2004 6MT, GT

Ended up working at a camp 3 hours from home for a portion of the summer and on the last day the car decided to take a dump on me. Not even 10 minutes from camp and the dash lights up, oil light, goes into limp mode, and decides to shut itself off. Pulled up the dipstick and almost nothing is on it. Car is currently at Kelly Mazda in Scranton, PA (2 hours, 15 minutes from me in Philly). They quoted me $1100 to replace the lines.

I'm a commuter student headed into my senior year/applying to grad school, so that number is of course scary. Plus the whole possibly FUBAR seals and compression. Shop spliced the line so they could get some oil flow and check the compression before I sink over a grand into repairing the lines. Only thing I have going for me is the car was running like a top before, so in some twisted, far reaching way I'm hoping there was enough "oh ****" room that compression could drop and it'd still run somewhat. I'll be calling to see what numbers it spit out in a few hours.

Say it runs. AOK to just keep that line spliced for the 2 hour drive home and rely on the single cooler? Then I can just get the parts myself for the permanent fix. If it is OK, convincing the dealership to do it would be another story.

 

IMO, you'll be fine on one OEM cooler pretty much permanently given enough airflow, they're actually really good coolers. Just don't put much load on the engine, and don't drive too slowly.

How exactly were they actually able to splice the lines to bypass a cooler if it was a line that ruptured? Make sure that it's not something that will fall off and leave you in the same situation an hour from now.

 

Good to hear. Figured if people are able to beat on the autos there's no reason I couldn't make it down a highway for 2 hours with just one.

Not sure how it's being done. Just called and they've spent since yesterday waiting on the parts to do it ($50 worth). Should have a test underway by the end of the day, but who knows. His quick blurb was that they're doing it just to hold of the test. So, this thread might not matter anyway.

 

Compression isn't the problem with oil loss. Bearings are though.
$1100 is steep, but you have the Racing Beat option at 475: Oil Line Set for 04-08 RX-8 Manual Trans - Racing Beat

 

Got the call this morning and now appears this post was in vain. Dealer said no compression, around 6 grand to plop in a new Renesis. Judging by the prior behavior, delays, and lack of calls I'm getting the feeling they didn't want to touch this thing to begin with.

Now reading this the compression does sound suspect with the rest of the situation.

If it is blown then I'm in a bad spot. Guess it's sell as a parts car, or have another $200 tow down to Speed1 in Allentown to be rebuilt.

 

You can do much better than the Mazda re-manufactured engines in price and quality. Look up Rotary Resurrection, Pettit or Pineapple racing, they all do solid rebuilds for less than 6k.

 

Rotary Resurrection will also make you some nice SS oil cooler lines. I have a set on my 8.

duh... just saw the update about compression. RR is the way to go.