Apex Seals

[Sephitrask]

Originally Posted by Rotary06

I have a 2006 RX8 with 44,000 miles on it. I take great care of the car and have it serviced on a regular basis. No one at the dealership has been able to answer my question. "What is the life span of the Apex seals"? I'm still paying on my car and I hate to think that once I have it paid off, I'll have to replace the motor which I hear is another $6,000.00. I don't race the car but I have been told to rev it at least once a week to burn off the carbon build-up. Can someone please give me some advise on how to properly take care of my Rotary engine?
Thanks! :-)
Douglas

Something that cannot be stressed enough is the "taking care of" with this car. As several people have already mentioned, this car REQUIRES a good beating regularly. The #1 cause of failures of the early rx8's were automatics, and it was from them being "babied", people using them for daily drivers, letting the car shift before 4000rpm. What basically happened was that since the engine was not revved up high enough to burn off the carbon that resulted from the combusted oil it built up on the rotor and side seals, killing compression. The only thing the rotor is good for at that point is a boat anchor .

I have seen countless threads were people have done this to their cars, thinking that "babying" the car was helping it, when they were in fact giving it a slow death. Let it properly heat up to operating temperatures EVERY TIME you drive, checking oil levels first, then drive it like you stole it and have the entire police force behind you. Remember, this car revs to 9000 rpm; if Mazda wanted you to shift at 7000 they would have stopped it there lol.

This was my main selling point for the car. "what? The manufacturer says that I have to beat on it for proper engine health?? SOLD!!!" ROTFLMAO!