tuck203

Hi, i took my 05 rx8 to mazda as the CEL had been (for the most part) on for the past month. whats more is the last few days i noticed my gas consumption increase dramatically. really is awful. car has done 84000 miles.

they called me today and said the only code they found was referring to a faulty cat and recommend replacing it.

the problem is they wont guarantee that chnaging the cat will a) fix the CEL and b) bring gas consumption back to normal rates. what happens if they change it and i have the same problems... can i refuse to pay them? have the old put back? request other work at no extra cost until the problem is solved...?

should i get a new one installed (they want like $1300 for the job).

what else could the increased gas consumption be caused by? i also like the idea of removing the cat altogether and have a straight pipe. will mazda be allowed to install this for me (apparantly they're illegal for road cars?). i like to get under the car myself but am no mechanic - is this something i can play with to save the cost from mazda.

peterlemonjello

How old are your coils, spark plugs, and wires? If these three things haven't been changed in a while I would start with them instead of a new cat.

SpIcEz

He has a CEL code for bad CAT, I think its pretty obivious.
Though its always good to change out coils, plugs, etc.. too.

tuck203, since you are out of warranty of even the Emissions parts, I would buy a used CAT, midpipe, testpipe, whatever, here on the forum.

1300$ just isnt worth. You can install it yourself or have a standard mechanic do it (no need for mazda) and it shouldnt take more than 1 hour for a mechanic and maybe 2 if you do it yourself.