Got my gas tank and ball joint recalls done.

I wanted to get a compression check but they told me their compression checker for a rotary is broke and they have reordered the tool. I asked that I could talk to the tech and ask him some questions and they "no problem."

Now I'll be the first to tell you I don't trust dealers info in general, but I do no a bit about cars since I've been building engines and modifiying my cars for about 15 years now, so I can smell BS 95% of the time.

So a little info on the guy. First, he owns an RX-7 for many years. Second, he's been working for Mazda for 15 years. These two facts alone and how he answered my question makes me think he knows about the car and its problems.


He said he would be happy to do the compression check once the tool came in, but he doubts I would have that problem. He asked me if my car had ever been flooded. NO. He asked if it was hard to start. NO. His reasoning for this was - and I paraphrase, so don't start quoting crap I paraphrase and take it for bible here - He said the only problems he as seen with our cars (very few from what i could gather) and all rotraries in general is if they flood, esp. if it happens alot, is that the gas washes the walls and the seal fails due to lack of lubricant. The lack of compression would cause hard starts. So he thinks there would be no loss of compression on my car based on that and the fact that I have only 8,000 miles on it. But he would be happy to check for me if I wanted.

I asked him about the longevity of the engine. He said its too soon to tell. He has his fingers crossed, but he wont be able to give me a good assesment until the cars get 4 or so years on them.

I asked him about the "marbles in the can sound". I indicated I only use 93 on the sound happens at 6k and 7k on up. He said its octane. He says the gas they have been pulling out of cars isn't high enough, and that the owner is lieing about the octane or the station doesn't have the right octane rating it should. He said that all gas is the same gas until they add the packet of additives to the tank in the ground to give it the same right octane. He said even though Mazda corp. doesn't say so, he suggested I add octane boost boost to every fill up. Should raise it about 1 pt. I'm gonna give this a shot just to see.

I asked him about spark plugs (my cars seems to be missing alot and I thought that might be the reason if it wasn't the compression). He didn't get a chance to look at them b/c he didn't do the compression check. On a side note, looked at my plugs this weekend and he was right, just a light brown color with no gunk or oily carbon build up.

The oil tank recall got me a PCM update. I asked what was up with that. He said Mazda didn't give him any info on what or if the updated changed timing, pulse widths, etc., but that my fan would run almost all the time. I figrue this if for cooling reasons. I didn't ask and he didn't elaborate.

Anyway, the guy seems to know the car and more imprtantly the rotary. So I feel good about that. I get the compression check once they get the tool and update.

I posted this for anybody who cares to read it. One tech and one conversation, don't read too much into to it. Just take it as a little more infor to back up previous posts or not.

 

Did they actually have to do anything on the ball joints besides inspection? My dealer says they have yet to do anything but inspect them?

 

Unless your 8 have the bad batch that is all they have to do. The consensus is that very few, if any of the bad ones made it to the USA. Problem is Mazda USA can’t prove that and needs to look at all the 2004 cars. This is covered in the ball joint recall thread https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=67126 but to make it simple look underneath your control arms. If stamped into the arm is “ K4 AND <> 1 “ you need to have your arms replaced. This is what mine looked like https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php?p=1024793&postcount=179