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Dealer could not initially start car either. They worked on car and eventually got it going. Here's what dealer wrote on service invoice: "Checked and found engine has spark checked plugs found them fouled removed spark plugs found fuel on plugs replaced plugs still no start flooded contacted tech line cleaned out fuel refit plugs start engine ok cleared codes and changed oil"
Do not really know why engine flooded initially. Prior to that it was run on a cold night for a trip of about 2 miles and then shut off. This should have been long enough to warm up the engine (at least somewhat). In any event I am concerned about this starting problem for the future.
I need some enlightenment - so you have a flooded engine. That means that one, two, or all three of the 'chambers' on the rotor has too much fuel in it, right? Then to fix it, you lay down the pedal and crank it for 10 sec; which adds more fuel, right? And the thought is that at some point the spark ignites the fuel, a big bang happens igniting all that fuel, you let up on the pedal and the computer takes over in choke mode? Which adds more fuel?.....I am ~not~ an expert on engines, so I defer to the more experienced brains here!! - just curious as to how it all works to fix the flooding by that method!!...wheee!!!....
so its flooded. gas is sitting in the cylinders. In order for gas to ignite via a spark in a combustion chamber, it needs to be a mist of fuel and air. So cranking the engine with the pedal down forces the engine to run through several cycles. This effectively pushes out all that gathered gasoline that refused to ignite and fills the chamber with the fuel/air mist that will then ignite via the spark.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
Of course, I think the styling is great. Since that's their only complaint (minor one, at that), then the RX8 should have been #1.
The first time you press the lock button on the remote, it locks the doors. The second time you press it the horn will beep to confirm it locked the doors. Just press once. On Nissans, if you hold both "lock" and "unlock" for 2 seconds it turns the horn off. These instructions are on the back of the remote. Do the same to turn it back on. I don't think the Mazda works like that, so no help there.
I've been doing it that way since the late 70s (with the cars I owned that were from the early 70s)....a tried and true method that's been around a long time.
When you move your cold car, before shutting it off, rev it to 3-4k RPM and while at that rev. shut it down. When you shut it off, the injectors stop but the engine continues to coast down, cleaning out any unburned fuel.
This sounds like it will work fine to me (but not on a carburated car - it would make the situation worse). In all the years we've had fuel injected rotory cars I've never heard this one. Kudos to Mazda for figuring this out while all us "experienced" owners didn't. As I suspected, the RX-8 is paying dividends to those of us still running the older technology (I have a 93 RX-7).
pathstar1....I was hoping I could, somehow, reduce the horn beep on the second press.....not really sure why it has the loud beep in the first place -- does this car need to make noise to attract attention? I think not!....
I called my dealer to see if the tire rotation was included on "free maintenance". He said "no", but my dealer offers free lifetime tire rotations on every new car purchase, so it's a moot point. It just so happens they offer the free tire rotations every 5K miles, so that coincides with the oil changes.
Let's say the tires are good for 30K miles (considering they are high performance tires, that's about as much as you'll get from them).
I see coupons in the paper all the time for tire rotations at $10 per. That's all of $60.
Just putting it into perspective.
I just bought my rx8 after researching and drooling over it for a year. I got it in titanium with black chaparral leather. It looks hot and drives great. This is also my first car in stick and even my first time driving in stick. The dealer told me it's one of the harder cars to learn manual in, but after practicing and driving the hell out of it, stick has become second hand in just a day. I only have 200 miles on it but i will soon tack on more. The only thing i don't like is the gas mileage. I bought this car thinking i was going to get better mileage than my explorer, but it doesn't seem like it so far. No big problems yet, except the fact that it draws too much attention on the road. This is definitely a bachelor's car.
I've been scoping them out at the local dealership near my home (Dallas) and they have like 50+ cars just sitting back there. I've been checking them out for weeks now trying to find the 197 hp models and so far I've only seen two; a red base model and a silver w/ tan leather/black cloth combo seats and touring pkg and nav. At first I thought the tan leather was factory, but then I didn't see it listed as an option on the window sticker. Very nice.
Also anyone know if the 18" rims are a stand alone option on the 197 hp model? I've tried to build one on the Mazda site, you can only build the 238 hp model.
