Looking at a RX8 with starting issues

[Speedworks]

Hy Guys,


I\'m more of a RX7 fanatic (since 2004) but recently I noticed a RX8 near me which might be for sale soon. As it has been sitting in thesame place I got in contact with the owner. He told me he got it from a dealer and drove it for only 60km\'s.

After a short drive he put it away and the enxt time she wouldn\'t start any more.

Have done a quick search on here and ignition coils seem to be an issue that pops up many times, apparently the starter motor is too.

Any other issues that you could point out?

OWner says he needs a new engine, but considering that the car was running fine upto this point and he probably didn\'t abuse it on his first drive, I guess it might be a different, faster to solve, issue.

Compression issues would be sooner to point out as the engine would be harder and harder to start over certain period of time. Not something which occurs al of a sudden.

[clive]

Most RX-8 problems come from coils one way or another also if it hasn\'t been changed then cars of this year will always benefit from a better later style starter.

If looking at an RX-8 obviously check it starts cold, but then try and run it long enough to make sure the engine is good and hot, turn off leave standing for 5-10 minutes and make sure it starts up clean straight away.

If not chances are the compressions are low

hope this helps

[Speedworks]

HY Clive,


thanks for the advice...  Considering the car doesn\'t run atm i can\'t check for decent cold or hot start.

I just don\'t think it\'s engine compression if the owner\'s story is true. He bought it, drove it one day and turned it off.The car was fine. next day it didn\'t start anymore.

Considering my experience with rotaries, it can be a compression issue but like I said, that would be more noticable beforehand.

As the car suddenly doesn\'t want to start anymore my gut feeling is there is something else.

Also, the knowledge of rotaries in Belgium is almost below zero, so I can imagine the verdict was made quite easy... new engine.

[Will66]

He could have a flat battery, I\'ve seen a few where people have done things like left the boot open and the boot light has flattened the battery and then the car has failed to start the next day or flooded.