first oil change for my rx8

[dug06824]

any suggestions ,do i go to the dealer or can i go to my local ford dealership, I know i need the 5w20 oil and to not use syn i have 4200miles , bought new april 17th I guess i have been zooming around ,i cant see going twenty miles to the dealership if i can get the service done local how does the local ford dealershipps look at us mazdas?

 

[socommatthews]

why cant you do it yourself?besides only a few mazdas are made in co-op w/ford but the RX-8 is not.its fully mazda shipped from japan.

 

[mp3josh]

just because ford has a stake in mazda does not mean that all ford parts will fit on mazda's. The only proprietary(sp?) thing that mazda has from ford is the ECC-V ecm plugs that is about it on most mazda's. But like the 3 that shares the frame with the Focus, Volvo and ect they are based off of ford idears.

 

[hellcat]

I heard that you are not supposed to put full synth. in an RX-8 because that rotary motor is supposed to burn oil and full syth. doesn't burn correctly. I hear it will ruin the whole motor. Sounds expensive!

 

[dug06824]

why cant you do it yourself?besides only a few mazdas are made in co-op w/ford but the RX-8 is not.its fully mazda shipped from japan.

how much are the mazda dealers charging for rx8 oil changes and where is the oil filter .,ie is it easy to reach from undert the car only?

 

[socommatthews]

not sure how much or where it is but on my RX-7 the filter in on the top w/the oil cooler.its really ease to get to so i would imagine its pretty close to the RX-8.

 

[KYLiquid]

syn oil will not damage the motor in any way, shape or form!

It comes from ages ago (20 years) when mazda race teams were using syn oil, they were damaging the seals in the motor (corner seals and oil seals)....but mazda, rather than say the syn oil that did damage the rotary motor (its still unkown what oil it was, but many think its Mobil1) they just black listed all syn oil....yet to this day mazda runs syn oil from redline in its rotary race cars....lol

On a street car, the only worry you would have is that it could POSSIBLY clog your catalytic converter.....although syn oil does burn cleaner than dyno oil....if the EGT (exhaust gas temps) dont get high enough (WOT, high RPM, ect) then it could clog it.....but your supposed to keep these motors in the higher RPM anyway....it keeps carbon build up down and thats where the power is with these motors.....

that said, I have used redline fully syn oil in rotarys for YEARS and HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of miles with no problems (my cars and friends car).

As far as the oil change, use dyno oil (Castrol GTX) or Syn oil (REDLINE) and get a filter (NAPA, PURE ONE or MOBIL1 or K&N) you can get everything for 15-35 depending if you go with dyno or syn.

Its an easy change, only 4 qts (of the 8qts total) are changed.....so just like older rotarys, your only changing half the oil every time......

Mazda calls for 5000 miles per oil change or 7500 miles if its 'easy driving and not dusty'....forget that, change it every 3k miles or less.......5k is WAY to long in a rotary and 7500 is suicide for the motor.

 

[KYLiquid]

not sure how much or where it is but on my RX-7 the filter in on the top w/the oil cooler.its really ease to get to so i would imagine its pretty close to the RX-8.

exact same place, all rotarys are

 

[icourtnage]

I'm about to buy an RX-8 (really excited about it too).. and I was talking to a salesman a the dealership about the oil issue. He said that synthetic shouldn't be put in an RX-8, but not because of any possible damage to the seals, but because of where the oil goes.
I found this on another forum, "the RENESIS motor requires 5w-20 NON SYNETHIC because the oil is injeted and cooled through a OIL/AIR COOLER. SYNETHIC OIL WILL NOT BURN, not allowing the engine seals to be lubed, thus your brand new RX-8 will become an oil leaking RX-7. please DO NOT use synethic oil"
I also found this on a vendor site:
"Note that the Mazda RX8 rotary motor cannot use synthetic oil because it injects oil in the combustion process and the flash point of the synthetic oil is so much higher than regular oil it fails to fully burn and can destroy your catalytic converter, 02 sensors, etc."

