The Reality of Owning a Mazda RX-8 for 4 Years..

Welcome to MartiniWorks! A place for all enthusiasts that give a sh*t. Expect car builds, stories, information, and more! #stance #carshow #car

[lousarsol]

Always loved the rx-8. Never felt irresponsible enough to own one. I like watching you talk about it.

[jakubchmiel]

Never ask a man his salary, never ask a woman her age, never ask a rx8 owner how much oil he used in a year

[VraerynDaDragon]

I'm honestly impressed at how ingeniously simple this solution is. I'd be interested to see how it is doing when it further into being a high mileage vehicle.

[definitelyfunatparties]

Legit thought you were gonna show an LS under the hood lmao

[PartikleVT]

Oh fuck yeah finally see one on the internet with the sohn adapter and hear its reliable in the right hands

[Mrfolgersx]

My father owned an 05 that unfortunately needed to be sold at the time of his passing back in 2019. We both loved that car, only had 12k miles on it, never saw rain, he was crazy about keeping it mint. I wish I was able to keep it, I think about that car constantly.

[kreazyd]

My wife’s 2006 RX8 lasted up to 107, 000 miles without any modifications. Just changed the oil every 3, 000 miles and kept the regular maintenance.
We got to 107, 000 miles in 6 years.

[SapphireNexus]

I have an 05 Shinka in black cherry that is my daily driver. I picked it up at 78k miles and just recently passed 100k in the two years I've driven it. The Sohn kit was one of the few mods I've made. I also have a BHR decat pipe and coil kit, and I added an oil catch can because I've had to clean a ton of oil residue from the intake.
I'm slowly replacing most of the aging parts as I come across minor issues, but it has not had any serious issues in the time I've owned it. I'm sort of looking forward to rebuilding the engine when the inevitable compression issues start because I have been itching to tear the engine down myself.

[mikel]

yo glad to see another RX8 brother. i have an O5 ive owned since 2012 with 90K, bought her with 20k, best mod i did was the Racing beat ultra light flywheel, second best is the MM tune. I've premixed with JASO FD rated 2 stroke at 1oz per gallon since i bought her. the 1st gen RX8 didn't inject enough oil and didn't have a 3rd injector in the middle. so even with the sohn adapter you can oil starve your apex seals. Especially when coasting above 45mph down hill. you should still premix at least 1/2oz per gallon.

[jungeezy]

I almost pulled the trigger on a 2008 RX8 a few years ago. The stars lined up and a guy in my city was selling a Honda K engine that I could’ve used for an engine swap. At the time, there was also a guy selling an adapter kit for that Honda engine on the RX8 platform. Seemed like a real solution to owning a reliable RX8.

Ultimately I ended up passing on all of it because I felt dirty even thinking about swapping out a rotary. If you get a rotary engine car, you should accept the challenges that come with it, imo. Otherwise just get a different car. There’s nothing else like a rotary engine and you should embrace it because lord knows we won’t get another sports car with a rotary ever again.

But then I realized I’m not ready to own a rotary car yet. I either need the money to take it to a shop or the knowledge to do it all on my own. I don’t have either lol. So I saved up and got a custom Datsun 280Z. That thing was a beast. Sold it recently though. Maybe one day I’ll be able to tackle a rotary project.

[ryamahamini]

I've turboed my RX8, spent an unbelievable amount of money getting it right. Even with boost I still use the stock oil metering pump no problem. But I change my oil and filter every 5k miles. (it's the S2, so has the three oil injectors per rotor and higher oil pressure. )

[VGreggUndercover]

I owned one for three years and the best maintenance I ever did was religously premixing. It had 88K miles on it and was starting to run rough with low power output. After running some premix and a new spark plug she ran like a top, banging off the rev limiter every day for another 2 years. I sold it was 120K and it was still running like a top. I miss that car to this day

[asambi]

With that stance, he don't push that car. My guy sitting at 55 on the freeway.

[lucdanh]

Awesome dude. I love that folks keep these cars running. Had my rx8 since 06' at 30k miles. It now has over 130k and barely anything replaced. Never touched my thermostat, belts and such. The clutch did get change cause of the throwout bearing and been running chevy coils forever now. Its been over 2 yrs since I've changed my plugs. even got a access port that I've been running since 06. Cant get it anymore. Only thing I haven't done is the " sohn adaptor ".

[CCGtavern]

The stock omp is so bad. This bypass method is great, as well as using premix in your fuel. If you ever pull the motor best thing to do is to replace all your apex seals and gaskets, and then use solid dowels and race clearance your doritoes. Also if you decide to buy one go ahead and get a new thermostat, waterpump, and upgrade your radiator to full aluminum. All this and giving it the beans very regularly will keep it going strong.

[Apollo-IsdoinFine]

i should get the facelift version right? That has its problems fixed?

[chrisgrove]

I owned one for a few years about 10 years ago. It never missed a beat and was a great little car to live with. You can use all the power everywhere and that red line was just superb. My wife loved it and used it as her daily for about 3/4 years.

[matl]

I’m on my 6th RX8 (street cars) my daily has 147k now and prefers to be shut down by fuel cut (highly recommended to add a fuel cut switch) and also race them (Have two race cars as well) I don’t even have the external OMP res bro and I don’t premix but I religiously change oil at 2500-3000k. Also, I literally just do a 180 thermostat with fan relay (stock rad and fans) run about 4.5 quarts not the 4 required. The biggest thing that fixes all this is the first Gen engines you must drill out the oilers to make them a tiny bigger (my 2004 only had 2 oilers but my 09 had three! WTF Mazda?) Also, 89 GTUS (unrelated to this had 3). So i assume the EPA had something to do with the small and missing oiler holes for the E-Shaft when in 2003 Mazda had issues passing emissions for the States. High temps and less oil was the answer for sales in the states. I also run magnaflow cats on my street cars and 200cel on my race cars because I don’t want to breathe in exhaust for 2hrs at time for endurance racing. Also, it’s nice to see positive vids of these cars!! 🎉

[Psyrecx]

*My RX-8 oils itself, properly...*

But, it's also an S2.

[Prettyboybabyyy]

I bought a 2009 rx8 when I was 15 it was a great car at first but since it was the newer one it had few problems with the transmission and I had to change some things on it and had to change the engine 3 times do to me being dumb I still have it it's sitting in my back yard great car really fun I'm currently building it to make it a race car I bought a ls9 V8 to make something crazy and special.