I hope everyone is having a great day! My name is Matt and I am a nOOb when it comes to the club. I have a 2004 RX-8 6-Speed. She has the Greddy cat-back system, K&N Factory fit filter, and a nasty attitude lol. I really want more mods, but money is tight these days, as you can imagine. I bought the car last year around this time actually. She had about 43k miles on her, and now, we are at 66k. Right before I bought the car, I was told the previous owner recently had new plugs installed. I don't know if this would have been a "warranty" replacement or he would have paid to have it done. To shorten up my story/question, my car has been running FLAWLESSLY since the day I bought her until the past month or so. It all started when I made my move to Atlanta, GA. I moved to an apartment barely 2 miles from my job. This shortened my daily commute from 40 miles a day (back and forth) to 4 (back and forth). Since then, I have noticed a few changes/issues: I started noticing the milky oil on the dipstick like everyone talks about. I, personally, am VERY pissed off by this. The primary reason is Mazda has the fix for it, but instead of it being a recall, it is around 600 bucks! I don't know about you guys, but rotary or not, where I come from, water in your oil is a bad/damaging thing. The second problem I noticed was the other day I was merging into traffic, gettin' on her hard, and it seemed to start losing just a LITTLE power and acting kinda funny, I looked at the dash and the check engine light was flashing. I slowed down, took her easy, then it went away. I drove 2 hours with no other problems. On my way back into town, the same thing happened when I was like 2 minutes from my apartment. Stop sign to stop sign driving, letting the RPM's get up there, and baam, same exact issue. I took it immediately to the stealership the next morning and paid $98 bucks for them to tell me there isn't a thing wrong with your engine, the milky substance is normal (yea right) and the codes were 11 counts of misfiring. Their recommendation, get new plugs and wires. They said the coils looked "fine," but you can't tell by simply eye-balling a coil if it is "good" or "on its way out." Now, to conclude, I didn't have anything done that day. I called them back today, had them run my VIN to see what all service had been done in the past. The ONLY notation having to do anything with the ignition system was there were 2 coils, not 4, replaced around 40k range. I can't imagine the guy would have lied about changing plugs; however, that was also around 40k. I have been doing research about the Esmeril coil upgrades and the BHR (i believe it is). Those are SO expensive for simply coils. Now, my car is bone stock, except for the upgrades listed above. I would LOVE a turbo, but it isn't in the cards anytime soon. SO, TO MY QUESTION:

For my existing setup, and to "hopefully" correct the issue i've been experiencing with the losing power & misfires, would 4 stock replacement coils, new plugs & wires be sufficient? Or would you guys recommend going ahead with the upgrade (if I can afford it) along with plugs & wires?

Thanks so much in advance for your kind words of advice!

Matt

 

the milky substance in fact IS normal, there is a "fix" for it, but its not really needed.

and all other "crap" that you describe is actually maintenance item.

If you did your homewowrk about your car, you wouldn't even have to pay that "98" bux, those 98 + maybe 10 bux you can get all 4 new coil online. plus another 80 bux for plugs, wires another 60, u're set.

but noooo u didnt search

So go search, n00b.

 

first the milky oil is normal. you are not driving it enough to get it hot enough to get the condesation out of the oil..

second. pull the plugs and look at them.

plug wires dont fail a lot, but they do come loose..

lastly, the coils do fail.. you can only test them.. cant look and tell.

btw, i have a set of used second revision coils with 8k miles on them that test fine. send me a pm for a price if you are interested..

beers

 

NYCGPS:

Firstly, I get on the forums every now and then. I have searched in the past, so i DO know how to search. It kills me to see all the replies on this forum of people who, instead of helping their peer 8 owner, chop them down for being idiots. I know I could have taken my car to AutoZone and had that code read for FREE, but i'm sorry sir, MILKY OIL is not "normal" in any engine. The fact that it happens frequently in the 8 is a design flaw that allows moisture to accumulate in the oil due to the vent (I know, I DID my "searching & research"). The fact is, this should be a Mazda recall since they have a "fix" for this. Notice I said I was a nOOb to the club, not to my car or engines in general.

SWOOPE:

Thanks for your advice. I was thinking that was the problem since my daily commute was reduced dramatically. Like I said above, it isn't a "normal" thing, it is just "accepted." Otherwise, we'd just dump a bunch of water down our dipstick and save money. lol. I guess it kills me that Mazda won't issue a recall and install that "FIX" for free to avoid this potentially damaging condition.

I guess, in a round about way, what I was trying to get at last night in my original post was, if I was bound and determined to replace all aspects of the ignition (plugs, coils & wires) would there be a significant enough difference in performance/gas mileage to go with the upgraded coils or the factory coils?

Thanks in advance!

Matt

 

Seriously... the condensation on the dipstick is normal and not causing any harm... it does go away when the engine has been running for awhile... which explains why you noticed it after your commute became shorter. The "fix" for this doesn't solve anything about reducing the amount of moisture in the oil, it just keeps the condensation from forming. This is part of the design of a rotary get this "blow back" and Mazda not doing a recall on it really not an issue because it doesn't cause any mechanical problem.
If Mazda should recall anything, it could be their clutch pedals that break.

Flashing CEL always means misfire, which the dealer told you. Start with plugs, then do coils, do wires last.

To answer your question though, anyone with a reputable upgraded coil package swears that they are stronger and will last much longer than OEM coils. I think BHR's coils are on back order for a few months and the Okada Plasma coils are a cool 700 bucks roughly... many say that they're worth it.
The only noticeable improvements appear to be slight performance and reliability... I haven't read of any improved MPG with new coils/wires/plugs unless you were mis-firing a lot.

 

Thanks for your input. I appreciate it.

 

I recently had my CEL come on. Hooked up my AccessPort to diagnose the problem. It came up with "P0354 Ignition Coil Failure - D". I took out the coils and noticed that number 4 (D) had the famous white burn on the bottom. My 8 has been parked up since because it's said that driving with coils like that can be bad for the motor. Ordered new coils from rx8strakes.com last Tuesday and got them today (which is crazy since I live in Ireland and a package takes longer to get from one place here to another)! Mazda wanted €157 for each coil. I bought them and got the Express delivered to my door for less than the price of 1 coil.

Every RX8 has the white gunk on the dipstick. In a piston engine it means a blown head gasket. In the RX8 it means your engine is working as normal

 

I am looking to buy BHR ignition set. Can someone tell me where & how to buy it?

 

PM member "Charles R. Hill". That's the only way. He doesn't have a store front or a website.