if you want to get their attention file a complaint about engine stalling with the NHSTA and then send MNAO a copy, I guarantee you that will do it ...

 

There are two guys from Irvine Calif. working with the Techs at Magic Mazda, in Vegas,due to "cooling problems and dying engines". I understand that Magic was chosen because it is the only "stand alone" Mazda dealership in Vegas. I was in there to get my cooling probem fixed and there are/were several 8s in there for something. When I asked questions I was told Mazda sent the two men and did not get a good answer on what the other 8s were in there for. I have an AT but not the loss of power problem-----yet.

They fixed my cooling problem but I would sure have hated to have paid that bill.

 

Just took the car into mazda again (after 1.5 years of trying to find the problem) and finally they tell me that I too must wait 6 weeks for a new engine. I have already replaced the car and now am stuck with it until they get this engin swap done. No compensation adn no way to sell it in the interim.... more here than mazda ia telling the public. 4 more in the same shop waiting for engines. I want a refund as this thing has been terrrible since i purchased it. Lemon laws are garbage... time for a full class action suit I'd say... anyone else?

 

I may be with ya on the lawsuit issue too.

I called my mazda dealer again today for an update.

Nothing new to report.

My 8 has been there for 11 days now. Nothing.

My service rep told me that Mazda had "another engineer" out in Vegas last Friday doing some more "testing"

As of now, Madza Corp has "no idea how to fix the engine problems" that we are having in Vegas and some of the other "hot climates"

Changing the engine won't do it. They have already tried that and some of those came right back in with blown engines AGAIN!

My service rep told me that even when the new engines are coming in that Mazda is telling the dealership to install the new engines and "leave the cars parked on the service lot" not to release the cars because they know the engines might blow again.


This is bad.....


I called my lawyer today to inquire about Nevada Lemon Law. She told me that the law in NV basically states that the problem has to occur "within the 1st calendar year"

I have had my 8 for over a year. About 1 and 1/2 years now.

So I am out of luck for the "lemon law" angle.

So maybe it is time to start talking about a class action suit.

Should we start a thread for that and see how much interest there is?

I love my 8, but it seems that Mazda is lost as to how to fix it.

Shame.....


Rob in Vegas

 

I am having the same problem in the Philly area on our hot days. Tomorrow it is to hit 97, so I am sure it will do it tomorrow too. I got my 8 back today and the service manager 'had not heard of this problem' until today. I told him about the Vegas dealer and he called them later and they confirmed it. He also called Mazda direct, they told him, and he has it recorded as, "CURRENTLY COLLECTING DATA ON POSSIABLE CONCERN".

My question is, how long has this been an issue? My car started this at 900 miles. The dealer was A+ and very helpful. Gave me a rental car to tote around in all day. I am just concerned that the engine is damaged or starting to be damaged. At least I have it recorded.

 

Not sure how long this has been an issue.

I have had my 2004 RX8 since Nov 03

The first problem I had was about 3 weeks ago.

Lost power.....wierd noise coming from engine......ect

I have 13,000 miles on my RX8

My car is 100% factory - stock

No mods.......

I don't race it

I let it warm up before driving it

I change the oil every 2500 miles

I thought I was taking great care of it

Then one HOT day......the engine starts losing power....and then it died at a stop light

Now my dealer tells me that they don't know how or IF they can even fix it.

Sucks


Rob in Vegas

 

class action suits arent all that great good for lawyers bad for us

 

class action suit will not get you anywhere because Mazda is doing erythign they can to investigate teh issue. since they are making a good faith effort there is nothing to sue them over. let the engineers do their job and find the source problem. the lawyers wont be able to do that.

 

I had a 2004 RX8 that I had owned for 1 1/2 years. I loved the way the car handled and looked but I was very dissapointed in the gas mileage and was very concerned at how hot my center console would get in normal driving conditions. Recently I also experienced the engine making a rattle sound and loss of power. After visiting this site and reading about the RX8's in Vegas I have finally thrown in the towel. This car is not worth all the hassle. Luckily the car has been paid off since March and I purchased the car for invoice so when I sold it I did not lose much. I fear once the news of the engine problems become more well known nobody will want to touch a used RX8 with a ten foot pole nevermind a brand new one. I wish everyone the best with their vehicles and hopefully everything turns out ok.

