"AkursedX" (akursedx)
09/20/2016 at 08:05 • Filed to: Mazda, Rx-8, Garagelopnik
6
14|
"AkursedX" (akursedx)
09/20/2016 at 08:05 • Filed to: Mazda, Rx-8, Garagelopnik | 6
| 14 |
This is a story about how ‘The Curse of One-Hundred Thousand Miles’ paid me a visit and gave my car a good working over, and how the awesome people of an automotive internet forum helped me overcome.
A pic of my cars glorious achievement. Failures would start soon after.
Watching the odometer rolling over from 99999 to 100000 miles in a car is one of the more memorable automotive milestones. Although many modern cars achieve 100k with little to no issue and no major maintenance, not that long ago 100k miles was a massive achievement, but also signified the beginning of the end. Electrical gremlins, leaky gaskets, major maintenance jobs like timing belts, and things of this sort would start to leave you with a broken down car and/or a much lighter wallet. I’ve always referred to it as the ‘100k Curse’.
Earlier this year, my 2004 Mazda RX-8 passed the 100k milestone. I have owned the car since 72k miles and I invested a lot of time and money into making it as reliable as I could. The first 28k miles of ownership were so trouble-free that I started to think to myself: “All these people who say RX-8’s are unreliable are full of it. This car has been one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned!”
And then the 100k curse came and slapped me with a harsh dose of reality......
Between 100k and 101k miles, my RX-8 was plagued with three separate, but significant failures that rendered the car pretty much undriveable for periods of time. Fortunately all the issues I had were already experienced by other people and I can’t tell you how thankful I am that they documented their hardships on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . If not for the help I found within RX8club’s substantive forum, at least two of the three problems would have taken a lot longer to diagnose and repair.
The grain silos along the Buffalo River are always a nice backdrop.
Failure #1
My first problem started on a short drive to the park with my family. I was driving along at around 35MPH when all of a sudden, the car just died. I put the hazards on, came to a stop. I was a bit confused as to what happened so I just started the car again and it fired right up. I revved it a bit and ran the car at varying RPMS to see if I could hear or feel anything different, but nothing seemed wrong.
About 5 minutes later, it happens again. Now I know for sure that something is up. Once again it starts up and drives, only to shut back off a couple minutes later. I limped it to the park and I looked under the hood to see if I could find anything wrong, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. I get on my phone and search something to the effect of “RX-8 cutting out while driving” I came across this !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Since I knew my plugs only had 8k miles on them with upgraded ignition coils, and a free-flowing exhaust, I quickly moved to the MAF sensor as the possible culprit.
I limped the car home, stalling at least a dozen more times and swearing under my breath about what a pile of crap the car is. The next day, I picked up a new MAF, installed it, and reset the
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
. I put 100 trouble-free miles on it that day and considered it ‘fixed’.
A faded mural at Red Jacket Riverfront Park in ‘The Valley’ neightborhood of Buffalo NY.
Failure #2
I was driving my son to school one morning and had backed into a parking space. After I backed all the way in, I looked at the dash to discover that my ABS and Traction-Control lights had magically appeared. That was a bit of a surprise as I didn’t feel or hear anything out of the ordinary. When I started the car again, the lights were still on. So I made the short trip home and once again hopped on the computer and began my research. I came across !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . This gave me some places to start looking although I found it somewhat mind-boggling that so many things can result in the ABS and traction-control lights to show up.
Due to some bad diagnosing on my part, I first thought it was a bad brake-pressure switch as the one on the car was sticking. After replacing it, the warning lights were still on, and at this time I also learned that I had no brake lights at all. Armed with that bit of information, I went back to reading through the aforementioned thread.
My next step took me to fuse-land. As with another !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I wasn’t looking for the right fuse because of poor wording. Instead of looking for a ‘BRAKE’ fuse, I should have been looking for a ‘STOP’ fuse. When I finally found the ‘STOP’ fuse, I noticed it was blown. I replaced it, started the car and the warning lights were off! I thought I solved the problem, but then I stepped on the brake and *poof* ABS and traction-control lights reappeared in all their splendor, and not surprisingly, the ‘STOP’ fuse was blown again. Now I clearly knew I had a short in the wiring somewhere. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! led me directly to the culprit: broken wiring from the 3 rd brake light harness that runs from the trunk to the body.
This is a pic of the wiring that leads from the body to the trunk for the 3rd brake light. Mine broke near the trunk-grommet.
I spliced in some new wire and re-wrapped everything as snug as I could. My dash was once again warning light free and I had functional brake lights.
Failure #3
My trouble-free driving lasted all of 3 days. I made my usual hard 2 nd gear right-hander that puts me on to a nice long expressway entrance ramp. This is usually a wide-open-throttle run up and through the merge point. But on this day when I hit 7500RPM’s, it lurched so hard that I almost hit my face on the steering wheel and it’s still-need-to-be-replaced Takata airbag.
The car seemed to drive just fine under low RPM’s and light loads, but the high RPM pulls I did over the next couple days had mixed results. Sometimes it pulled to redline, although there was a lot more vibration going on. Other times, it fell flat on its face.
