Hi folks. New to the forum; someone on RX8Club suggested I include this forum in my search, and that there are quite a few RX7 owners in East TN.

I'm looking for information on trusted shops/mechanics in the East TN area (Knoxville/Chattanooga and in between) to establish a long-term customer relationship with. Primarily I'm interested in preventive maintenance and tune-up work, as my 8 is still fairly low miles and certainly not ready for a full rebuild yet, but I'd much prefer to find a shop with Mazda rotary experience than take my car to a general shop.

I've been in touch with Kevin at RotaryResurrection, but he said that he doesn't work with any other shops and has no recommendation for the kind of general preventive maintenance work I'm looking for.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

A little background... I own an '04 RX8 currently sitting just over 54000 miles. Drove it daily in MN for 5 years, and have been storing it winters since. Still drives like a dream and has no mechanical issues, but now that I'm in TN I want to give it a little TLC and a tune up.

 

welcome to the forum. i know of addicted performance in maryville. not sure if they do rx8's tho.

 

Thanks rxtacy3, I'll check them out.

Much appreciated.

 

Upgrade the ignition coils if you want to spend some money. Change the oil when you are supposed to and you will be fine.

My wife's has daily hers for over 10 years, my brother and father in law also daily there's with no major issues. Only thing we have had go bad was clutches and throw out bearings.

When the engine goes out, get Kevin to rebuild and install and enjoy the car again.

 

Thanks Johnny.

 

Not many places, including Mazda, will touch these cars. But they're really not hard to maintain. My '04 is pushing 130k and still seeing regular track days and weekend drives. The 3 things I have run into and replaced:

The S1's have an inferior fuel pump housing design. If you do any kind of performance driving you'll want to upgrade to the '09+ unit, which requires a bit of retrofitting.

The factory coils fail frequently. You'll start seeing CEL's at high RPM for "cylinder misfire." I replaced mine with coils from Black Halo Racing (BHR), which are supposed to last much longer.

Catalytic converter life on a rotary can be quite short. When they fail, the increase in back-pressure and temps can cause damage to motor. I went ahead and swapped mine for a resonated midpipe. You will get some smoke and a lot more exhaust smell if you do this though.

Other than that, just keep an eye on fluids and take it to redline on occasion. An aftermarket temp gauge is a good safety measure as well.