plugs have been overdue and because of the snow and cold, i haven't been motivated to change the plugs in m7 05 RX-8. today was nice so i decided to slide out and get it done. a completely different beast than my FB in plug changing procedeure. i found that the best way to change the plugs was to jack the car up and remove the let front tire. from there you can access the front rotor's plugs with a couple long extensions. the rear rotor's plugs can be had from underneath very easially. bear in mind that these were the original plugs with 37K miles on them and the engine was still running well. i did however notice a decrease in fuel mileage and hoping the new plugs will help slightly. i used the oem laser iridum NGK RE9B and RE7C plugs. here are the pics:

not much room from the top:



jacked up:



front rotor's plug acess with the wheel removed:



plugs out:



old plugs compared to the new ones:



new plugs installed:



rear rotor's plugs out:



rear rotor's plugs:



new plugs installed:

 

Those are probably the worst looking spark plugs I have ever seen come out of a running engine. Good thing you changed them!

 

they were really nasty! and thats with only 37K miles..at over $20 per plug!! i'm suprised it was running so well with all of the carbon deposits on the plugs..

 

wow those are really bad. The only time I've seen worse plugs was on the '57 ****** wagon I used to have. That thing burned as much oil as gas.

 

those plugs were horrible, and they cost $20 a plug???? that's crazy.

 

Amazing... I changed the plugs on the Z the first time at 85,000 miles... and probably could have left them in, they were so clean.

The road salt is surely doing a number on the exposed metal; I'd forgotten the challenges of mid-western vehicle maintenance.

 

thats about par for the course for these cars. mine werent that bad, but i changed them at 25k. approaching 40k. so i need to do this soon. it really makes me appreciate my fb. and how easy everything is to access. especially with everything ive taken out of the engine bay

 

getting to them is a slight pain in the ***, compared to Rx-7s, but now that i'm used to it, it doesn't bother me nearly as much. if i recall, when i pulled my original plugs, they looked similar to yours. i went with different plugs than the recommended OE.

 

That has always been my experience as well . I put 186,000 km on a set of plugs in a chev truck years ago. They look brutal when taken out . New plugs in -basically no difference in noticeable performance . Maybe started with one less starter turn and negligable gas milegage improvement.

Ive had the same experience with my rotaries. I know it should make a difference , but its not really noticeble

 

those plugs look great, you should see some of the plugs that come out of the rx8s.... they make it look like the combustion chamber is not a nice place to be.

i really like the Rx8 plugs though, they are a better design than the FC/FD plugs

and wow, ohio does a number on cars... in CA all of our rx8s are still shiny on the bottom

 

 

ohio is an awful place to own a car. hands down ruins cars from the road salt. the underside was already pretty foul when i bought the car. i don't drive it in the snow and i don't drive it when i know the street departments are salting. it does collect road spray which has that nasty salt.. the car came from michigan and was driven year round (in the salt i would guess) for two years before i got the car.. i'll start a por 15 treatment this summer and start replacing the rusty parts with new parts to prevent failure and leakage from rust. this is the reason i was saying in another post that Wacky made about cutting up a perfectly good CA driven and owned FB that it was insane to cut up a perfectly good chassis. in OH we dont get to pick nice rust free 7's. i have an 85 GSL that came from FL thats super clean with zero rust. i keep that car in a garage year round.

 

the amount of rust on a 4 year old car is incredible.

It looks like my 37 year old REPU from the bay area/santa cruz.

 

We are very lucky in Colorado. Cars aren't completely rust free but they are close.

 

i change mine every year.....

 

NJ isn't much better. My GF's 04 chevy crapalier has as much if not more rust, my moms 03 protege has a good bit of quarter panel and rocker rust already too.. It's a shame they use so much salt it really kills the cars.

I'm with Dave, everytime I see one of you CA guys part/cut up a sheel I feel sick to my stomach...

Oh well such is life, glad you finally changed those plugs Dave, those things are pretty ratty!

 

i'm glad i finally got around to it too. one less small project on a big platter of stuff to do. this weekend i hope to get the GS wrapped up. just waiting on the control arm bushings from Eric..

 

On the other hand, we Cali guys get heartsick at having to consider parting with a near-perfect car just because the smog ***** won't admit to the reality of NLA smog parts for 30-year-old cars.

Gets me in a rage every two years, having to deal with that crap.

 

x2

smog is gettin rediculous out here.

 

true! i think we are the only place in the known universe to smog a 1976 model car....

but yeah even if you have something newer with available parts, its still a PITA

 

CA is terrible for their smog regulations and because of that i think they push perfectly good cars away from their owners. in ohio, after 25 years a vehicle no longer requires a smog inspection and tehre are only six counties in ohio that require a smog inspection at all.

 

you still have to smog pre 75 cars when you buy them.. thats whats holding back my 69 nova.. it wont pass smog right now... so it sits at my uncle house till i can tow it to my place an fix it

 

I thought there wasn't an regulations in 69 so you don't have to worry about smog? In Colorado we only have smog in a few counties and I'm not in one of those luckily.

 

Ha! You should see the ones that come out of my tow vehicle--a 97 Mercury Mountaneer with a Ford 5.0. I've changed them twice over the last two years and those are some nasty plugs.

I guess that's what I get for overloading the poor old thing towing a big steel trailer with my FB on the back and race tires etc...

 

The deal in CA is, although there are few pre-1976 cars on the road, they produce the MOST amount of smog. Generally the older the car, the more smog it makes. And generally the larger state of disrepair it is in...except for us enthusiasts who restore or baby their car.

So the older cars are a large, easy target to shoot at. Add in the abundance of tree huggers and the Green Technology trend and it becomes clear. Now...with smog equipment for the old stuff NLA new and hard to find used, it creates quite the conundrum. How do you smog it if your smog parts are broken? That's where CA's car retirement program comes in. They'll give us a few hundred bucks to retire the car.