Once again, I started looking for possible causes on the internet. But this time, I had a pretty good idea what it was as I had a similar problem in my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which was a bad fuel pump not supplying enough fuel under load. I confirmed this with my scanner as I could see that my air-fuel-ratio was way lean under load and a ton of timing was pulled, which resulted in the massive power loss and backfires. A new fuel pump was ordered and thanks to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I had it reinstalled in about an hour.
I like to draw faces on broken parts and leave them lying around in my garage..... I named this guy ‘Low-Flow’.
My RX-8 fired right back up and has been running trouble free and pulling strong to redline ever since. I have put on about another 3k miles since this happened and hopefully my battle with the ‘100k Curse’ is over.
So, in the end, these problems weren’t major and I was able to fix them all myself with minimal cost, but I can’t stress how helpful RX8club was to me in diagnosing my issues and showing me how to replace things. And I didn’t even have to start any new posts as these were all things that have happened before to others who actually took the time to document their problems.
Buffalo Central Terminal in my old neighborhood of the Lower East Side. You might know it from a recent Gymkhana video....
I know many automotive forums aren’t as popular as they used to be, as the shift to social media outlets has become more popular. But bulletin board-style forums are still a treasure trove of information and much more search-friendly than other outlets. I certainly don’t post on them as much as I used to, but I still visit a number of forums multiple times a day. But when I have an issue with my cars, the first place I go to is to whatever car-forum I need to go to.
Thank you to all of you who take the time to post your problems and solutions online. And also thank you to those of you who help to diagnose these problems that we have.
The author, who goes by ‘Joe’ in real life, is an automotive enthusiast and likes to pretend that he’s a decent writer. He owns a 2016 STI and a 2004 RX-8 and hauls his wife and two kids around in both of them because he’s too stubborn to own something sensible. He has also owned a 500hp Fiero and likes Mighty Taco. You can reach him at AkursedX@gmail.com
OPPOsaurus WRX
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 08:12 |
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100,000 hit me hard. At 100,500 my Sport Trac ate a guide rail and then valves and heads and my wallet.
TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 08:20 |
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Least reliable car I have owned was my 2006 Corolla. That thing ate gaskets. Did turn over 150k in a rallycross though.
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 08:36 |
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Surprised to see no troubles with apex seals. Is that a constant worry for you or is it something you just dont think about? I REALLY want an FD rx7 at some point but I feel like an rx8 could be a more reliable and cheaper way to have a rotary in my life.
McMike
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 08:49 |
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I remember when my Mom came to me when she was just about to turn 100K in her 1989 Accord.
She said, “What should I do? I’m almost at 100K?”
It was a magic number not unlike the sound barrier in the intro to The Right Stuff.
There was a demon that lived in that odometer. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their engines would seize up, their transmissions would stop shifting, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at 100,000 miles on the meter, where the parts would no longer cooperate. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no car could ever pass. They called it the 100K barrier.
She was in her mid 50s at the time, and had never owned a car longer than 80-90K miles. She was very concerned, since her last car (‘84 Caravan) was a piece of shit.
I asked her if it was making any funny noises, or if anything was broken or if her fuel mileage was low. She said no, so I told her to keep driving it.
She did. And that’s how she broke the 100K mile barrier. I think she had it until about 150K when she started burning a little oil. Picked up another Accord in 2000 and drove it until 2012.
Land_Yacht_225
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 08:50 |
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My 100,000 mile curse has been on for 30,000 miles. I assume that’s why the previous owner sold it at 115,000 miles.
Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/20/2016 at 09:01 |
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Not OP, bit from everything I’ve gathered, Apex seals were more of a problem of people treating them like normal cars. If you drive them hard, do the maintenance religiously, and just follow proper procedures, they can be fairly reliable cars. I was strongly considering one before I got my FiST, but I didn’t want to deal with the gas mileage or the previous owners possible mistakes.
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AkursedX
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/20/2016 at 09:08 |
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Pretty much what Jordan said. If you drive it and maintain it the way you need to, they can last pretty long. 100k on am engine is somewhat common amongst ‘good’ owners and I have even read of engines going beyond 150k.
loki03xlh
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 09:43 |
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For me, 250k is the new 100k barrier. Vehicles are just made better now. At 250k, I blew a head gasket on my S10. I’ve had a few other nickel and dime issues, but mostly maintenance items: 3rd set of brakes, 5th set of tires, 3rd fuel pump, 3rd set of shocks, etc...
Urambo Tauro
> AkursedX
09/20/2016 at 10:36 |
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I used to frequent a general car forum that was organized by make and model, but you just can’t beat the wider community found in dedicated forums. Now, the first thing I do whenever I acquire another car is join a model-specific forum (or two).
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AkursedX
> Urambo Tauro
09/20/2016 at 10:50 |
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Im totally the same way. There are usually forums for even rather pedestrian cars that can provide tons of information on various issues, mods, etc...
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
09/20/2016 at 12:36 |
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Makes sense, so a good set of documentation for maintenance would be ideal.
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Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/20/2016 at 12:45 |
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Yep. I still want one some day. I’d love to find one with a blown engine when I have the money.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
09/20/2016 at 12:47 |
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That’s probably the best way to go with it. It is really the only surfire way to know that it is being done right.
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Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
09/20/2016 at 13:13 |
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Yep.