Ok, so maybe not major work but, I just completed my first work on the RX-8. I have done a fair amount of work myself on my other vehicles but was sort of intimidated by the Renesis as this is my first rotary. After much reading, I decided to go for it.

I bought my car with 12,000 miles on it (2005 sunlight silver) and have no idea how well it was taken care of previously. I have about 25k on it now and decided to do the 30k maintenance early (had a misfire at high rpm's and whether it was related or not, just decided I wanted to get it all done and see the condition of things). I did new coils, plugs, plug wires, air filter, oil change, and tranny fluid. I was surprised that the torque spec on the spark plugs was only 11 foot pounds - which seemed not so tight.

Before this I was taking it to the dealer stealer for service so I imagine it was all 5w-20 oil to this point. I used magnacore wires, stock coils, NGK plugs, Redline 5w-30 oil, and Redline MT-90 tranny fluid. My tranny fluid was BLACK (yep that's a pic of the tranny fluid not the oil) and the plugs were very brown with some black. I use almost exclusively Shell 93 V-Power and have started premixing with about 4 oz. of MMO for every 10 gallon fillup.

The car seems to purr just a little bit nicer than before (though once a couple days after the change it did have to crank for about 5 seconds before it started - this is the longest it has ever cranked and I have never flooded it) though it's possibly just the placebo effect.

All in all, it was really fun to work on and I think it went well. Let me know what you all think - does all of that sound ok - should I be concerned with the blackness of the tranny fluid? My RX-8 is a daily driver in Chicago and I want it to last a loooong time - I love this car.

 

Sounds like you did good but wish pic of plugs was sharper.