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Waz's Mazda RX8 231


Waz
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It's such a shame the MPG is so poor as I love these cars. The looks, sound, interior, RWD (basically an mx5 handling wise with more grunt). I know it was a whilst ago I posted but I ended up buying Steves S3 from my MX5 and even after tinkering with 270bhp it still returns 30mpg on my commute of 48 miles. And that's giving it beans where I can.

 

In all honesty if my job means me getting a train to work more I'd still like to have one regardless of the MPG as the mileage would be so low. It's an itch one day I will scratch but the miles I'm doing I would be filling up every 3 days costing me £120 a week. The same reason I got rid of my old STI @19mpg.

 

A lot of fun though :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Latest part of the saga; oil burps!

Scary as hell when it happened, as due to the instant blue smoke-screen, I thought I'd blown a rotor seal. But in fact it had decided to burp some oil up the filler neck, down the breather tube and into the intake pipe. So once I've cleaned that up and the MAF sensor, I'll be fitting a catch-can to stop it being quite so exciting next time.

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I've fitted a catch can to the breather route, apparently this is common on the RX8, the sump is not baffled and combination of oil level and cornering and pressure will do it.

Made worse by the fruity oil level testing, should be with a hot engine after switched off for 5mins.

If you check it cold and it's 1/2 way up the dipstick, don't add oil. I think it's no coincidence that I changed the oil the week before the event and have gone into autopilot while working round the car...

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  • 1 year later...

An overdue update, after 2 years of driving only 1500miles between MOTs!

 

It's had a set of fancy coils from Mazda Rotary Parts, as part of a Group Buy from the owners club. 

 

The Cat died and was replaced with a 2nd hand part of someone's scrapper, a PZ model, so I had the whole exhaust.

 

The 2nd hand Cat died and I got a reasonable one from MRP again. They are meant to be the best pattern part available and the cost is fraction of Mazda OEM. But as usual the fitting is just non-standard enough to make it an absolute pain.

 

Apart from that, I chuckle every time I drive it and enjoy that thoroughly. Don't drive it enough to ever improve the MPG, and I find myself looking at surprisingly affordable potential replacements (if you can call an SUV a replacement for this type of car) 

 

I've been looking at Porsche Cayennes as a family rocket-barge, since I realised the 4.5 V8 S is to be found under £4k.

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Glad you're enjoying it and it's good you haven't spent too much maintaining it :)

 

I just had a look at the Cayenne, that's a lot of car for the money but around that price seem to have very high miles.

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Welcome back..... Reads like you've had a catalogue of problems but more monitory than mechanical..... The Cayenne is great value and full of toys but they are high maintenance and drinks fuel like there's a hole in the tank.

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After the "rotary fuel disposal unit", I think any V8 is almost justifiable and I'd like to have a car with that kind of sound and feel and torque at least once.

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Not yet, I know it will be more sedate than the Panamera that the older brother hoons about in. He went for the turbo version so his is a 500bhp job. I couldn't afford the turbo cayenne it triples the price on the nearest available on to an S, which will probably make procrastinate longer, I always struggle with knowing there's a more powerful version of the same model, if I'm looking at the middle one.

I always wished that my E30 was a 325 after I had the 320. (no M3 though - LHD and price)

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's not burning too much oil, they are designed to consume oil to lubricate the rotor seals, it actually has a metering pump for this. My oil problem was a burp - the breather tube delivers oil into the intake.

 

Since then I've had another problem anyway. The aircon compressor is binding and stalling it at tickover, so I'm even more motivated to source a slightly more normal motor.

 

Dilemma now is, how much work do I want to do to make a good sale, or do I prefer to 'spares or repair' it?

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I've just had that moment of clarity where the last few bills are looking like a few hundred quid every time I drive the car. The annoying thing about the aircon is that it delivers lovely frosty air, but the compressor is strangling the engine, apparently it's quite common of it's age.

I might even ask the local Mazda stealer to quote me for it.

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