andernamen

iTrader: (2)

Friend has one that is backfiring. What could this be a sign of? With all the issues the renesis has, i'm betting it needs a new motor. No idea how many miles it has on it or if it is automatic. Anyone have personal experience with renesis problems?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i've had 3, its such a simple car, its built like a lego.

step 1. check for a CEL, if present, pull codes
step 2. if no CEL, open the hood, in 2015 this is viewed as really involved and difficult. prevailing opinion is that posting a thread on the forum will fix the car, it wont, you will need to go outside and touch it
step 3. is to check for spark, you need to put a timing light on each of the 4 plug wires. they should all flash.
step 4. replace any bad coils. i check the wires too, but they are probably fine, and every internet abled Rx8 owner replaces the spark plugs weekly, so those are probably fine too
step 5. the CAS/crank angle sensor is on the bottom left front of the engine, remove it, clean it, and put it back.
step 6. turn the key on, engine off, and step on the brake pedal until the oil pressure gauge sweeps. this resets the ecu's memory.

if that doesn't fix it, i think next step is to pull the exhaust and look at the cat.

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

^ agreed.

it's probably the coils, and if there's a solid CEL, the cat, too. i've been down that road with mine and it was neither pretty nor fun. give it the attention it needs now before it goes totally ape-**** and starts amassing collateral damage.

the plugs are not likely and i actually highly doubt the CAS, too. however, don't discount anything.

Love_hounds

This resets the e-shaft profile only, disconnecting the battery and discharging the system resets things like fuel trims. If you do 5, do 6, if you skip 5, 6 will make car run poorly for awhile and nothing more. Also, the number of times to tap the brake pedal is 20 and depending on the flash, the oil gauge may not sweep across.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

right, if you clean the ESS/CAS/N3A1-18-230 you then need to reset the ecu. counting to 20 isn't needed, just seizure until the needle sweeps, if it doesn't sweep, you didn't do it right, or it needs a flash, which was a recall..

Love_hounds

Um, not to start a war but that isn't actually the whole story -> Real Way to Clear the Memory - RX8Club.com

Just trying to help out this guy

13x

CEL? yes ? have scanned ... flashing? that's misfire so plugs, wires or coils ... OE coils are notorious for failing

when is it backfiring? have cats been removed?

without CEL does it exhibit hard start issues? that may be a sign of low compression .. test like any other ... plugs are easier to access by jacking up the left front and removing the drivers side front tire (use jack stand of course)

and yes I have an 8

NCross

iTrader: (18)

If you have a bad coil(S) the RX8 will not throw a CEL. It will generally just run like crap. If you floor it at 60 MPH it will barely accelerate and shutter and buck badly. Low speed take offs will bog and it will have an overly deep exhaust tone. Mine did this. I replaced 4 new coils and new plugs and problem solved. You will also notice 17 MPG when the coils start going.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

+1 you can have a couple bad coils and no CEL.

NCross

iTrader: (18)

No CEL for bad coils made dealers give the engines death certificates even though the engines were good. Turned out thousands of "blown" engines were warrantied out due to coils.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

at the dealerships i've worked at we had to go through a bunch of hoops before they'd send an engine. they want new coils/plugs/wires, and then a compression test, and then a decarb and then another compression test.

the funny part was with the ford V6, changing the engine was the first step! we did WAY more of those than the rotary

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

exactly. it will flash at the times when it detects a misfire, but other than that, no light at all. had i been aware of this, i probably might have been able to save myself a train-load of grief. however, i simply did not know.

that's odd. i have to ask, do you drive your car hard fairly often?

i ask because, for me, i did not. i did spend A LOT of time on the highway though. i never noticed any symptoms until just before the **** hit the fan. maybe my exhaust masked the change in sound you describe. about the only thing i experienced, and i only put it together in retrospect, every once in a while i felt a hesitation on the highway which i wrongfully attributed to possibly needed the fuel filter/pump changed.

i bet you went through hoops ... and the dealer i went to sure knew how to put me through it's own. in the end, they determined my car died because or RB exhaust. MNAO agreed with them, so i was out of luck. the dealer was full of it though, tried to technically explain to me how "the exhaust caused all that was wrong" and why it would take $6000+ to fix it.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

lol, the dealership i worked at in 04-08, we the parts guys took over the service department, and we had seen these $6000 diagnoses, and then seen them not fix the car most of the time. so if a tech walked back with that "rb exhaust did everything" $6000 p&A, we would have had someone else look at it. and invariably there would be a simple fix.

not that we didn't see cars that needed $6k worth of work, or had weird problems, we had just noticed when a tech (or a doctor) didn't know what was wrong they tended to condemn so much stuff that the customer would leave.

and besides we needed the $$. think about it, if you owned the dealership and found out that your service department was turning away work that Mazda would be happy to pay for how would you feel? it still makes me mad! i will grant you that there were a couple cars that had too many or the wrong mods to warranty in good faith, but we all know the muffler didn't kill the engine.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

nm

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

see? that's the part i didn't get. if Mazda was going to take care of it, why would a dealer go out of it's way to try to screw me (the customer). i'm definitely not one of those "the customer is ALWAYS right"-types. in fact, i would have never even considered going to Mazda in the first place. my instinct was to fix the car myself. i got persuaded (someone told me about all the TSBs and the whole extended engine warranty-thing) into taking the car to Mazda and as i thought about it, it seemed to make sense. the car was only 4 years old at the time and i was still paying for it and i guess i kinda got caught up in the whole having a "new" car mindset. that thing with 8 represented the second time i allowed someone else to touch a car of mine since about 1992 or so.

the part that really chafes my *** is the fact that Mazda was the one that actually broke the car. it was running when i took it to them - limp mode (the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree and it sounded like a bridge port), but nonetheless running. i got the car back in pieces. literally! it wouldn't even start.

i put it back together, got a set of coils and wires and put them, but had to pay someone about $600 to reset the computer because none of my keys worked. so, all told, i spent a little over $800.

i still haven't figured out why it thinks the passenger rear door is open all the time though.

