What to do with a broken RX8?

My son's friend just bought an RX8 -2005 I think. It's already had the motor replaced once under warranty. It ran fine for a few months. Then the non starting & flooding started occurring. After new spark plugs, new battery it was fine again. These seem to be very unforgiving & any issue with starter, battery, spark plugs, anything & they don't start. Plus even when it was running good it couldn't be shut off until it was very warmed up or it would flood & not start. I've read lots of the same stories. Now it's back to non starting. Anyway they checked the compression & it is low & he owes $5k on the stupid thing & went off to the military leaving it with his brother. We're just trying to help in any way.

LS swap cures every problem with spinning triangles.

A friend of mine bought one of these new and had massive electrical problems as well, I also had similar problems with my 350Z. It was as if the ghost that posseses british cars came back to haunt our Japanese fastbacks.

Yes my son suggested the LS. But the kid still owes $5k on it.

Well, there's no way to not take a loss on that thing. So the first step is accepting that.

If you want to MINIMIZE the loss, i would say the next step is read all applicable parts of the internet and become an RX8 expert. That will make current and future repairs much cheaper.

Or, double the loss and put an LS motor in it, thus making it awesome.

Or a 3 rotor in there. I would do the latter if it were mine. Big loss but awesome somehow makes sense.

The problem I see is not what he owes but what has he put into it?

You might want to check over on the RX7club.com forum or a dedicated RX8 forum. They will have trouble shooting/technical advice for you. Good luck, those rotaries can be finicky.

Asking a question here: Could one install a manual or semi manual (electric solinod) fuel shut off valve? Say its not fully warmed up but you want to shut off the car like if you moved it in drive way. Close off fuel supply let it died do to no fuel. on next start up spin motor before adding fuel thus less likley to flood. It's common on dirt bikes and some street bikes to run them out before loading on the trailer so the bonceing down the road doesn't unseat the float thus flooding them.

I am glad no one suggested just letting a letting a car that has problems and the owner is upside down in be repossessed That would just be wrong...

Thinking out loud here - would the engine be covered under the remanufactured Renesis' engine warranty? I realize the 8 year/100k warranty for the car has expired.

Honstly, best bet for that scenario is to sell it for as close to the $5k payoff as he can. Depending on how nice it is, he could get anywhere from half to all of his payoff, and walk away.

44Dwarf wrote: Asking a question here: Could one install a manual or semi manual (electric solinod) fuel shut off valve? Say its not fully warmed up but you want to shut off the car like if you moved it in drive way. Close off fuel supply let it died do to no fuel. on next start up spin motor before adding fuel thus less likley to flood. It's common on dirt bikes and some street bikes to run them out before loading on the trailer so the bonceing down the road doesn't unseat the float thus flooding them.

I've seen it done on earlier RX7s with a toggle switch to cut the fuel supply.

Personally, I'd be inclined to part it out or sell it as-is. If you part it, you'd probably get most of the $5k back, but it will take time and effort.

DILYSI Dave wrote: Honstly, best bet for that scenario is to sell it for as close to the $5k payoff as he can. Depending on how nice it is, he could get anywhere from half to all of his payoff, and walk away.

This guy, right here, knows what he is talking about.

Sometimes it's best to just accept and walk away.

+1 for selling it off. If he wanted to keep the car I'd say an LS swap.

I am glad no one suggested just letting a letting a car that has problems and the owner is upside down in be repossessed That would just be wrong...

Depending on how upside down a person is, im not against that. But i would say it has to be worse than this because like Dave says, he can probably get out of this and only be 2k and change in the hole. If he actually needs his credit it would probably be better to eat the 2k up front.

But if he goes into the military and saves all his money and comes back and puts $47350 down on a house with the federal government as a co-signer it's not like noone's going to sell him anything because he let a car get repo'd 4 years ago.

I wouldn't cut and run until you've tried all of the rotary snake oil tricks to get it running again. Drag it behind a truck in 5th gear until it runs, then drive the whiz out of it.

It could be that a proper flogging will have it running right again.

I knew several guys that bought RX-7s in this state, got them running and flogged the hell out of them, after which they were perfectly fine.

IDK if this works with RX-8s or not.

Mazda recommends that dead ones be brought back to life with washer fluid concentrate. No, really. Also Mazda released some programming updates that address 'garage mode', which is where it gets run 2 or 3 minutes at a time without fully warming up and after 4 or 5 times of doing that the compression drops.

For research: http://www.rx8club.com/

Or find a good local rotary specialist to diagnose, fix.

If they tested the compression after the engine was flooded and/or cold, it's going to read low. I'm assuming a rotary compression tester wasn't used either. I'm surprised he has had so many problems with the car not starting. It may be symptomatic of some underlying issue. Or it could just be user error and a simple behavioral change will solve future issues.

Anyway, suggest trying to get the car started first, run it till it's cleaned out, then try a compression test again. Not sure how it works with the RX-8 but with the FD, if you crank it with the throttle pegged, it signals the ECU not to inject any more fuel. You may also need to dry/replace your plugs to get it to fire. I've heard conventional wisdom says put a little oil into the plug holes to allow the motor to build more compression. All this is hearsay though; in 7 years of ownership my RX-7 has never flooded.

Then lastly, your son's friend's (or his brother) should ask himself, "do I like this car?" I think that's the most important factor in determining whether you want to spend the time and effort to make it whole again.

Don't RX-8's have well documented problems with ignition coils? Sounds like they have never been done. Could be a large part of the problem.

How many miles on the engine? Much wisdom in this thread. If the engine has less than 60k miles on it, I would be looking for a way to get it running and fix what's wrong with it. Shutting off a rotary without letting it warm up fully has always been a no-no. Also need to be sure the fuel injectors are new and/or properly cleaned. New plugs often work wonders for getting a rotary that's been sitting awhile running again. Full charge on the battery is a big help too.

SlickDizzy wrote: Don't RX-8's have well documented problems with ignition coils? Sounds like they have never been done. Could be a large part of the problem.

They do, especially the early ones.

The engine has low compression from being flooded... It definitely is in need of an Italian tuneup (I.e: brought up to temperature, and then flogged like it owes you money).

Rx8s do have a fuel cut, if you crank it with the gas pedal all the way down, it won't inject any fuel. Do that for 10 or 15 seconds, then let the starter cool down for 20-30 seconds, then do it again. Try to start it after the 2nd or 3rd time (if the car has been sitting a while).

If you're going to any rotary powered vehicle a short distance (from the driveway to the garage, for example), what you want to do is rev it up to 4k or so, then turn it off when the revs are dropping.