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Nicole · 05-18-2015, 07:54 AM

For starters, thank you so much for all the feedback so far. As you can tell, I am so far out of my element here.

The car is a 2004, with approx 98K miles on it. I was sick when I realized I missed the extended warranty on the engine that was offered back in 2008 by one year (10 yrs 100K). Anyway, I don't know what recalls have been done on it, coincidentally I just received a recall notice for a potentially faulty airbag yesterday - guess I'll have that taken care of.

I had no idea the engine could be rebuilt - I thought my only options were to install a totally new engine or junk the whole thing. The car runs absolutely beautifully - when it runs. As of right now, it fires right up and drives like a dream, not sluggish, not anything. The problem is that sometimes, you can drive it down the road no problem and it just dies - while driving. Also, sometimes it just flat out won't start. I was told it can get flooded very easily, if it is started and turned off a lot within a short period of time (like when it was at the mechanic's, they probably turned it on, drove it into the garage, turned it off, turned it back on to check something, turned it off, etc etc). I do know that once the Mazda dealer dealt with the flooded engine (because at that point it wouldn't run at all), it drove great again. But the underlying problem remains, that something is making it die without warning (not exactly safe!) and something is keeping it from firing up randomly. But to answer the question about it's running state, it drives beautifully. I just assumed that since there was low compression on the engine it was inevitable the engine would have to go.

I live in Greenville SC, and currently it is at my brother's house about 3 hrs away down in Charleston SC.

Any idea how much it would cost to have a reputable rotary mechanic rebuild it? If it was just a few thousand than it would definitely be worth doing to sell. I just simply cannot sink 5k into it just to sell it for 6 (or whatever it would be worth).

Thanks again!

05-18-2015, 07:54 AM	#8
Nicole The Newbie Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 29 Rep Power: 0	For starters, thank you so much for all the feedback so far. As you can tell, I am so far out of my element here. The car is a 2004, with approx 98K miles on it. I was sick when I realized I missed the extended warranty on the engine that was offered back in 2008 by one year (10 yrs 100K). Anyway, I don't know what recalls have been done on it, coincidentally I just received a recall notice for a potentially faulty airbag yesterday - guess I'll have that taken care of. I had no idea the engine could be rebuilt - I thought my only options were to install a totally new engine or junk the whole thing. The car runs absolutely beautifully - when it runs. As of right now, it fires right up and drives like a dream, not sluggish, not anything. The problem is that sometimes, you can drive it down the road no problem and it just dies - while driving. Also, sometimes it just flat out won't start. I was told it can get flooded very easily, if it is started and turned off a lot within a short period of time (like when it was at the mechanic's, they probably turned it on, drove it into the garage, turned it off, turned it back on to check something, turned it off, etc etc). I do know that once the Mazda dealer dealt with the flooded engine (because at that point it wouldn't run at all), it drove great again. But the underlying problem remains, that something is making it die without warning (not exactly safe!) and something is keeping it from firing up randomly. But to answer the question about it's running state, it drives beautifully. I just assumed that since there was low compression on the engine it was inevitable the engine would have to go. I live in Greenville SC, and currently it is at my brother's house about 3 hrs away down in Charleston SC. Any idea how much it would cost to have a reputable rotary mechanic rebuild it? If it was just a few thousand than it would definitely be worth doing to sell. I just simply cannot sink 5k into it just to sell it for 6 (or whatever it would be worth). Thanks again!