Yea this guy know something about rotary. When I told I have rx8 he knew it has a problematic engine and knew about the engine recall/warranty. There are lot of rx8s too in my town...

 

^ none of that means anything. Just the fact that he knows about the "recall" proves he doesn't actually know anything beyond rumor.

Since it wasn't a recall...

 

This is not going to end well.

 

Yea but... it's better than "what is rx8" or "what's rotary?"

 

It doesn't mean he actually knows what he is doing.

 

even people who OWN rotaries... dont know about the rx8..

out of all of the rx7 owners ive met off the forum, 80% told me i will have to probably rebuild my motor at 30k...

i told them im at 35-40k whatever and they were like wow, thats impressive.

this is really dumb. take the advice everyone is telling you..

Unless the shop sees rotarys regularly... i DOUBT, I SERIOUSLY DOUBT they would have a compression tester for a rotary engine.. AND THEY ARE DIFFERENT THAN PISTON ENGINE COMPRESSION TESTERS...

listen to the people on the forum and stop making things more complicated than they have to be. We know what the hell were talking about. You arent the first one that drove through water.

you arent the only one with bad dealership expereince.


Oh and a non rotary owner asked if i needed to buy a forged triangle if i wanted to turbo my rx8..

/endrant.

 

at least he knew they were triangle shaped, even guys at the parts counter have a hard time understanding that there's 2 different sets of spark plugs.

 

Just out of curiosity, would I be better off by parting out my rx8? I looked my private sale value and it was around $9000...let's say maximum $10000 (I think mine is grand touring... I got heated, power leather seats, moon roof, but no navigation).

If it is really going to be cost $6000 to fix it, and if I can earn $5000 for parting out, and combine the $6000 for the repair cost, I would have $11000 in my hand, instead of $10000 maximum value for my 8.

 

You would not get $10k, even private party, even if this wasn't a problem. The trim is no longer a real factor in the price. A 2004 is worth ~$9k tops at that mileage. Blue Book will show higher than people are willing to pay.

Yes, parting out can net you a fair amount of money, as lots of our parts are quite expensive, and there is more money sitting in parts than most people realize. But it will still be quite a bit of work, and time. Just some info if that's the way you go.

 

Thanks.
So if I choose to part out, would I have to take all the parts by myself? or is there a place that specialize part out jobs?

 

I don't believe there are any for the RX-8. Other cars, there are places that buy up wrecked or dead cars and completely gut them for anything of value, but they are pretty model specific. Like I know of 3 buy dead/wrecked Miata's and part them out as a business. Only Miatas though. And you would be selling your car to them for $500-$1000, they would be making the profit and doing the labor.

Parting out is entirely a you-do-it, if you want the net higher cash value. Take a look through part out threads here and you can see the fine-grained detail of what people are looking for.

The big stuff is easy:
Drivetrain:
engine and accessories, transmission, driveshaft, rear diff, axles, exhaust

Body:
bumpers, doors, trim, windows

Electrical (may be water damaged, so don't hide that)
control modules, sensors, switches, relays, wiring harnesses

Suspension:
steering rack, tie rods, suspension arms, shocks, springs, hubs, wheels, subframes

Interior:
seats, trim, dash, console, head unit, wiring, airbags, sensors, liners, sunvisors


And after that you get into more of the little stuff and the hidden stuff. There are a LOT of parts that make up our cars. When everything else is stripped, there are sometimes race teams looking to buy bare frames, but that's not common.

There is indeed alot of money there if you take the trouble. Otherwise you might find someone to buy the whole car for $2k-$3k, as a blown engine possible + water damage to electronics. That might even be a bit too high. You might have other options to get it on the road for much cheaper. But I would see your car as a salvage title car that still needs to be repaired. If you had comprehensive insurance then your insurance company would have totaled it and written you a check for $8k-9k and you could move on.

Tough lesson.

 

Thanks!
BTW, now I have the FULL COVERAGE insurance. Lesson learned.

 

bring it by, i'll part it out.

labor would cost you about $5000 to strip it all down, in 3-4 years when you get all the parts sold you will get your $5000 in earnings back.

sorry that was sarcasm.

point of parting out a car is doing the labor yourself to cover your losses otherwise it is pointless and very labor intensive.

 

you sold your shop right?

Ive seen you post a lot in rx8club within the past day or so, thinking about an rx8??