MPG has been widely discussed. It's not going to be an MPG champ to begin with, but it does get better as the car gets more miles on it.
You can't get 18" rims as a stand alone option. You have to go to at least the sport package to get them.
I can think of many cars that would be easier to learn manual transmission operation, but once you master it, you're in for the drive of your life.
graphic - The fact that it isn't expensive to do tire rotations was my whole point. Why couldn't Mazda just cover it? I just had a feeling that the 4 year free maintenance was going to have fine print. At least you have a dealership that realizes customer satisfaction is what sells cars.
BY THE WAY THIS WAS NOT THE DEALER I PURCHASED THE CAR FROM.
For south florida residents be warry of Lou Backrodt Mazda. Realy a pestilence of everything wrong in a dealership. I almost traded my Rx8 because of them. I had my car serviced at Gunther Mazda. What a difference I felt like I was the king of England the way they treated me. I would reccomend them completely.
suavechavo...I have the AT model and as GGuy said, you have to get the Sports package to obtain the 18" wheels. But it's worth it!!!
I went back to the web site and I now figured out how to build a 197 hp model and it did have the 18” wheels under the sport pkg option. I do wish, however, that the 197 hp model was available w/ a 5 spd. I was reading CAR or EVO magazine @ Borders last month and they had a small article regarding the 197hp model, and it stated that a 5 spd was available in Britain, I wonder why we don't get it here?
For that matter why do you want the AT?
Manual trannys are much more popular in Europe than they are here.
The reason for the variation in HP has nothing to do with the engine. It's quite powerful and could make even more HP.
The issue was one of catalytic converters. Mazda wanted them to last 120K miles. Mazda's tests coudln't confirm that they would last that long. So, they "detuned" the RENESIS a little bit to assure the cats would last 120K miles.
J/K!!!! :-D
They call ... hold yer breath for this one folks ... "The RX-8 the best car they've test driven all year".
Bear in mind that 2003 saw Top Gear test drive some pretty kick-butt cars - like the Lotus Elise, and the new Swedish Supercar with a ridiculous (more than the McLaren F1) amount of HP.
And that Top gear is, IMnsHO, the most respectable performance testing and car review show on our dear planet.
http://www.mazda6club.com/applejax/topgear.wmv
Also, it macthed the track time of what (to my somewhat trained eye) seemed to be the track edition Z AND ... hope you're holding your breath again ... the MIGHTY BMW M3 SMG!
What happens if the front door shuts first? I realize it won't latch, but if the front door gets closed, and then the back door gets closed, does the back door dent the front door or chip its paint?
Has anyone hauled around ice hockey equipment in the RX-8? It doesn't really matter where it fits, just as long as I can get my equipment bag and sticks *somewhere* in the car.
Thanks!
Dave
And then you should be able to throw those gigantic hockey equipment duffel bags in the back seats if the trunk doesn't fit. But I actually think the trunk would fit a big hockey duffel bag.
Sort of makes me want to head to the track....to hell with the cost of replacement tires!
and I love my AT....nothing wrong with it. Fast enough for me. If I want faster, I can ride a sportbike......well, except for the rainy days!!
needless to say, either model is a great ride!
Aside from their minor quibbles with the styling (which myself and 20,000 others who have bought the car, disagree with them), they fell all over themselves about the car. They didn't like the rear tail light treatment, but I disagree with them on that point, too.
The doors bounce back open if you try to close the front doors without first closing the rear doors. The front doors won't close if the rear doors aren't already closed.
Can't comment on loading ski equipment in the RX8 because I've never tried. You do have a pass through that could work if loaded from the trunk. Surprisingly, I can fit an awful lot of stuff in the trunk. I wish the trunk opening was bigger, but if they did that, the styling would be all screwed up.
a high performance car that's easy to drive, very cool :-)
They do it at least twice! Awe-frikkin-some! So - how many of you owners have tried that yet? And if not, what's your excuse?
Notice how he finishes the 360 and says, very genuinely honestly ... "Perfect!", with almost a hint of surprise in his voice! Yeah!
