So recently i was thinking about buying a 2004 mazda rx8. This would be my second car. (First being a 2007 jetta). The person is selling it for $4500 and its in pretty good condition. But i was looking around on craigslist to see of there was a better deal and i noticed all of them were selling before 100k miles and when i looked it up apparently alot of the 2004 mazdas rx8s engine blew up around 100k miles and since this car i want to buy is around 80k miles i dont know if i should risk it or just find a diffrent car. Opinions? Also sorry if this in the wrong section im new.

 

Here is the low down on the RX-8, Sometimes even the best maintained RX-8 was having compression concerns as early as 40k miles, generally in the hotter longer areas as far as climate. i.e. Texas v.s. Illinois.

The rotary motor uses a small amount of oil while running to keep the internal apex seals intact and sealed. There was little to no force of this oil in the early model years. '04-07ish, and oil being introduced into the hot rotor was just not efficient. After that, a pump was used to inject the oil and that cleared up the early self destruction.

Early signs of compression failure included, when engine hot, dies at stops, hard or no start condition when hot, ok when cooled off though. Take it for a good drive, afterwards when you return to seller, shut it off and try a restart after 2-3 mins. Long crank, hard start may indicate future motor concerns.

And, Synthetic Oil in that rotary should not be used at all.