What have you done to your RX-8 today????

[rotatopotato]

I didn't mind it without the skirts to be fair (I think the US get a trim level of the S2 where the bumper is the same but no side skirts), but it is much better with them!

Aye the wheels always get a lingering look from me every time I walk past it on my way in/out of the house, really happy with how they turned out given that I basically walked in, saw it on the shelf and said "I want that one"

Just needs lowered now...

[rotatopotato]

Looks mint! Damn good paintwork job, I get the feeling mine would be similar if I decided to get all the little niggles sorted out might well end up doing that this year, we'll see

Just needs lowered now...

Yeeeeeeah! drop that bad boy!

[rotatopotato]

Cheers, as I noted in the project thread its not quite so mint up close, but a lot of what I'm seeing will be sorted with a full polish, though there is some over spray inside areas. Still, they did a damn good job for the money I paid and the colour match is spot on

You've got B12s in yours if I remember correctly from your project thread? How do you find them on the road? As I'll upgrade my shocks as well as getting the springs. I was thinking B8 or B12.

[rotatopotato]

Cheers, as I noted in the project thread its not quite so mint up close, but a lot of what I'm seeing will be sorted with a full polish, though there is some over spray inside areas. Still, they did a damn good job for the money I paid and the colour match is spot on

You've got B12s in yours if I remember correctly from your project thread? How do you find them on the road? As I'll upgrade my shocks as well as getting the springs. I was thinking B8 or B12.

Aye, B12s. Honestly - the easiest way to put it is an ever so slightly firmer but lower car than stock. It's still plenty comfortable enough and still perfect for the road, although I do notice that it's a little harsher on the big bumps/potholes than the stock dampers, whether that's down to wear, lower travel since it's dropped, my butt Dyno not being correctly calibrated or what, I don't know Still plenty good enough for me driving it pretty often.

B12 Pro 46-190338 is just the kit designation for shocks + lowering springs, in the package you do actually get B8 dampers (24-110068 and 24-110075 part no's for bilstein.) And those eibach lowering springs (E10-55-007-01-22) - looking about 600+ ish I thinks?

And while you're in there and have the suspension in bits, you might aswell get new front gaiters, F151-34-012B

[rotatopotato]

Ah! Thank you, I didn't realise B12 was just the kit!

And yeah, I will need new gaiters as mine are torn, tha k's for the reminder.

Not sure I'll notice the pothole harshness as Glasgow is lousy with them so it's already about as bad as it gets (though I'm well practiced at avoiding them now ).

[sztriki]

Picked her up from HME today - had a new set of RRP oil cooler lines installed (originals were rusty as hell), service and a new battery then had my topup treatment at KROWN, so officially rust-proof forever! Well...close...

Didn't have much time to check on the ignition, so I'm still having some hot start issues after short trips - had no problem whatsoever on the way home or starting it right after getting home, but took it out for a short round in the evening then stop-start when the engine was properly warmed and still takes longer cranking to start. Bit better with the new battery but still longer than it should be, about 3-4 secs. Mick reckons it's the coils, starter seems to be all right, strange as they are original BHR coils. Haven't checked the compression but just 3k in it after the rebuild so I'm not worried about that.

Next step might be a trip to Rugby for an RRP coil set, I could just order and put it in but need to readjust the dwell time with those plus wouldn't mind a quick look before committing to new coils.

[sztriki]

How many miles on those BHR coils?
Was the dwell changed when they were fitted?

There's no evidence to indicate that the D585 coils last any longer than the Mazda OEM (of B or C specification).
They were popular in the US because they were much cheaper and readily available - though somehow they were perceived as a performance modification.

Adjusting the dwell, as was advised at the time, has since been proven to take the load well beyond the original design duty cycle, so for 8's that are driven hard, they could be less reliable than OEM.

There is insufficient data regarding the comparative reliability of the latest RRP, though the warranty should give you some reassurance.

[PaulAV]

I would add that my 8 is running the RRP mkii coils with 40,000 + miles on them, I had 1 coil fail in all that time, I check them regularly with a spark tester to ensure they're good, so if that's anything to go by the mkiii coils should do well

[sztriki]

How many miles on those BHR coils?
Was the dwell changed when they were fitted?

There's no evidence to indicate that the D585 coils last any longer than the Mazda OEM (of B or C specification).
They were popular in the US because they were much cheaper and readily available - though somehow they were perceived as a performance modification.

Adjusting the dwell, as was advised at the time, has since been proven to take the load well beyond the original design duty cycle, so for 8's that are driven hard, they could be less reliable than OEM.

There is insufficient data regarding the comparative reliability of the latest RRP, though the warranty should give you some reassurance.