Now if only I could decide which color RX-8 to upgrade to from my 6
Did anybody notice the lap times posted by the 911 turbo? Watch the video and note that when they show the lap time for the 350Z (1:31.8, same as the RX-8 and BMW M3).
911 turbo posted a 1:31.0.......only 0.8 secs quicker than the RX-8.
Maybe they just left the 911 in 3rd for the whole lap...
I haven't tracked what you own - your profile says Mazda.
And I trust Top Gear to be more honest than junk like Consumer Reports and JD Powers etc
IMnsHO - if they say its as fast as an SMG M3, I'd suggest you believe them.
big difference there ashu ;-)
The RX-8 looked good in the video.
The production values of Top Gear is almost like a movie. Makes shows like "Motorweek" look like they were done on a home camcorder.
What I'm trying to figure out with the doors is the worst-case scenario. The back door latches into the body, and the front door latches into the back door, so if the back door is open, the front won't stay closed. No biggie there.
I have here at home, one twelve-year-old girl. Being an adolescent, her brain (and her friends' brains, too) isn't always in gear, and what I'm worried about is two of them getting out the passenger side and slamming the doors shut. In the worst case, the front door meets the body just as the back door tries to shut. If this did happen, whic parts of the back door would contact which parts of the front door?
If I were to check this out at a dealer, here's what I'd do: Open both doors, hold the front door against the body of the car, slowly close the back door to see where it made contact. I'm hoping something soft like an armrest is the first part of the back door to meet the front door. Or maybe there's a safety mechanism built in that keeps the back door from closing all the way.
For the hockey stuff, are there any pictures anywhere that show the RX-8 with the trunk lid open? I looked through the Mazda web site for such a picture, but there was none. I checked the Edmunds Photo and Video gallery, too. Nothing with the trunk lid open.
Thanks!
It turns out the RX8 does a much better job of protecting itself. The interior part of the back-door touches the exterior paint area of the front door. Luckily that part of the back door is all relatively forgiving plastic. Unless you really slammed the back door on the front door, I don't think you'd do any damage. Even slamming the back door, I imagine you'd just get some scuffs.
Has anyone actually shut the doors hard in the wrong order (and is willing to admit it)? You can blame a familiy member or friend if it makes you more willing to come forward.
Anyone notice that the interior of the car scratched up pretty easy...
I have had my RX8 for four months and love it. Thought hard about returning it on the refund offer because of the dealer, but just couldn't do it because I enjoyed the car soooo much.
Not alot of RX8 on the road in Vancouver. Better for me... I look like a rock star.
I store my RX-7 3rd gen for 6 months every winter (Edmonton).
1. Fill fuel tank.
2. Make sure the tires are at full pressure (perhaps highway setting from the manual - they will loose a bit of air after a few months).
3. Change oil - oil accumulates acids, and you don't want that sitting in the engine. If you've only been driving on freshly changed oil for a few weeks, then that is fine.
4. Remove battery, and charge it at least once a month with a good quality charger. It's not a good idea to charge the battery when it's connected to the car. Do not let the battery terminals contact/disconnect more than once when you connect or disconnect them. This can damage electronics in the car. In other words, be deliberate when disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. I use an insulator when installing the battery (a rag or plastic battery terminal protector) so it does not accidentally connect. Always disconnect the -ve terminal first when removing the battery and reconnect the -ve terminal last when installing the battery. That way if your wrench contacts the chassis there will be no spark.
5. I put my car up on jackstands, but this is probably not really necessary. I do it so I can sweep under it and watch for leaking fluids.
Fuel stabilizer is not necessary for storage up to about 8 months.
Been doing it this way for 6 years now. Starts right away in the spring (after I install the battery). You will not loose any odometer readings, or upset the ECU trouble code system by removing the battery. Bonus, if you remove the battery and put it up on jackstands, anyone who wants to steal it will have to really work to drive it away.
Doesn't get cold here like the Chuck, but there is a lot of rain and sometimes snows, and don't mean to wimp out, but I would rather be riding in my forerunner. Not nearly as fun or cool, but I don't think my baby will drive nearly as good in the cold rainer slippery conditions. It is already getting a littly squirrely.