My 8 is a 2005, auto with 52K miles on it and it has no mods. The car was purchased with 38K miles, more than a year ago. I drove this car pretty hard till about the time gas prices for premium were well above $4 a gallon. Since gas prices have come down, I have resumed driving the car hard, redlining at least once a day.

In February, I had TSB 01-015/08 (Engine cranks no start) performed at my dealership. While I was on vacation my girlfriend flooded the engine. Prior to this I had noticed a loss of power and some strange noises coming from the engine while accelerating. I wanted the dealer to replace the engine at this point but, was told the engine compression was “ok”. I got my car back and all seemed well until 5 weeks ago when my car threw a CEL. I took the car back to the dealership and was informed that the SSV needed to be replaced at a cost of $776. I informed the service writer that I had an extended warranty and he said “no problem”. On the appointed day I showed up to pick up my car and was told that there was a problem with the engine and needed to be replaced. I was also shown the invoice for the SSV replacement and the total was now $1100. I was told "that when the customer pays out of pocket, the dealership will take some shortcuts to reduce the price but, since it was under warranty they would be doing the full procedure". This seems a little shady. My car has been at the dealership for now for 35 days awaiting an oil pump which is on “National Backorder”.

Does anyone know if Mazda is changing the engines that they are using for replacements, instead of remanufactured pieces of crap, are they using new reengineered engine that addresses some the issues with the early 8’s engine and this could be the reason for the delay? Or is it a genuine backorder issue? In Mazda’s defense, I applaud them for the extension on the core engine components but I must admit it seems as though the word is getting out about these problems because other dealers seem very leery on taking this car in on trade.

 

The re manned engines are top notch, if not better than the originals.

 

I'm sure we don't hear any where near half the number of remans going in on this forum but it does seem as if once you lose your first motor it's all down hill from there. Any idea why people are going thru 2 and 3 remans in less than 2 years? I've got a friend here with an AT and he's gone thru 3 remanned engine in little more than a year. His first motor blew on 20 may 2008 the other 2 blew each in less than a mth after install needles to say he no longer owns an rx8.

 

^The simple answer is, it's cuz it's an Auto.

A lot of the problem is the dealership doing the install in the first place. When these engines come apart a lot of of other things can happen that most don't look for. I'm sure when these motors are being replaced most dealership don't bother replacing the oil cooler/coolers...you ask why they would. Little bits of metal and debris work their way into the oil lines and coolers...once the new motor is installed it really is only a matter of time when those bits and pieces work free and re damage the new motor.

I've seen it a few times while working in the Koni series where a team didn't swap out the oil coolers when installing a new motor and within a few hours of operation the motor was toast.