 

My 04 8 AT has never died but it has experienced knock and loss of power especially in the summer. However, It only knocks if I use 87 octane and one in a while using 89. I have never had any problems using 92 octane. When your 8 is having these knock/ping/rattle issues what octane level of fuel are you using?

 

I have a 2004 6spd with 13K on it. Here in Chicago it has been very hot recently. I run 93 octane, and have been running the AC and haven't noticed these issues. But most of my driving to this point has been at 80 degrees or cooler.

As for the class action idea, I'm with Zoom44, if Mazda is making an earnest effort what more could this gain? And as a rotorhead, and I think others on this site will agree, bad publicity for the rotary is not what I want to generate. I want there to be future generations of the RX-8, or any other rotary vehicle for that matter.

 

Red

This car/engine is going to have ALL the bad publicity it can handle.

With or without our help.

How much worse could it be?

My car has now been at the dealership (2 different dealers) for OVER 20 days now and all they can tell me is this:

"we know your car needs a new engine, but that won't solve the problem long term. Unless Mazda can come up with some additional fixes for the cooling / oil / oil pump problems, there is no reason to change the engine. It is just going to BLOW UP AGAIN!"

"That is what they were trying to do with the last few flashes. And that obviously did not solve the problem."

So my car just sits........coming up on 3 weeks.

Could it be any worse?

Rob in Vegas

 

Yea, it could be worse. You could have a manufacturer that does not care or a dealership that will not tell you anything. At least they are trying to come up with a solution. You should have a free loan (or rental) car while your waiting.

I may be joining you. I own an AT 2004 8 and I live and work in Las Vegas. Most likely the only reason I have not yet blown it is because I added a trans cooler and do not use it daily only biweekly trips to Laughlin or L.A.

There is no good side but you have not been abandoned.

 

Hi Phil, nice to meet you.

Yes I do have a rental car. Mazda gave me $35 a day.

That puts me into a Hyundai Elantra - no CD player. Sweet!

I had to come out of pocket for an extra $15 per day plus tax just to get into a Chrysler.

So right now my "free" rental car is going to run me about $500 a month.

First month is coming up here in about 10 days. Nice!

But, you are right. I am happy that my dealer has been honest with me. I have told my service rep on several occasions that I REALLY do appreciate his candor.

Still, that doesn't fix my car. And it appears that these "engine problems" have been occuring on some level for about the last 2-3 months on a fairly regular basis.

So 90 days into it and Mazda Corp seems to have no idea how or IF they can fix it for the long term.

So far Mazda has told the Vegas deals to "get the cars on the lot. park them.....and wait"


My biggest fear is that Mazda will put some sort of "band aid" on the problem and eventually send us on our merry way.

Guess what happens next summer when it gets really hot again?

BOOM!

Right back where we are now and A LOT closer to being out of warranty.

Time will tell.

Rob in Vegas

 

Oct,

It's not that I don't sympathize, and I'd be very frustrated in your situation also. But it appears that at least Mazda is owning up to and making efforts to fix the problem. In the short term, this definitely isn't good, but Mazda has been making rotary cars both N/A and FI for more than 20 years. They know what they're doing and will be able to fix this problem.

 

I hope I did not sound like I had a lack of sympthy. Like I said unless they come up with the fix in a hurry, I'm sure I'll be joining you. I'm only happy that the dealer(s) and Mazda are not playing the three monkeys like Ford and Firestone did.

Did you have any mods on your 8 or were you able to get them off before taking it in? I have a few and would not like them to blame the problem on the mods.

My wifes daily driver is a Hyundai so I understand where your coming from (I can't even get in it very easly).

 

there are no mods short of turboing the car that would in any way make the problem attributable to them. it jsut isnt going to happen. i dont believe for a minute the last couple of flashes had anything to do with this issue. myself and otehrs thought they may be using flashes too. but it is very clear now that the flash was soley for the recall issue and had nothing to do with the at engine failure issue.

