Annoyingly, I managed to snap the head off the bolt that holds the top of the air down pipe in the engine bay and it’s not a viable location/angle to drill out. The pipe seems to be pretty solid from its fixing to the header, so I’m not too worried about it. It may get deleted in the future, anyway...

I would be nice to have been right, and even better if it gets you sorted

It makes you wonder why the oem filter was so poor

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While that looks like an exhaust manifold stud, I've never seen one as unrusty as that on an '07 car. What work has been done on the car lately? Where was it done? It's possible that the stud may have come from another car being worked on at the same time. BTW This is a list of all the "Studs" known...

You can't mix/match S1 and R3 springs as the seats are different and the dampers have a different top mount. You could (in theory) buy complete R3 units with springs from Mazda, though last time I looked the rears were out-of-stock across the UK and Europe and a complete set would have been over £30...

Blocked headlight washer jets. Basically, if the pop-ups are lifting then there must be water pressure from the pump, as that's how they operate. If there's no (or little) water coming out then the jets are blocked. If plain water has been used in the tank then algae can grow, which then blocks the ...

So much for European Union regulatory alignment. ..

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It's possible that it's been driven too gently for a while and that, in combination with the synthetic oil, has resulted in carbon build-up internally.

How many miles since you bought it?
Have you had a chance to give it an "Italian Decoke" a few times?

Yes, but, the ROI switched to metric (kph) in 2005, kilometres and centimetres not inches

There's me thinking you were already a teenager

- A/C delete?
- electric water pump?
- ....

It might be worth contacting Bilstein and see if they have a Type Approval for the PZ units, that works in Belgium. I believe they were TÜV Approved for Germany, if that helps. Otherwise, their off-the-shelf units should be an improvement over the Mazda OEM Sports suspension, especially if that's al...

It could be a leak in the vacuum pipe to the SSV or it's solenoid valve

All those CEL codes relate to the Secondary Air System, which only effect emissions on very cold starts and have no impact on performance.

They could all be because a single connector is loose.

Yep, I changed all the fluids early on in my ownership. Although I may need to undertake the contortionist’s task of bleeding the clutch line again as I think that it might have some air in it... I’ve noticed recently that the clutch biting point is slightly higher when first moving the car if it h...

That should add at least 1½ more horsepower

I did wonder about that

68 minutes

There will be (relatively) rustless examples around but (hopefully) they'll be in relatively rustless cars, that aren't in the process of being broken for spares. The ideal donor would be a low-mileage write-off with frontend damage. BTW although there were changes to the rear subframe throughout th...

A friend of ours had one of those for a while.

I tried to drive it but the seat was stuck high and I was banging my forehead on the top of the screen frame.

I was also surprised how un-sportscar-like it was to drive

Some people seem to believe that, because of the regular top-ups required, then changing the oil becomes less important, "as most of it has been replaced". Many of these only top-up when the oil light comes on and then fill to the MAX (or beyond) "so that it lasts longer". I could link to the FB pos...

Mazda were 40% owned by Ford back when the RX-8 was being developed and there was a lot of interaction between the engineering teams and supplier sourcing. It's no coincidence that Forscan is just as happy talking to the RX-8 PCM as it is to a Focus. There was much more cooperation between Ford of E...

Goopy seals are popular among rotary builders that focus on RX7 engines that are running higher boost pressures, as they can take loads that the oem seals struggle. However there are compromises and it's not worth those compromises for NA Renesis engines, where the oem seals are probably the best. S...

I posted a video of guys in the US that bought a "new" engine from Mazda. The engine didn't run right and they stripped and inspected it on camera. The result was shocking. Mazda did give them another replacement but it would have still cost the remove/replace labour for a retail customer. Sent from...

No room on your lap Nige?