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Mazda RX-8 Problems and Solutions
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Comments
Pathstar said if there was significant preignition the sensors would cut back on power in a serious way and the check engine light would flash. I've never experienced any loss of power nor have I ever seen the check engine light. Maybe the amount of preignition is not triggering the sensor? Is a little preignition really bad? Will even the slightest preignition slowly damage my engine in some way?
Back in the 70's and 80's every car on the road had preignition knock because of the unleaded gas and engine design issues.
Windows up you can't hear the true texture because it's muffled.
Give the inside of the windows a good cleaning! (I used Windex).
I don't know what it is about new cars...but my mother's new Cadillac had the same problem. Perhaps there is some film that accumulates during production; but with both cars, a good cleaning of the glass corrected the problem.
WHEW...I was worried that is was a design flaw with the car!
Not to worry...it isn't.
saxon
Misting can also be reduced by not using "recirc" on the air system. If you select "demist" (not the rear window heater) it will "power reduce" misting, by using the A/C to remove moisture from the interior air.
Comments
Thanks
With so many gear/RPM choises just use another. Mazda may fix that with "yet another" reprogram. Is your car up to date with its' PCM flash? Some of the flashes made the port transitions worse, some made them better.
I switched to the Avon Tech after only 4000 miles on the Bridgestones. Love'm to for the quite smooth ride. On good road surfaces there is absolutely no noise other that the wind.
Question: Does your RX-AT have the little engine knock or marbles noise below 3000 RPM? I use 93 octane Shell Super Premium and there is still the occasional noise. No check engine light or loss of power has ever occurred.
LSD?
Thanks
So you figure there may be another flash in the works.
Thanks
Limited Slip Differential
There is a funny story about it being the first in Edmonton: The owner and I were to leave for a one month trip to the far east when the car was due. It arrived the day before we were to leave. The dealer put his plates on it and we took it for a drive around the city for a few hours. While doing this, another driver was distracted by the RX-8 he saw, and he drove through a red light and ran into a pickup truck. No injuries, but the pickup driver was not impressed and the light runner was embarassed! We returned the car to the dealer, who kept it locked in the showroom while we were gone.
So, the '06 is essentially the same as the '04s when they were introduced.
Any word on the RX successors?
Ron
'05 Nordic Green
Ron
'05 Nordic Green
I took delivery of my RX-8 about 5 minutes ago. On the drive home I tried to turn on the radio. Nothing happened. So I tried every other knob on the control. I tried to switch to CD. That button didnt work either. Heck, I tried everything. Even the venting for the heat, etc. Nada. Pretty much nothing on the console is working now.
OK it gets weirder. I drove the car 10 minutes before I bought it. It all worked then. The only difference is the dealer cleaned the car before I drove it him.
Anyone have *any* clue? The dealer is now closed, they dont open until Monday, and I am now here with a new car that seems busted, and I feel pretty depressed.
Do the time and post dates work here??
I actually picked the vehicle up on Saturday night at 6pm. I had test driven the car just before making the decision.
Here is what is so weird. The radio does work. If I control it from the steering wheel everything is fine. The issue is *none* of the buttons on the dashboard face work. The radio, or the clock, or even the AC/blower mode.
Of course though with the controls on the wheel I can only do volume and switch between the presets. I cant load a CD, or switch to CD mode etc.
I'm sure on Monday the dealer will handle it, but its a damned bummer to have a new car and not even be able to listen to the radio.
I kinda hoped someone might have a hint as to how I can try to reset this thing....
Second, do people really check the oil every 2 fill-ups? It seems crazy for a car with that requirement that you have to pull off a plastic engine cover (and does that get too hot to touch?) and then do some contortions to reach the dipstick.
Any comments you have I’d love to hear. I test drove over the weekend and love the looks, but reading some of this forum is scaring me off. I want to rationalize buying this car...
I owned a Red RX8 '04 from Feb 05 till yesterday when I traded it in for a Saab convertible.
Mine was a fairly early '8 and but it had all of the chip upgrades. I NEVER had a problem with flooding at any time, even in cold weather in RI. I only checked the oil once a month between services and only had to add a quart of oil occasionally. Given the relatively small tank and low gas mileage, checking the oil every other fill-up would mean every week for me, a totally unacceptable proposition. The car is a blast to drive but I found that now living in CA means that I had to run the A/C all the time because the cabin gets very hot due to the proximity of the engine to the firewall and the exhaust pipes that run under the transmission tunnel. If you live in a warm climate I suggest you test the car on a hot day and make sure it is fully warmed up to see what I mean. The poor gas mileage is not helped when you have to run the A/C all the time. To be fair, I loved the car and drove it hard, but a change in job made it unsuitable and having a MT in LA traffic gets old quickly. I also wanted to sell it before I exceeded 20K miles and it depreciated further with the release of the '06/'07's
One of the costs of the superb handling is what I consider a pretty harsh ride, the low profile tires are also fairly noisy even on relatively smooth LA roads.
It's a beautiful car, it stands out in a crowd and performs well all round, but at a cost. Good luck and enjoy.
Oil? No, I don't check my oil every 2 fill-ups. But, that's because I've learned I don't have to. My car uses very little oil. You'll get used to yours and you'll know when to check it.