Hope that helps... I'm going to stay away from synthetic once I get my RX-8... My logic is: why would you screw around when you know normal oil is what the manufacturer reccomends and what people have had a good experience with?

 

[KYLiquid]

I'm about to buy an RX-8 (really excited about it too).. and I was talking to a salesman a the dealership about the oil issue. He said that synthetic shouldn't be put in an RX-8, but not because of any possible damage to the seals, but because of where the oil goes.
I found this on another forum, "the RENESIS motor requires 5w-20 NON SYNETHIC because the oil is injeted and cooled through a OIL/AIR COOLER. SYNETHIC OIL WILL NOT BURN, not allowing the engine seals to be lubed, thus your brand new RX-8 will become an oil leaking RX-7. please DO NOT use synethic oil"
I also found this on a vendor site:
"Note that the Mazda RX8 rotary motor cannot use synthetic oil because it injects oil in the combustion process and the flash point of the synthetic oil is so much higher than regular oil it fails to fully burn and can destroy your catalytic converter, 02 sensors, etc."

Hope that helps... I'm going to stay away from synthetic once I get my RX-8... My logic is: why would you screw around when you know normal oil is what the manufacturer reccomends and what people have had a good experience with?

you just said the exact same thing I said, the only worry in a rotary street car with syn oil is that is MIGHT....OVER TIME, clog o2 sensors, catalytic converters...ect. I wouldnt worry to much about that however....

1) syn oil BURNS CLEANER than dyno oil......so when it does burn, it leaves less ash/deposits behind

2) even with its higher flashpoint (around 400*F for most syn) its well below the almost 1000*F exhaust tmeps that the rotary engine can produce at WOT near redline!

When you look at the fact that rotary engines get almost 30% of their cooling from the oil, and that the oil see's much higher temps than a regular piston motor. Even with the twin oil coolers found on the US spec 6port motor.....oil temps can run quite high in city traffic......that shortens the life of the oil and breaks it down faster. Also Rotary engines tend to put a larger ammount of fuel into the oil , that also breaks it down. Syn oil holds up much better to these conditions than dyno oil.

Mazda says to use 5w20 non-syn oil in the car to cover their butts....while any engine builder will tell you (and show you) that the chance of any damage to a rx8 (and most rotary cars) from syn oil is VERY rare....and when there is damage, its to the cat, o2 sensors...ect.....

Mazda also calls for oil changes every 5000 to 7500 miles for the car....using regualr oil..........remeber that going by miles doesnt account for the extra STRESS caused by sitting in stop/go traffic. When you change the oil in the rx8 you only change 50% (half) of it....so you have oil in there that has 10000-15000 miles on it!!!!! Thats crazy.

Mazda says that is ok (but really its just the minimum they think the car needs....but they only "look after" the car for 4yrs/50k miles......after that its all you! So be smart and change your oil ever 3k or less!

 

[smo0f]

so why even bother with synthetic knowing you can risk damage to parts like o2 sensors and cats (and it's not like they're pocket change replacements) ? i would just follow what the dealership says, mainly because knowing mazda, if something happens to your car, they might and most likely will void your warranty if they find out you used synthetic.

 

[toucci]

so why even bother with synthetic knowing you can risk damage to parts like o2 sensors and cats (and it's not like they're pocket change replacements) ? i would just follow what the dealership says, mainly because knowing mazda, if something happens to your car, they might and most likely will void your warranty if they find out you used synthetic.

because some guy on the internet can't admit he's wrong (sssh)

 

[KYLiquid]

so why even bother with synthetic knowing you can risk damage to parts like o2 sensors and cats (and it's not like they're pocket change replacements) ? i would just follow what the dealership says, mainly because knowing mazda, if something happens to your car, they might and most likely will void your warranty if they find out you used synthetic.

here is they way I look at it :

you follow all the instructions from mazda/the owners manual to the T, oil changes every 5k or 7500 miles (depending on conditions) and use dyno oil : you have 0 problems with warranty claims that come up durring your 4 years/50k miles with the car. After that, when the motor say...craps out at 80k miles cause of excesive wear to the engine internals......you dont have a warranty anyway...so who cares.

you change the oil ever 3k miles or less, use a good quality syn oil. If you do have any problems with the warranty durring the 4yr/50k miles....you get them to prove that synthetic oil caused the problem, and when the warranty is up...you know you are using the best possible oil there is, so you are less likely to run into problems in the future.

