Hi All,

Can anyone help please? I bought an RX-8 four months ago and seem to keep having problems with it. A major problem i had about two months ago is that a garage told me the steering rack had cracked and needed replacing (circa £2,000 just for the part!!) I have not been able to afford this to be replaced yet, and have got used to the steering being a bit stiff until I replace it.

However, last week was on the motorway, no problem. Then downshifted to 5th gear and the engine made a rough loud noise, the CEL started flashing and wouldn't accelerate. I slowed down, into the middle lane, tried to accelerate again, but would not pick up speed, so went into the emergency lane, slowed to about 20mph, then the engine cut out.

Called the RAC, they couldn't get it started, so had to be towed home. When waiting for the tow truck by myself, I managed to start the car, with great difficulty, the CEL was flashing, the car was shaking badly, the engine sounded rough, the exhaust backfired, and there was a strong smell of petrol. The car wouldn't stay running as when i took foot off accelerator, it just died. Now battery flat.

A mobile mechanic came to my house and ran the codes and they came up as random multiple misfire and misfire on cylinder 1. He advised to take it into Mazda for exploratory work and could cost over £2k. This i cannot afford either.

I recently had a "Bean can" exhaust traken off and replaced with an original RX8 exhaust (Although, this was not a new exhaust), and i have also noticed that the previous owner also has a K&N airfilter fitted.

I have not got a clue about this type of engine, so has anyone had this problem, or know what this could be?

 

I don't know what your problem could be but I'm guessing you are in the UK.
The RX-8 has a 8 year 100k mile engine warranty which I believe is worldwide so going to your local Mazda dealer would be a best first step.
You may get a free engine... I don't know that for sure.

These engines are very different so I would read up about them because that may help you in the furture should you keep the car.

Good luck.

 

no,they're really not. they have air fuel and spark to make things 'round . they aren't frikking magic.


dphillips you lost at least one and probably two ignition coils. they will need replaced. just replace all four.

pull the spark plugs and have a look. if they have any black crustiness on them replace them as well.

if they are only brownish you could get away with just cleaning them up. google search the correct way to clean plugs if you dont know how. but since they have probably never been changed - change them all


probably the plug wires have never been changed either. change them.


this is all regular "tune up" maintenance that any car goes through.

there is a good chance that some unburnt fuel has made its way to the catalytic converter. when you start it up its likely to smoke badly at first. not an issue really except the expected life of your catalytic converter has decreased significantly. expect it to fail in the next year.

 

Sadly not worldwide, Americans are lucky to get this warranty.

 

That sucks...

Thanks for letting me know.

 

Thanks for your help with this guys. I bought 4 ignition coils and leads. They arrived today. The spark plugs were only changed about 3 months ago because I flooded the engine and they were changed for uprated ones. So I replaced them all, bought a new battery as well, as the old one was dead (try recharging, but my charger broke). Try to start the car. All it does is turn over, and occasionally there is popping from the exhaust. I have reset ecu (I was told about the 20 presses of the brake pedal with ignition turned to II then starting it etc).

Very depressed now, why won't it start????

 

Sounds like Apex seal to me.

 

Compression test might be a good thing to perform at this point.

 

Well, from reading what you wrote down in detail it brought back bad memories of my 8.

Same thing has happened to me almost the exact same way, but i was in downshifting in to 4th gear.

Later found out my side seals were shredded.

Compression test is the next best move.

good luck!