The frequency of oil checks for me is every third or fourth fill up. I have a 2005 RX-8 AT, so some might say, I don't really have an engine that's capable to burn oil the way the RX-8 MT can because I can't rev her past 7500 RPM. But to those who say they keep their RX-8 revving like that, I say, not here in Boston.
On a 2000 mile trip from Boston to the mountains of North Carolina and back, I added one quart of 5-20 weight. The only minor bothersome things on the oil are as follows:
1) You must remove the plastic engine cover to reasonably get to the dip stick. It's easy, but an extra step non the less.
2) In the colder weather, there's this gunky condensation in the dip stick tube that take three or four dips to clear out of the tube, before you can really read the end of the dip stick. Some might argue this, but the gunk tends to smear down the stick and since my eye sight ain't as good these days, I say, being anal on this point is ok. There is a plastic insert that's supposed to solve the gunk build up, but I haven't asked my dealer to install it.
3) You need to keep a couple of quarts of 5-20 weight oil cause not very many regular stations keep this lite stuff in stock.
But here's my favorite thing about all of this. It's fun to mess with with an RX-8. I love to pop the hood, open all the doors and even leave the trunk open. Open hoods and doors is like a universal invitation that folks use as an excuse to ask about the cool car. The RX-8 never fails to turn heads. And I never fail to brag about doing 85MPH down the whole length of the eastern seaboard. Mid life crisis hell, I'm a 50 year old teenager. Woooooohaaaaaaah! I'm let'n those twins rotors howl all night long, oh yeah!
Sooooooooo much fun...... just buy it. Everything else, becomes a priviledge of ownership thing. But if you get the RX-8 MT don't go revving her like a maniac, even in west Texas. Good luck.
Below 45 mph everything is smooth as glass, I don't even feel the AL brakes pulsing at all. Hard stops or soft stops.
The brakes work fine, but this can't be right. I had my dealer check them and of course they couldn't re-create the problem because they didn't drive the car. They eyeballed the rotors when they rotated the tires and saw nothing.
Is there an antilock brake adjustment at all?
Thanks for any help.
I had the early issues w/ oil lights, had recalls done and software updates done....have 23K miles on it..85% of that is 5-20 miles jaunts w/ ocassional road trips in the 150-500 mile range...never had any flooding problems...always try to let it warm up between short ride, but have on several ocassions in past 2 years shut it off in hurry not thinking, but no problems so far....I check oil every two weeks NOT every two fill ups...my experience is that the engine burns about 1 qt every 2500 - 3000 miles and I add a lil to get it up to center stick every two weeks...
I been changing oil every 5k Miles....ave mpg 16.5 - 17....I'm 41 and drive it fairly agreesively and have fun with it...it likes gas...no mistake....handles better'n any thing I've had before Rx7's, Mustangs, Hondas, but lil low end torque and that's OK by design limitatons....most functional backseat of any of'em thanks to clam shell doors...IMO it looks as good or better than anything in its price range...
Poor A/C, not for the tall....goodluck
Glad to hear the flooding issue is overblown. I'm negotiating with dealers right now...BTW prices on new 05's are great at the moment! I'll be able to get an 05 AT sport + dealer installed moonroof for less than $24.5K (in N. California).
I'm driving an '04 AT Sport at 15K miles with the larger brakes and can't recall driving this car so hard as to heat the brakes up that much.
The dealer could tell I was irked at the cost of paying for turning the rotors on a lightweight sportscar with 15K on it AND the larger, more expensive brake kit. He checked with Mazda and they covered it as a warranty situation. Happy ending for me on this one.
The speed effect (warped rotors not showing up at lower speeds) is partly due to resonance in the system. At higher speeds the mechanical parts can no longer "give" and you feel the fact that the rotor is warped. This is amplified by the braking force varying due to the warped rotor.
Once again I repeat how to start a flooded rotary -
1. Hold accel. pedal to the floor - do not release until it starts firing. When the accel. pedal is held to the floor of a rotary engine that is not running the computer shuts off the fuel injectors - a safety and unflooding feature built into all rotary engine Mazdas since 1989.
2. Crank engine for 30 sec. at a time with a few min. between - to allow the starter motor to cool off. It will take up to 5 min. to start it doing this.
3. If unsuccessful the spark plugs need to be cleaned/replaced. You also need to remove the excess fuel in the engine. Unlike in a piston engine where it can leak into the crankcase, a rotary has only a very convoluted path to the oil system so you have to remove spark plugs and crank the engine. Adding a little oil through the spark plug holes will help the apex seals pump air and the excess fuel out - both through the spark plug holes and into the exhaust.
4. Once you have removed the excess fuel reinstall the cleaned spark plugs or the new ones and start at #1.
It's not common to flood that easily but it is possible, especially if the operator is not familiar with the rotary quirks. If you stall a cold engine hold the accel. pedal to the floor when restarting, until it fires, then release fully. This ensures the fuel injectors are shut off. The reprogramming that was done by Mazda also shuts off the "choke mode" until the engine actually starts (based on time) but still allows fuel to be injected.
Make sure the car has had the latest "flash" - it may have been missed. Not all dealers are competent.