p

neit_jnf

WOW! I really want an RX-8 but with so many failure stories I'm begining to be worried. I owned 2 rotaries before, a 12A and a 13B both non turbo. I drove them as hard as I could and they never failed on me.

Are you taking it for warranty repairs? I wonder what they'll say when they find all of your drivetrain main components broken!

By the way, how do you know an apex seal went out and not a side seal like some other reported engine failures?

Kas

is the renesis using the same 2mm apex seals as earlier 13b's, E.G FD?

Judge Ito

Apex seals are responsible for the engines main compression. When the apex seals break the engine will read no compression to very little compression. The side seals are in the side of the rotors and not responsible for the type of compression that the engine lost. Yes back for warranty repairs.

I am seriously going to look into the mis-firing problem that has been reported and try to fix that problem. Because my Rx8 is going to get some mod's and before I go further I want to fix this engine issues.

Judge Ito

The renesis is using a new type of 2 piece 2 mm apex seal designed to seal better at higher rpm's

Digisan

Wow! Just when I thought some boost would be nice. Must be that dreaded oil injector failure that I've heard others talk about.

RX-GR8

Judge Ito wrote.

From day 1 the tranny was making a loud input shaft bearing noise at idle in neutral.

mine too. so does that mean my engine is doomed too? as soon as i push the clutch in it goes away. sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Crashunit

No offense but ever since I bought the RX-8 I noticed right away, this was by no mean a replacement for the RX-7. It handles great, and has killer brakes as well, but I bought the car knowing full well it was not a newer RX-7. The car is very weak imo. The car just doesn’t make enough HP let alone TQ, it shares the same weak tranny as the mita and S15, and the engine design is just not that much of an improvement. Moving ports to the side and adding an extra injector or two (which is basically all Mazda really did) really hasn’t done **** to make it any stronger, last any longer, or get better mileage. If I had it my way, they should have just left the 13B alone and gave it a simpler twin turbo set up. If I’m going to blow the motor anyways, Id like to at least have the power to make me feel like it was worth it. And the mileage is worse then my FD with 1600 secondary injectors, which is just ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love the RX-8, but it’s just not at the level Mazda promised, and makes me think how much the Renesis sucks compared to the FD motor. Now that I think about it, the RX-8 feels more like a Cosmo replacement minus a rotor .

RX-GR8

so if you knew all this why the heck did you still buy 1?

Fab 8

If you felt straightaway that it was weak, did you jump at the chance to return the car?

ZoominRex

Crap mine does the same thing...Now I am nervous...I don't even drive her that hard

GooOnYou

How many miles did you have on your car when this happened? And how many miles were on it when the seals broke?

Crashunit

I bought it cause I needed a daily driver with 4 seats :D . And its a great looking car with potional never the less. Plus I'm patrial to the rotary either way .

Crashunit

actually believe it or not I waited till after the buy backs, so I didnt get that option. If mazda were to re-release the most current J-spec FD again however, Id drop the RX-8 in a heart beat. But with what is currently still out there, I dont think I would. Like I said I still love the car, but I just knew it wouldnt be as easy to make it as fast as compared to the FD. And Im mailny just dissapointed in mazda crapping out on design of the motor and transmission, it could have been so much better. However, everything else on the car minus the OBD2 couldnt have been better .

rxeightr

I personally do not see a design flaw with the powertrain of the RX-8.

While I have not taken mine to the dragstrip like some, I am certainly enjoying every speed accelerating opportunity, and running through the gears.

As a matter of fact, lately I have been able to break the tires loose more often. Not sure if the tire rubber is getting stiffer from the cooler weather, or the RENESIS is loosining up some more power, or I am just doing a better job of hooking up the tranny.

I refuse to baby a Sports Car, unless of course it is 20+ years old.

wakeech

the tranny whine is supposedly normal, so make of it what you will. probably nothign to get this excited over.

simply 'cause Ito broke it doesn't mean that the engine is weak. he's one of the baddest ****'s in the rotary tuning community, this isn't the first engine he's busted up (i'm quite sure).

it's a new engine, and there are so many "maybe's" and "what if's" that you can't start making snap decisions about the reliability of the 13B-MSP from this one failure.

relax.

Kas

wakeech, thanks for the snap back to reality. People underestimating mazdas long history of over engineering their parts must be playing havoc with peoples minds.

Zonker04

I'm not so sure the Miata/RX-8's tranny is inherently weak. I was running an FM II turbo Miata with about 230 RWHP and 220 ft lbs. of torque, 12 PSI and 100 octane unleaded, and my tranny held up fine.

Flyin' Miata has probably sold around 75-150 of these turbo kits, or maybe even more (?), and I haven't heard of too many Miata trannies blowing up. (Instead, the diffs can blow on the 1.6 Miatas and wheel hop can kill the diffs on the 1.8s). As far as I can tell, the Miata tranny is quite robust and normally can handle more power than a stock RX-8 could ever dish out.

I think Judge Ito just got a defective car, which is a bummer, but not out of the realm of reason for a new model car with a revised 13B engine.

I'm also curious why you bought an '8 if you are so critical of it. I love mine!

rxphink

There are a few Miata's running around with 400+ HP and the stock tranny.
At least one full time drag car that I know of still use the stock trans.

The tranny is quite robust.

Crashunit

Im critical of it, because cause I really care about it . If I didnt care, I wouldnt have voiced my opinion. And about your mita putting out 230 rwhp thru that tranny and diff is exactly what I am talking about. 230 rwhp is not much, My FD put out 350 rwhp at 12 psi on 91 octane, and most FD tranny's can hold up to 450 rwhp fine. Where as I dont see the RX-8 tranny holding more then 300 rwhp without problems. Most Mita's dont put down power like that, and most S15 owners swap out there 6 speed for the older 5 speed once they get over 400 rwhp. They just dont hold up. As for the RX-8 diff. , im not too sure about it yet, but so far Im not too impressed.

Most likely its probably just me tho, since at heart I still think like an RX-7 owner and expect more from the car. If any of you had own an RX-7 like the FD, you would probably know why Im so critical with the RX-8.

Crashunit

Well there are always exceptions, but I wouldnt be suprised if they were rebuilt or reinforced.