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

i'm realizing that by my seeming need to keep talking, i'm obviously still not over this. maybe i need therapy? picking at scabs, i guess.

anyway, just one last thing ....

so as the guy was walking me around and under my car, and trying to technically bullshit his way through an explanation of how the exhaust caused (the coils, cat, front main seal, and a few other things to go bad), i got the burning urge to challenge him ... i'd bring a couple of 13Bs down there and we'd see who could put one together and get it started quicker. i thought about picking his diatribe apart piece by piece. in the end, i didn't see a point to arguing, so i didn't. i just told them to have the car ready because i was calling a truck to get it towed back to my house.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

there's plenty of dipshit technicians out there, and just as many heartless ***** who will not simply say "i don't know what is wrong, maybe someone else should take a look at it". instead they have no thought of a customer when they write up a P+A for an engine, transmission, exhaust system, ECU and wiring harness for you.

they never meet the customers, there is a disconnect in many automotive shops that cause this sort of behavior.

not like the tech will ever see a customer break down and cry when you tell them their car needs $3k or even 6k worth of repairs, i have, except mine were legitimate repairs and estimates. for some of us it gives us the motivation to be thorough and not just try to jerk someone around.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i think its not just the automotive, its everywhere. for example, comcast wants to give me a new modem. which is fine. however instead of giving me a modem, they send me letters, and robots call and tell me they would like to send me a modem. i can't respond to any of the ways they have tried to contact me, the only way i can contact them is to call them and wait on hold forever. i dont want to wait on hold forever, i have better things to do with my life.

the real trouble is that they think they are communicating with me when they aren't, and of course i can't easily communicate back.

for the second part, motivation to be thorough we're on the same page. i hate it when you bring a car to a shop and they don't find anything wrong. does the tech think the customer just brought the car in for fun? no! you need to get the damn car to do what the customer says it does. as we know, that's the first step in a repair, verify the customers complaint. this makes the last step to verify the repair. follow those two rules, and you can pretty much fix anything.

i've never had a customer cry, but i guess close. sometimes you need to plan out a schedule or something, to keep the car safe and in budget

R×7

I've lost all faith in the dealership and would only visit them if required for the warranty on the car.

The worst part about RX8 ownership at the moment seems to be how much value they've lost over just a few short years. Recently looked at trading one in and even though the dealership knows we've owned a lot of rotaries over the years and know how to look after them, just because of all the known or perceived 'issues' the trade in value they offered was insulting.

We've had three RX8s all the earlier model and have had no issues apart from the transmission noise when in neutral with the clutch out which seems to be a pretty normal thing.

NCross

iTrader: (18)

My only complaint about the rx8 is the automatic transmission. Its garbage! Say your going uphill or your just trying to get a little bit of speed ...say you want to accelerate from 25 to 40mph so you just tap the gas a hair and... it upshifts??? It will go from cruising in gear at 25mph at about 2200 rpm to 1200rpm when you hit the gas. Like opposite of acceleration. ..

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

to be fair, the RX8 held an overly high value for too long. the earliest year models were selling for upwards of $8k blue book until 2 years ago. most cars were half that blue book value, but yeah, it was once the engine warranty went out the window that people flooded the market with them and the prices dropped like a sinking stone. personally i knew it would happen which is why i sold mine once the prices did start to really drop, they're comfortable average cars with a sporty suspension and light chassis, the 04-06 engines were pure abortions however.

honestly i still think people are trying to get high figures for them, i regularly see people trying to pawn off blown engine automatic 8's for $3k+. good luck with that. the automatic is still a slug and they're rotary killers, the only half decent automatic RX8 i have driven was the late model 6 port automatic.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

agreed on 2 points.

the 04-05 a/t cars are worthless, if someone offered me a free running one, i'd have to think about it.

the 6 speed A/T cars are WAY better, they are a viable option to the manuals

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

i agree with you on that. i'm always looking for cars to flip and the whole market around here is the early automatics, non running, starting at $2.5k. even if i bought one for $1500 i'd be hard pressed to make anything off the sale.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i've kept a spread sheet for the cars i flip, and every Rx8 has needed more than $1000 in stuff, and i haven't even had to do more than a clutch!

there is always something wrong that makes it cheap, which is why i bought it. then they are always missing things, engine covers, floor mats, clips, little covers. then they are all behind on servicing, so they need filters, and fluids.

RotaryEvolution

iTrader: (30)

almost every one i have gone to look at needed an engine, well except for the first one which was just flooded and the front bumper was half hanging off of it.

my problem is i know how bad the engines are, even the above one that ran decently now has low compression at 96k miles, 15k after we got it. surprisingly it still starts, runs and drives fine with 75psi on the front rotor and 80 on the rear. but some asshat put a ACT 6 puck racing clutch in it, which promptly exploded after arriving in florida so it's sitting until i get to it.