Here's Why You Should Buy The 'Unreliable' Mazda RX-8

[Music] [Music] welcome to a brand-new series of automotive misfits about car see you dare not buy for various reasons like expense poor reliability or simply because your friends told you to stay away from them the mission of the new series to answer the question of whether or not cars like the rx-8 should in fact be avoided or if they're worth a shot say hello to the Mazda rx-8 a car that you can pick up for as little as three hundred and fifty pounds in the UK it will of course come with a broken engine and everything bad associated with this four seat rear-wheel drive rotary reprobate but I don't want to talk to you about that all I want to do is to drive this car and tell you how it makes me feel how it drives and how potentially awesome it could be what do you say we drop it into second gear and rev the nuts often there we go up to its 9,000 RPM limiter we're already doing speeds that I can't describe to you but the first thing you will know is that it sounds awesome we've got a modified exhaust on here so that is the noise box well and truly ticked so this is the RX AR 3 version which was introduced in 2009 and the R 3 model is effectively an update it means that you get these nice Recaro seats you get built round dampers and you also get 19-inch aluminium forged wheels they really really look the part as for the seats if you're a little bit bigger up top like me it kind of feels like you're sitting on them and not properly in them I don't feel like I'm nice and snug inside but that is not really important when you're driving a car with a rotary this is actually the first rxa I've ever driven and the first rotary car that I've ever driven so today is a very very special day massive massive thanks to Dan Shipman for giving me the car for entrusting me with his absolute beauty thirty one thousand seven hundred and fifty miles so super low miler and it sounds a little bit like this second gear 9000rpm the aurochs a is a car that just puts a smile on your face instantly in any gear if you're doing 9000 rpm big thumbs up if these cars love to Rev 8,000 9,000 oh it's so good all right so that's the emotion box ticked it makes you feel wicked and rotaries our love to rep so don't feel bad about that but don't take my word for it this is Dan aka dr. Franken Rex who owns this very Oryx 8r3 and here's what he's got to say about it favorite thing has to be the sound 9000 rpm redline mixed with stainless steel exhaust in and addy cat just sounds like nothing else on the road I was saying earlier you just never get bored of it just why the windows down and put your foot down it's great at least like about it is probably the fuel economy for 200 200 brake miles per gallon in the sort of twenty to twenty-two mark on an average drive is it's quite horrific I'm not gonna lie everything else about the car makes up for it but it's some of that that I've changed if I could either more power or better better economy would be nice now I'm gonna tell you what it's like to drive which is again really really awesome the master gearbox really nice the precise shortish throw nice and not she doesn't feel spongy at all it just feels really well placed steering wheel is also a nice size one thing I will say about the pedals is that they're slightly off-center because the transmission tunnel is massive if I were any taller if I had long legs then my legs would probably be pressed up against them quite a lot so yeah that's something to remember if you're especially tall the steering is direct yeah it just feels so good it feels so planted the suspension is really nice those built-in dampers that come with the r3 really soaked up most potholes and it does feel sporty it feels quite firm but not in a bad way corners like a champ rear-wheel drive front-engined loveless the car is just so singing it feels so together God this is a proper proper sports car hops coming from the exhaust got a nice noise that tells you when you want to change up and also as you can probably hear now you have an oil warning light that comes on because rotary engines as we all know drink a lot of oil they require a lot of oil to stay lubricated to make sure that all the seals the apex seals especially don't get too hot and don't wear out too quickly because that's how you get massive engine damage we've got some oil in the back so I'm going to chuck them in in a second but this is the car that I think looks amazing I've looked at this car from so many different angles today and I think is wicked it's beautiful especially with all the doors open as well it just looks so badass and it just feels really good really nicely screwed together this one especially that's probably testament to the owners I think it's fair to say that I am a massive massive advocate of the rx-8 the way it makes you feel the way it drives the way it looks the way it performs sure there's not that much torque down low but once you're above 5,000 rpm it sings it sings it's just incredible it pops it bangs it's just a really really awesome driver's car it is a petrol heads wet dream the quirks of the car have to be the low torque if you want to overtake anyone rather than shifting down one gear you shift down two or sometimes three dependent now you're cruising stuff other than that it's not really that quirky to drive which seems an awkward thing to say given how quirky the engine is in terms of what surprised me is how much stuff you can actually get in one and the space inside it people look at it as a sort of 2+2 coupe a and think yeah well the the rear seats are there is a bit of entertainment and to say that we've got rear seats but I've had four full-size adults on a decent long trip and it's absolutely fine and the boot space other than having a bit of an awkward opening to actually put stuff in that's quite big as well if you've never driven one then it's definitely something that you should do in terms of which one I'd recommend if the budget could stretch an R 3 the