Hi there,

New user here, desperately needing help with a car that has had countless problems since I bought it.

I'm an owner of a 54 plate 2005 RX8, bought 4 years ago with around 61 000 miles as of now. Over the years, the engine has flooded countless times, countless call-outs have been made and a hell of a lot of money has been spent on it just to get it running.

The latest problem however has had the car not running for about 3 months. The car will just not light at all. I've had the spark plugs changed - didn't fix anything. I've also had the coils replaced and that hasn't fixed anything, too.

A few days ago I managed to get the RX8 started, then it died about 100 metres down the road. I decided to put the car in to the Mazda service and they have came back saying the catalytic converter needs replaced, which will cost me £1900. They also said that when it gets replaced, it might still not even run.

There is an extremely limited number of people I can go to in the UK where I live. Garages will just not touch it, which is why I've decided to come on this forum to see if anyone has any ideas as to what I can do to get the car running again. Any ideas as to what might be wrong with the car would be grealy appreciated.

Appreciate any help

 

Where are you located in the UK?
There are commercial replacement cat converters for as little as 400£ (check mazdarotaryparts.com).

I would have the dealer perform a compression test before doing anything though and check the status of your pcm. The newest reflashes should prevent the car from flooding.
After running like crap for a long time i'm not sure if your engine is still in good working condition so get ready to spend some real money.

Hope this helps.

 

A few question I would ask..
Did you, dealership, do a compression test?, at what RPM?
What does the inlet side of the catalytic converter look like?
Is it plugged fuel/oil or is it melted from extreme heat?
Will the engine start and run with the catalytic converter disconnected?

Another thing to check is the fuel quality, How long has that fuel been in the tank?

 

cheap option would be to get a decat pipe and see if it runs with that. £100, but as others are saying, compression test needs to be done to check the condition of the engine. whats the mileage?

 

My question is
WHY ISN'T THIS IN THE TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION????

 

Simply needs more details on symptoms than just that...

 

new engine woohooo.

 

hey satsu,what color is your 8. just wondering, cause, if its S.S. then your cursed to living hell like me..ha! ha!

 

Hi there.

First of all, thank you for all the replies.

Based in Edinburgh. I'll check out your suggestion.

R80MAV - 61 000 miles.

jasonrxeight - I hope not!

juikster - silver/grey.

I'll try get some more details later tonight. I'm actually posting on behalf of my dad at the moment to help him get it sorted.

 

Hi there,

It's been a while since I last posted here. Again, as per my last post, I'm posting on behalf of my father since his bad luck with his RX8 is endless.

A small update: Took the car to a garage who have taken it in. My dad has been told they got it running for 30 minutes with the rear exhaust off and everything seemed fine, except a worker there noticed when passing by something was glowing red hot and they had to hose it down!

Have since had a quote through with various parts and prices:

4 spark plugs @ £120 (already fitted)
battery @ £95
filter - oil @ £6
pro s200 5w30 5L syn motor oil @ £20
sump @ £190
sealer @ £15
rear slincer @ £270
exhaust inter pipe @ £78

parts list totaling around £800.

The labour charges are £230. To pass its MOT, the car also needs 2 front tyres @ £310, plus the MOT at £35 bringing the total costs (labour,parts,MOT) to £1650

He just wants to sell it now, however at £1650 to repair, he is considering scrapping it which I believe to be extremely foolish, which is why I'm posting on here for some help.

I have a few questions and would I would really appreciate if someone could help answer them:

1 - what roughly could he expect to sell it for after repair (it's a 2005 MAZDA RX-8, GREY, COUPE, 2616 cc)?

2 - Do these prices listed above reflect a 'fair' price to repair, and does it seem, from the limited explanation i've gave, like it needs all these parts?

3 - I've been looking at ebay's completed listings to see what RX8 spares and repairs are selling for. To me, that seems to be the best option at the moment. Does this seem like the best thing to do?

As I said, it's either sell for spares and repairs, or fix it, MOT, and sell it. I've also had a look at the part list by the garage to see if it's possible to buy parts seperately, and pay for labour charges only.


thanks for any help!