 

Phil, your post was cool. No offense taken.

I understand where you are coming from.

I just miss my car and driving a rental sucks.


No, my car is %100 percent stock.

No mods.

Never raced it.

Never over-revved the engine.

Never had the rev limitor kick in.

Always let the car warm up before driving it.

Never flooded it.

Did all the routine service. Changed oil every 2500 miles.

Kept an eye on my oil level at all times.

Never took it on ANY road trips.

13,000 miles. Just driving from the office and back home most of the time.

About a 20 minute drive. 12-15 miles each way.

My problem is not from user error.

There is something inherently wrong with the current design of this engine and how it behaves in high temps.

Bottom line.


Rob in Vegas

 

rob,

auto trans right? it sounds like you have done everything that causes the problem. not saying you are doing anything wrong, but from the reading i have done the engine needs to run to stay healthy.

kinda a use it or lose it thing. also it could have been flooded at the port of entry.

beers

 

that is something they will not do. have no fear.

 

I understand that this is a recall but thats just what the dealer is telling me and others. Are you saying that in a recall warranty evaluation will not be needed? I'm not a Lawyer but I think your wrong. For your sake I hope your not but ----

 

this is not a recall yet. if it becomes a recall then the work to fix/repair the issue will be done whether you have a warrenty still or not. fed regs.

 

FWIW, My car did the same again today when the temp got to 98. Stop and go traffic for 30 minutes then open road, reved up and loss power, pinging (or whichever you want to call it) and stalled. Second time now.

I had it at the dealer Monday and they told me there was nothing that they can do with it now but Mazda is aware of it and 'collecting data' on the problem. Be sure if it happens to anyone once to take it to the dealer and get it on record!! This dealer told me it was the best thing to do. There is nothing the dealer can do now but it covers you.

 

Just thinking of it, if heat is more of a hassle for the AT than MT, why don't they just add the missing oil cooler to the AT in hot climates? It is obviously missing Maybe you suggest that to the dealer? It will be cheaper than for them to pay a (crappy) rental for you for weeks.....

Yeah, I do own an AT but iI live in NJ (so we get 100F, not 120F ) The only power loss I had was when engine oil shot in the air box.... got a flashing CEL for 20 seconds then.

 

I appreciate the optimism here. I hope it proves worthwhile. It seems obvious now that Mazda didn't do the work necessary to put this car into production. I don't know where or even if they did hot weather testing, but it certainly was inadequate. The completely lame AC performance when the car was released was the first clue. Here in Arizona, we see a lot of pre-production cars on the road, because our extreme climate can find a lot of problems that do not appear in cooler conditions. I personally never saw a pre-production RX8 here, I'd like to know if anyone else did?

I traded in my RX8 last week. Though the car really did seem better after the CAT was replaced, I was still nervous about the stalling. I also started to notice that there are tons of RX8's hitting the resale market. One dealer I spoke to took 5 in one week. That made me nervous as well, thinking I was going to lose even more. I also hated the dealer mandated Chevron only fill-ups. There is no Cheveron stations near me, so planning my gas stops became difficult.

So I bought a Scion tC. Not an RX8 by any means, but a cool car nonetheless. My RX8 was an auto, and the Scion is a manual, so there isn't much of a power difference. I like it quite a bit, and it lowered my payment, insurance, and fuel bill.

Best of luck to everyone here. I think you guys are going to need it. If Mazda NA is truly telling dealers to get the car on the lot and park it, that is NOT a good thing. They can't do that in Arizona, because 30 days at the dealer within the 1st 2 years/24K miles invokes the Arizona Lemon Law (I'm not a lawyer, please contact one). They gave me the same line when I had my car in there about not knowing when a real fix would be available. That was early June. The problem in Texas started before that. They've had a substantial amount of time to solve the problem, and are apparantly completely unsuccessful so far. I hope this doesn't get nasty, but when this number of cars are affected I don't see it going well.