Not sure about the mileage, I actually bought them a couple of years ago used with apparently low mileage. If that's to be believed, I'd say 10-15k max.
Thanks for the rundown on the D585 coils, that's new info for me, I thought they were regarded as much more reliable and an upgrade. I don't really push the car, 1 track day a year maybe, otherwise motorway drives, sometimes B-road.
I guess their time just came, other than the difficult start with a warm engine after a short drive everything works fine. Not sure if there should be any other symptoms or if I'm following the wrong lead (no pun intended).

[chriskirkham]

Warmish restarts can be an issue on any modern car.

Engine bay heat soaks into the intake and the PCM is convinced that it's a hot day, and chooses fuelling to match.
As the engine spins on the starter, that air in the intake is drawn through to be replaced with cold air from outside, and the fuelling is all wrong.

This can result in the engine trying to start, and then dying.
It may take a couple of attempts or a longer than normal spin on the starter to enable the PCM to correct.
Sometimes, even when it starts, the throttle response just off idle can become hesitant until everything settles.

As said, many cars exhibit this behaviour but rotary paranoia means that we're much more likely to notice.

For those old enough to remember, it's like those occasions when you wouldn't have known whether to pull the choke or not, and it might have needed a bit of choke, and then push in quick before you kangaroo down the road

[PaulAV]

It's always worth checking and cleaning MAF and eccentric shaft sensor, that's my advice, certainly a cheap and easy start to solving problems.

[sztriki]

I'll give it a bit of time to see how she behaves, the annoying thing is that the dwell time is adjusted to the BHR coils, otherwise I could just drop in a new stock set, so I'll have to have the remap done again, as I don't really see the point of getting another BHR set if it doesn't outlive the standard or RRP ones that cost half the price. But at least I'll be able to have someone a look at the coils before getting a new set too.

[Judderman]

Just a hoover out and a clean inside. Checked tyre pressures, all good

[rotatopotato]

Drove down to Leeds as its going into Rotary Revs tomorrow for a couple things.

I had a bag of choc peanuts in the centre console, which had well and truly melted by the time I'd arrived - seems the centre console got very hot on the way down, I figure that must be the cat. Just waiting on a new full exhaust from RRP so it's not the end of the world, as long as it gets me back to Glasgow!

There were a couple of times when accelerating hard that I got a pop on up shift as you would with a decat.

[PaulAV]

Standard practice for the center console to get warm, it comes in handy keeps your Starbucks warm.

[rotatopotato]

Ah, nothing to see here then!

Note to self - chocolate goes in the glove box from now on.

...or just straight to my belly.

[PaulAV]

Unless it's in your coffee(mocha)

[PaulAV]

Not mine, but Chris's and Rich's first call was to Chris to replace solenoids on intake manifold due to faulty codes, feedback is the cars pulling well with no cel(also cleaned a rather oily MAF sensor) second call was to Rich's 8 to drill out broken bolt for the engine mount that I replaced, fixed, swapped starter motor and cleaned cable end connectors(starter connection had seen some heat historically) and fitted new battery terminals, hopefully we have 2 very happy rotary cookies for some time to come

[RichT_Derby]

Yes, I'm a happy bunny thanks Paul . Drove to grandparents and so far it's cranked first time 3 times and no dead start. Early signs are very promising. Glad I've got good connections on the battery and starter now. Thanks again!

[PaulAV]

No worries

[rotatopotato]

I am feeling extremely lucky.

After getting my car back recently I had the standard line on the invoice of "check the wheel nuts after 20 or so miles", which I just didn't get around to, and as it turns out they hadn't tightened the nuts properly... which lead to me losing a locking nut during the drive down to Leeds last night. I didn't notice this, the guys at Rotary Revs found out for me this morning. Kicking myself for not being more vigilant, and now I'm down a locking nut - although that's a preferable outcome to having the wheels come off!

[HarSc]

At least it's only one as you say. I don't know about others, but i've known some places (that actually use torque wrenches not air guns ha!) to torque up the 4 normal nuts and then not tighten the locker as much? I guess it's to try and stop people gunning them on and never being able to get them off again or snapping the key/tool etc, but I still wouldn't have expected it to come off of it's own accord! lucky spot that!

[rotatopotato]

Oh it was all of the nuts, it just happened to only be the locking nut that came off. I did notice some odd vibrations when I was on the M1 last night but chalked it up to the road surface - I didn't even think to look at the wheel nuts! Even this morning walking past (it was the driver's side) it didn't jump out at me, but then I'm not usually looking at the wheel nuts (and I was parked next to another car so I would have had to look directly down to notice it).

[PaulAV]

The locking wheel nut doesn't take much to shear the key part, I used to tighten the standard nuts with the tool kit brace and use a foot on it (but not full weight) where as the lock nut used to get hand pressure and the key part still deformed. I imagine mcguard can supply replacement nuts or one of the breakers will have a full set no doubt

[HarSc]

Oh it was all of the nuts...

Yikes!