 

what do you mean they had to hose it down? why were they running it with no exhaust? you can probably get the parts cheaper online but i dont know your $ to usd

 

1) Zero idea on the market for RX-8s over there, but with the issues listed, you should be able to look up other ones for sale in the used car market, and then chop 30-50% off that price as a starting point.

2) Without really knowing the market price for the items over there, it's hard to judge. If I assume that the battery is relatively fairly priced (They usually are), then the rest don't look really out of line in terms of comparative price.

3) Most of the items listed are wear items? So I'm not sure that getting used or salvaged parts is going to save you all that much.

 

pro s200 5w30 5L syn motor oil @ £20
That should be 5w20.

it's a 2005 MAZDA RX-8, GREY, COUPE, 2616 cc
It's 1.3L unless you have two under the hood

 

Europe has the recommended oil weight of 5w30, not the US's overly thin 5w20 to help meet mileage and emissions goals here.

Most of Europe rates it as a 2.6L for tax and registration purposes (emissions taxes mainly)

 

First of all, can I say that I really do appreciate all these replies and help. So thanks all for responding.

Just been clarified again to me (sorry, I know very little about cars) - the car was running ropey with the rear exhaust on and something was overheating to the point it was glowing hot (would it help if I found out exactly what it was?). The garage had to hose the part down to cool it since they were worried it would set alight.

The garage then took the rear exhaust off, and it ran fine for 30 minutes.

RIWWP - thanks for the help. From a quick look around on ebay, it seems that spares or repairs RX8s are selling for £800-1500 (1260-2400$ roughly). Quite a big difference really, so I think I'd need to research a bit more as to where to aim at if selling that way.

I'll have to find a few websites to compare the prices of parts for replacement given by the garage.

200.mph, RIWWP and kjb - thanks for the replies once again!

 

If the exhaust tips and/or can itself was glowing while the car was running, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with it. You are dumping LOADS of fuel AND LOADS of air into the exhaust, and the combustion is occuring there. The only way I have seen this happen "normally" is under high RPM with completely blown apex seals (Flashwing did it most recently that I recall, trying to limp his car home). The high RPM overcomes the compression issues due to the missing apex seals enough to run, but it is incredibly wasteful in fuel and air, but it's still plenty hot, so they keep on burning their way down the exhaust stream. Flashwing lit his rear bumper on fire.

If removing the catback actually removed the glowing exhaust problem, then there is something clogging your catback (Though with a can that large I'd be scared as to what it was). Otherwise, all you did was shift the glowing flame point to under the middle of the car, near the fuel lines

 

You might find more local help by posting in the UK section.

https://www.rx8club.com/europe-forum-36/

Because so many owners in the USA replace their stock cat-back exhausts with aftermarket, used ones in good shape are plentiful and cheap. No idea if that is the case in the EU.

 

RIWWP - that does sound pretty scary even to someone like me who knows nothing about cars. Would you say then that the parts list my father has been supplied with coincides and is a solution to this problem?

HiFlite999 - i'll give it a shot, although it seems pretty dead on there!

thanks once again.

 

Honestly, no. I can't say that it does or it doesn't. Other than a failing engine, I'm not sure what else to point you to.

 

that's fine - I've got a fair bit of research to do

cheers

 

Please read the stickies.
It is recommended in cold climate to get BHR coils.
Follow the warm up procedures in the stickies.

With the coils and warm up procedure, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

sequence of events:

takes car to dealer
dealer says needs new cat
doesn't have enough $$$ to "deal" with dealer
goes to a shop
shop gets it running but the cat glows red
shop sprays down cat
shop says buy new cat

Where have I read all of this before?

 

Appreciate your advice.

Just read a fair chunk of it and will pass on the information to my dad. Lots of good information in there.

 

An EU-centered rotary forum:

http://www.rotaryheaven.net/

Also, the user PhillipM is from UK and both knowledgeable and pretty active here.

 

that's for the link. Seems very active on there!