 

didn't wind up selling or closing.

and own an '04 lightning yellow GT 8 now as well(too good a deal to pass on, even though i'm not as fond of these as the sportier and turbo cars) as the TII but sold the '74 REPU which is now a turbo'd full bridge 3B(port casting) semi modified '74 13B block(rebuilt that one a few weeks back). least it went to a good home.

i just don't really advertise here since i still am quite busy with the 7's and older rotaries but get several 8's in for work each month. thinking about expanding to 2 units and doing the renesis engines versus remans but still throwing ideas around since there is no way i can do all that by myself. the 8's are coming out of the woodwork now that the 8yr/100k warranty is up for the early models.

 

oh cool, i havnt been on 7club in a while, i should really get back and continue the endless research.

 

It it were me I'd consider paying someone $1000-1500 to swap in a low miles used engine from a later year wrecked RX8 since your car is apparently very nice otherwise. OR just sell it needing engine work for 1/2 price? Parting out is fine for a wrecked car to recoup insurance deductibles is all.

 

HotBrothers, did you even do what most people recommended here? It seems you are just bringing it to different shops but doing nothing yourself.

At least try taking the plugs out and cleaning the whole intake system, it's only a couple of hours and could save you thousands, worth it isn't it?

If you had 1/3 of you car submerged that means water should've gone inside the car as well, isn't the inside of the car damaged?

 

Hi
I did not bring it to other shops. I phoned many other shops here and asked whether they have done rotary engine works before, none said yes.

I asked mazda about the compression test result, he said mine got 4.9, and he said 6.0 is the minimum to start the car.

I just got back to town and will go to mazda tomorrow... will take everyone's advice here to the mazda tomorrow

 

Engine can start even with 4.9. you are not getting performance that's all

Good luck with Mazda dealership ... most of them don't know what they are doing and will throw as much random bs at you as possible.

 

Update:
Below is the initial estimate for the repairs you vehicle needs. Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and is likely to increase once engine tear down begins. There are other components on the engine that will be inspected that are not accessible at this time that may require being replaced.
*
Engine short block $2001.00
Engine gasket set $127.35
Starter***************** $434.24
Plug cord set******** $106.49
Spark plug set*******$192.11
*
Labor 19.5hrs @ 92.00 $1794.00
*
Total Initial Estimate $4655.19. This does not include oil, coolant, sales taxes or shop supplies charges.
*
Supplemental*parts estimate is $1000.00 [coils, bolt connectors (oil injectors)]


Bringing my 8 back to my home today!

 

$192 for a spark plug set that does not include labor.

That should tell you right there.

They are $20 each, $80 total.

 

low compression results can be caused by the water it ingested. follow the mazda "engine fails to start" procedure B by adding 30cc's of engine oil or 2 stroke oil to the engine and airing out the water and fuel from the engine before attempting to start it.

and of course verify it is getting fuel and spark, your ECU may have gotten drenched with water and is offline and either needs to be replaced or dried out. i still haven't heard mention that they have verified it has spark or fuel yet. newer cars also run on a BUS, which is basically like an ethernet for computers, if once computer goes offlines it has the possibility of turning off others it is tied to as well. diagnosing newer cars can be quite costly if the car is in the wrong hands.

you can save a few bucks ordering some parts yourself as well. OE NGK plug wires and spark plugs are $120 from rockauto.com versus the $300 esitimate you were given, thats almost $200 in savings on basic parts...

another flooded 8 was just on the forum a few weeks back, but apparently that engine took in enough water to crack the block, but i'd still like to see pictures of that one because it is difficult to believe. if you have a long RAM intake system with filter at the front bumper, it's not a bad idea to create a splash shield so it doesn't ingest too much water in case of floods(something i need to do because my filter is exposed and it floods quite often here).

 

Karack, both of the threads linked in my first response above have pics of cracked blocks after ingesting water by driving in too deep. Nearly identical in how they cracked.

I'm aware of a 3rd that had a similar problem, though he was barely rolling and in neutral or clutch in, so it just stalled the engine and didn't have the inertia of the drivetrain pushing the engine around harder. I believe he still replaced the engine, but it wasn't a cracked block.

I believe they all did have a long aftermarket intake with a low filter. I don't think this is really possible on an OEM intake, as I think the engine would stall from electrical or other problems from the water well before the water got high enough to ingest enmass.

 

probably, i see that filter sitting mid bumper on my car and i know it's a problem with the heavy rain out here. got me worried enough to make a splash shield to hopefully keep enough heavy water out.

just found it strange as i never encountered it on the older engines, but they also have larger pockets to keep from hydrolocking. even the stock filter has a low intake path so i can envision if the aftermarkets can suck in enough that even the stock airbox might. but you'd think the stock plate filter would keep it from coming in in massive amounts.

seen stat gears break, rotors reclock and cause massive failures probably similar, just never due to water ingestion.