later engine is a bit more refined finest away from using the word more reliable because there are instances where they do fail but if the budget won't stretch then there was a pro-drive special edition the Pease ed for track work and general sporty driving you can't get much better really in terms of things to bear in mind and things to sort of look out for owning in our excite if you've never done it before is is preventative maintenance in terms of buying one secondhand there are lot and out there which are really really cheap some are good some are bad and it's really a case of sort of going through buyers guides on things like the rx-8 owners club forum and other websites and stuff like that that really sort of give you all the information you need beyond that it's really a case to find a rotary specialist who knows the engine I'd buy another one and a heartbeat now that we've covered everything from how it drives to what it's like to live with it's time to get into the real nitty gritty including rx-8 weak points preventative maintenance and exactly what's in account for when buying I spoke to Joshua Scott from rotary revs one of the country's leading rx-7 and rx-8 specialists who had this to say typical problems with the rx-8 include a blocked or collapsed catalytic converter due to a poor ignition system the symptoms are poor throttle response inability to rev up or bogging down in higher rpms glowing catalytic converter and a hot transmission tunnel which can melt the carpet weak ignition system factory ignition coils tend to fail at around 30,000 miles and fake ignition coils must be avoided as they cause problems like block cats and accelerate we're on apex seals symptoms of a weak ignition system include significantly higher fuel consumption misfiring uneven idle hesitation in higher rpms and hesitation during startups hot and cold oil cooler lines there are three main lines on the rx-8 and the one that usually corrodes first is the passenger side engine to oil cooler line you can only spot it by removing the wheel arch liner and symptoms here include oil leaking around the front wheel arch areas or underneath and oil weeping on the arch liners or under tray bearing failure bearing failure is a result of lack of oil changes or letting the oil level drop too low in this instance a rebuilt is your only option and symptoms include loud rattle on cold startups knocking noise from the engine at all rpms groaning noise most obvious around 3500 RPM metallic rattle around 7000 rpm and a noticeably poor peak performance and laziness in the throttle response low compression this is the cause of the dreaded hot start issue and is down to warn apex seals and in some cases cracked corner seals due to a poor ignition system and lack of oil changes your only option again is a rebuild although people will mask this with a faster starter motor symptoms include good cold start ups but very slow and lazy hot start ups poor peak performance slower throttle response higher than normal fuel consumption rust or x8 especially in the UK rust because of our salty and wet roads and because of poor rust protection from factory 2007 or later rx-8 celeste prone and be wary of aero kits on the series one rx eights that collect water common rust spots include rear arches front arches around the centre brake lights and under the boot floor behind the lamps smaller but more common rx-8 issues also include broken rear coil springs broken anti-roll bar links corroded steering universal joints cracked front lower arms slow starter motors uneven power steering assistance and seized brake calipers a few more things Joshua mentioned included using 10 w 40 semi synthetic oil along with regular oil changes of between three and six thousand miles based on driving style 97 or 99 octane fuel should be used and expect to top up 500 milliliters or 0.5 quarts of oil for every 1,000 miles of driving as for fuel range expect to see around two hundred and twenty miles in town and up to three hundred miles on a long run that's from a 65 liter or fifteen point eight US gallon tank as for advice to potential owners joshua says that if you intend to keep an rx-8 for a few years a good idea is to buy a broken car with a good shell you can pay as little as two hundred and fifty pounds in some cases after which you can spend around two thousand pounds and up getting the engine rebuilt by a reputable rotary specialist if a complete car is what you're after make sure you get it compression tested again a rotary specialist will offer this service if you don't know the history of the car you've just bought then give the car a comprehensive service and replace the spark plugs to also budget for some ignition coils and if the coils are anything other than genuine Mazda see revision coils or D 585 coils replace them make sure you try a hot start - as this often spells rebuild if you can't start the car from hot if it doesn't walk away unless you plan to invest in a rebuild and finally like with any other car make sure there are no NOx or bangs a chassis components may be rusty or warm so I guess the final thing to do is to answer whether or not you should look at buying an rx-8 and based on how great they are to drive how amazing they look how practical they are and how inexpensively you can pick one up for the performance and fun factor it has to be a yes but remember these engines require regular maintenance a keen eye and a modest trust fund if not when something goes wrong Oh food is gonna get a v6 because v6 s they get sixes ah hell crazy mad while out in Las Vegas for this year's SEMA show I received an interesting call asking if I'd like to spend a bit of time with a rapper known as t-pain

Channel: Car Throttle

Views: 2,250,476

Rating: 4.900496 out of 5

Keywords: mazda rx-8 review, mazda rx-8, rx-8 review, rx-8, review, mazda, mazda review, jdm, mazda rx-7, rx-7, rotary, wankel, alex kersten, car throttle, carthrottle

Id: FDJ6tUShkqA

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2017