Owner dropped 2004 Mazda RX-8 to the dealer to fix recall, driver and passenger air bag, voluntary emission recall, and also owner complains that the engine won't start when the engine is hot, you have wait for about 30 minutes to cool down the engine before the engine starts again. Advisor asked the owner to have the engine diagnose. Results mechanic recommend to replace CAM SENSOR, stating has a high resistance when the engine is warm causing stalling, so mechanic replace the CAM SENSOR costing $773.47 for parts and labor. Pick up the vehicle knowing the problem was fix while driving stopped at gas station after gas up attempted to start still it won't start. Waited for about 30 minutes to cool down drive back to Mazda dealer. Advisor advice the owner that mechanic will do a engine compression test, mechanic did compression test after the said test they cannot restart the engine anymore, problem got WORSED. Advisor called me to pick up my RX-8, told me that my car won't restart. Dealer mechanic recommendation is to replace the engine and advisor told me the RX-8 engine estimate well cost me about $4000.00 and the labor estimate about $3000.00. I ended up calling a tow truck to picked my car from MAZDA DEALER LOT TO MY RESEDENCE at my expense. I dropped my car running knowing that the dealer mechanic will fix the problem but instead MAZDA MECHANIC added more problem to my car and cannot drivable, what kind of mechanic they have?

Based on my information, according to numerous Mazda websites the Catalytic Converters are supposed to last for over 200,000 miles and I had to replace mine at 61,391miles. It wasn't until I received further engine failure warnings after replacement that I realized the engine problem was linked to the type of oil which was recommended by the car manufacturer. It even specifically states that the recommended oil for my car is a light weight oil ( 5w-20), which fails to protect against engine failure ultimately causing the Catalytic Converter to fail after only 30,000 miles.

Apparently Mazda, in an effort to meet the requirements by the EPA for MPG and avoid heavy fines, recommends owners of the RX-8 to use an engine oil (5w-20) that is lighter instead of using (5w-30) which protects better but is less gas efficient in order to meet the requirements set by the EPA; therefore, regardless of the fact that the seals in the engine, as well as Catalytic Converters, wear out four times faster than they are supposed to causing engine failure due to the Mazda recommended oil, car manufacturers still recommend and mislead consumers to use 5w-20 which ultimately causes the Catalytic Converter followed by the Seals in the engine to fail.

In addition, Mazda doesn't even sell rebuild kits from what I gather, which then requires the consumer to buy a whole new engine after 30-50,000 miles which costs anywhere between 3-6 thousand dollars! My only mistake was to listen to the manufacturers about which kind of oil my car takes and I got took. I got my car used with 14,000 miles for $29,000 and only 54,000 miles later my engine is blown because of the oil that I used which failed to protect my engine during the winter. I feel raped and not only do I have no way to get to work but now that I purchased a vehicle from Mazda I cannot see my daughter.

When I researched the matter online I came to realize that everyone else with the RX-8 are having the same problems and all their stories are the same as mine. I was not made aware of this whenever I purchased the vehicle and as far as I'm concerned they are thieves and what they did was false advertising.