I was in my 05 black 6MT driving to work monday morning, and i heard a sudden clash, it kinid of took me by supprise as it was early in the morning. i took my foot off the throtle and and coasted for a while trying to figure out what had just happend, but everything seemed fine after a minute of driving. i decided to just coast into work and hope everything was ok. it almost sounded like a belt was loose and flapping around. As i slowed down off the tollway i heard a clicking noise that slowed with the speed of the car. at this point, i knew that something was terribly wrong. I took a detour and went strait to the dealership (El Dorado, McKinney TX) and had them take a look at it.

A few hours later i recieved a call from the service tech, and told me that they had isolated the problem to the rear differential. they drained the fluid and found metal chunks and metallic differential oil. they did not know what had caused it, but it was all under warranty. (yes!). anyway, the next day they had it fixed after replacing the entire differential, and now it runs like new.

has anyone else had a problem like this occur? i found it odd that the car only has 16K miles and had a problem like this. any ideas why this happened? anyway, i just needed to vent a little, so let me know if you have any ideas why this happened/comments.

 

could have been just a bad part. it happens.

possibly just out of alignment from the factory?

 

random manufacturing defect is all i can come up with, haven't heard anyone else have their rear diff blow up on an all-stock RX-8 (i assume yours is stock?)

aren't you glad Mazda gave us the 5 year 60k powertrain extended warranty lol

 

have heard of about 2 or 3.. it falls into the **** happens catagory... i would not worry about it...

i think it is great that you got great service....

beers

 

Yea, the service was excellent, and they said that it wasnt common at all, but like you said... **** happens.

BTW, i have a racing beat REVI intake, and a RP high flow cat. but i can not believe that either of those had an effect on the rear diff. in addition, i have greddy strut bar, clear corner lenses, and painted the calipers black.

anyway, i have had the car back for just over 24 hrs, and everthing is running great.

i still love this car!!!

 

you were making so much power with the intake and high flo cat that you just broke your diff. just like what happens to 03 cobras when they are pushing 900 hp

 

That's amazing service! It took my stupid local dealership 3 days just to change a catalytic conv. Maybe I'll just move down there.

 

they didn't have any issue with the 12" wide rear drag slicks you had on in the back?

 

Mine didnt even say anything, CEL came up, They replaced it.

but they did show me the *dead* cat .... it was actually all empty inside. Theres no *CAT in the CAT*

 

it's all hung up inside your muffler instead ...

 

or in the windshield of the car behind you

 

My rear differential failed at around 70k miles on it, only mod on the car is a cold air intake so it's pretty much stock hp. It cost me $2700 to replace, it ended up being a pin in the rear differential that sheared which let another part move and the pinion gear was grinding into it. From what I've read not many people have had rear differential problems with the RX-8's, anyone heard of this happening? Does anyone think I can take Mazda to small claims to get my money back?

 

not a chance

EDIT: you can try, and waste your time and money

 

had you ever had the fluid in the diff changed?

 

good luck trying. the fail its gonna be epic.

 

I lost one in a 2005 AT. Just going around a corner and pop. The car had about 3500 miles on it.

It's not a common thing so I wouldn't worry to much about it happening again on the same car.

 

you quoted a 4 year old post

 

^was just getting on this thread to say that...