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.