Another Oil Change

No pictures this time. Just wanted to note that I changed the oil again. I did it the traditional way this time, though. I put the car up on ramps, rolled under it on the creeper and drained the oil the old fashioned way. I bought a filter and a crush washer from Byers Mazda Subaru in Dublin and Castrol 5W-20 motor oil from Advance Auto Parts. Advance had a deal going on - 5 quarts of Castrol GTX + an oil filter for $16.99. As usual, the change went smoothly. I'm a little dismayed that I've put 3,000+ miles on the car in less than three months but, then again, I've been doing a lot of driving for work so it's not really that surprising.

Actually, one photo is required here. Early on I was having difficulty getting the oil filter off. My filter wrench attachment kept slipping on the filter. At the same time my iPhone suddenly stopped working (I had it playing through the car's stereo while I was changing the oil). In complete and total frustration I went to open the car door to see what was going on with the iPhone while, simultaneously, I was messing with the filter wrench attachment to see what was going on there. The result? I opened the car door right into my head.

Saddle Time

I've spent a lot of time in the car recently . . . and have pretty much loved every moment of it. My job has taken me to Huntington, WV twice in the past three weeks and then today to Ironton, Ohio, which is only about 30 minutes up the road from Huntington. Since February 28 I've filled up my tank six times and I'm down to a quarter tank right now! During this time I've gotten some pretty good gas mileage. I'm getting in the neighborhood of 22 m.p.g. on the highway and got nearly 18 m.p.g. in my most recently mostly-around-town tank.

Anyways, the trip to Ironton can be pretty boring. Usually I take U.S. Route 23 south to almost Portsmouth where I zip around Portsmouth by taking a fun back-road trip that winds up a mountain. Eventually I end up on U.S. Route 52 which I take down to Ironton. It's easy; it's not terribly slow; and it's boring. Today, though, I took a slightly different route. I took 23 south to Chillicothe where I picked up U.S. Route 35. I took 35 east into the Hocking Hills and down to Jackson, where I caught Ohio Route 93, which I took south into Ironton. This drive was a blast. Lots of curves and hills . . . good scenery. I planned to do this in advance and consequently took my camera with me. Luckily, I was able to find an okay location to take some pics.

New Wheels Are On!

With highs predicted to be no lower than the mid-forties over the next 10 days, I broke down and decided to throw the non-winter tires/wheels on the car. As you may recall, in February I bought some BBS wheels off of Craigslist. Yesterday I had the Yokohama YK520s put on them and then attempted to mount them on to the car. Unfortunately, the wheels all had centering rings that had to be knocked out. The first one knocked out pretty easily; the second one, though, took some work. The third one took even more work and I couldn't get the fourth one by myself. As a result, I ended up with a car with 3 BBS wheels and 1 stock wheel.



Oops.

So this morning I took the fourth wheel into the shop and had them knock out the last centering ring and put the wheel on the car. I have to admit I really do like the look of the BBS wheels on the car. It gives it a bit of a more elegant (vs. sporty) look.





Since I broke down and took off the snow wheels and tires, it's all but certain that we'll get a foot of snow within the next 2 - 3 weeks.

Maintenance Day

The weather has finally turned for the better. Today was sunny with a high of around 46° so I decided to finally do the transmission and differential fluid changes and the spark plug change. All three went pretty smoothly.

First, I put the front end of the car up on jack stands and then put the rear up on Rhino Ramps.



I did, eventually, take the front wheels and tires off.

Thanks to this DIY the fluid changes went pretty smoothly. The only downside was the pump I got to put in the new fluid wouldn't fit on the Red Line oil bottles so I had to use an empty milk jug. The milk jug wasn't very strong so it crunched up a bit under the pressure of pumping and the tubing running from the pump into the jug fell off a couple times. Other than that, though, the fluid changes were pretty easy. I do have to say, though, that the differential oil smells horrible. It is, quite possibly, the worst thing I've ever smelled.



This thread on RX-8 Club was very helpful for the spark plug change. I forgot to disconnect the battery but otherwise I was able to follow it to a tee.





And here are the old plugs that were in the car.





The car seems to shift more smoothly now but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me. I'd like to think I didn't change the transmission oil for nothing. I wasn't having any misfiring problems but everyone, including Mazda, says to change the spark plugs at around 30,000 miles so I figured I'd just go ahead and do it (I'm at 31,301 miles). Next up will be the ignition coils. Some owners have had them go early; others have gotten 70,000+ miles on the originals. They're ~$35.00 each so I'm not in any hurry to change them out.