Sure the cat is expensive (1300 retail I belive) and the o2 sensors are also expensive (I think 500 each retail, and there are 3 of them). First off, if you drive the car (and I mean DRIVE it, push it sometimes, run good fuel, keep it in tune, rev it up, give it a good ammount of redline and WOT) then you shouldnt have any problems, as Ive said above. Also, as far as the cat goes...there are aftermarket replacements for a few hundred dollars, that not only keep the car emissions legal, but also improve performance.....you could even pick up a stock cat 2nd hand from someone who replaced it with something else.

anyway, im done talking about it, you can do what you want

 

[smo0f]

oil shouldn't include a price tag of $2800. i owned an rx7, i know synthetic was said to be bad. others have used it and have experienced problems. so either use regular motor oil, and have a crapped out engine at 80k miles because of excessive wear, or use synthetic and beat up on the car, and eventually have excessive wear? Same thing to me, only the first one is $2800 cheaper.

 

[rotten42]

I get my oil changed at the dealer...here's why.

Some dealers do not always honor the TSB's out for the car...like the brake pads, flashes...etc

What I have found is I always time these things at the same time as an oil change. It's my way of showing some loyalty to the dealer when I'm trying to get work done. It's a way to build up the relationship with the service manager. So far it's worked rather well. I've never been refused work on a TSB. That's significant because there have been many people through-out North America that have had problems with their dealer.

An expample is the brake squeal - some dealers fight the replacemtn of the pads. I'm not sure why because it gets charged back to Mazda. I've had them replaced 3 times. The latest with the newly designed pads.

I also had the latest flash done even though the TSB wasn't repeased yet. As with anything in business, it's about relationships. If you are always taking and not giving anything back, you won't get far.

 

[ZoomZoomH]

anyway.... to answer the original question, i've been doing the oil change myself on my RX-8 ever since I bought it. I think I've already saved HUNDREDS by doing the oil change myself. Buying a Fumoto oil drain valve (www.fumotovalve.com) has made oil change on the 8 a complete cakewalk, don't even need to lift the car up!

As for oil, I've been using Castrol GTX for the last 20k miles, but after this case is done, I'm switching to Royal Purple 5w20

 

[KYLiquid]

I get my oil changed at the dealer...here's why.

Some dealers do not always honor the TSB's out for the car...like the brake pads, flashes...etc

What I have found is I always time these things at the same time as an oil change. It's my way of showing some loyalty to the dealer when I'm trying to get work done. It's a way to build up the relationship with the service manager. So far it's worked rather well. I've never been refused work on a TSB. That's significant because there have been many people through-out North America that have had problems with their dealer.

An expample is the brake squeal - some dealers fight the replacemtn of the pads. I'm not sure why because it gets charged back to Mazda. I've had them replaced 3 times. The latest with the newly designed pads.

I also had the latest flash done even though the TSB wasn't repeased yet. As with anything in business, it's about relationships. If you are always taking and not giving anything back, you won't get far.

if the dealer refuses to take in your car for a TSB or recall, call corprate and start using another dealer....

 

[rotten42]

if the dealer refuses to take in your car for a TSB or recall, call corprate and start using another dealer....

I agree, but it does happen a lot in some markets.

 

[ProjectFD3S]

Here is how it is in Japan. You can use synthetic as long as it is non-polymer synthetic, however the best you can do is rotary oil. can you get rotary oil in the US?

 

[KYLiquid]

Here is how it is in Japan. You can use synthetic as long as it is non-polymer synthetic, however the best you can do is rotary oil. can you get rotary oil in the US?

I know of a few vendors/shops that carry or can get Idemitsu (spelling?) as well as RE-Amemiya branded oil (i heard it is just idemitsu re labled and sold at a higher price).