Heard a rumor on Denver TV of a complete Renesis recall for all RX8's
('04-06) but can't find any web confirmation. Anyone hear that?
Todd Archer
I have not received anything.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Ops it's a new one. Excessive oil consumption leads to
plugged up catalyst. That is all I know for sure right
at the moment.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
More info from the web.
-------------------
Rotary News;
The voluntary recall of all 2004 and 2005 vehicles, and some 2006s, is
expected to be announced this week or next. It involves damage to the
catalyst resulting from oil leaks in the RX-8's rotary engine.
Any engine that does not pass a vacuum test must be replaced, said Robert
Davis, head of product development and quality at Mazda North American
Operations.
Engines prone to failing the test are mostly in hot climates and use
synthetic oils.
-----------------------------------------------------
I don't know who Joe Ancona is that wrote the following and why
he apparently knows so much about it. PL
--------------------------------------------
They don't mean oil 'leaking' out of the engine onto the ground, they mean
oil blow by where by it, or rich fuel mixtures (also another issue) get into
the catalytic converter and mess it up. Because of a bunch of EPA regs that
had to be met before it's release in the USA, there were various
modifications to make the mixture richer, and less oil to be pumped in by
the MOP at low idle speeds... both were unfounded, and bad ideas turns
out... Hot climates with cars sitting at low RPMS see less oil, and of
course heat is the enemy. Plus, with mileage conscious 5W20 spec'd in,
cooling is even worse. Additionally, a richened fuel mixture did not
apparently cool cats down, so both of these items are being attended to by
Mazda.... it's sounding like if your engine is still healthy after vacuum
testing, you get the EEPROM fix to change the oil and fuel curve and you are
done. If it fails vacuum, you get a new or remanufactured engine with the
new EEPROM fix all ready to go. The car will be better than before - so
chill out, don't loose hope, and keep enjoying your RX-8.
Posted by: joe ancona | Aug 25, 2006 10:38:32 PM
-----------------------------------------------------
"Because of a bunch of EPA regs that
had to be met before it's release in the USA, there were various
modifications to make the mixture richer,"
That fact really pissed me off. If you start up the RX8 from
cool (55 F) and let it warm up by idling or slowly driving
it around town before getting on the freeway it really
sucks down the fuel. You can mitigate this by getting on
the freeway as soon as possible. My Honda Odyssey and Robin's
PT Cruiser are also afflicted by this. The draconian wackos will
sacrifice anything for a .000001 percent reduction in smog
including billions of gallons of additional fuel burned world
wide. Soon it will be illegal to fart.
Reading between the lines I think the vacuum test referred to
above is done at top dead center with a special fitting for
the spark plug hole. IMHO this checks the O-rings around
the oil scrapers. Mazda uses some sort of O rings in those scrapers
but I have no way of knowing what material they are made of.
I can tell you this. They are not as temperature resistant
as they could be as we boiled some in oil. I drove my 1976 13B Cosmo
for years with burned out oil O-rings and the smoke upon start up
obscured the sun.
The best O-rings for this job are Creavey Teflon encapsulated
silicon O-rings good to 500F. Teflon is inert to all known
chemicals and silicone is good to 500 F. I am always harping
on these. Chuck Dunlap flew them for a couple of years with
no problems.
http://www.creavey.com/
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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