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Now that I think of it I don’t think I have logged in for almost 3 years now. Life has been a crazy ride with 2 deployments, a wedding, buying my first house, and my son being born in October. I am happy to announce that I am back. I know it is not a Miata but I happened to fall into a 2004 Lightning yellow RX8 I could not turn down.
In November the Army decided it was time for me to go to FT. Hood for 18 months to teach soldiers how to shoot. I decided that I did not want to come up missing in Killeen so I chose to make the drive from Austin every day. On my first day at my new apartment, I noticed an RX8 covered in dust and had clearly not moved in years. I called my dad to show him since my first car was a 2004 yellow RX8 that I saved up all of my money to buy back in 2005. We decided to put a note on the windshield and see if the owner would even call me back.
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Much to my surprise in 2 weeks, he gave me a call. He was hesitant to even discuss the car as he was the original owner and emotionally attached to the car. Come to find out the car had not moved in 4 years as he could not figure out why it would not start (more coming on that part). After an hour of talking, we agreed to touch bases in February if his mind changed. From this point in he was in the parking garage every day trying to make the car work. Finally, on February 6th he called me back and said it was time to let the car go as he was losing his mind trying to get it back working. I told him I would see what I could do to at least help get it running even if he would not sell it. Why would the car not start? The negative battery terminal was corroded and he overlooked it. The car was running in less than 15 minutes. The next day he called back and told me I could buy the car if I could come up with $1500 by the end of the week, needless to say, I jumped all over that deal.
The first order of business was to replace the dry rot tires and make the car safe to even be on the road. After that, I had to wash away 4 years of stale dirt and grime, and wow did it clean up great. I got a new set of Pilot Sport AS4s in 245/40ZR18.
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Next, unfortunately for me, IT was too much too late, I decided to do a full tune-up and fluid change as I knew the car was not properly taken care of. I changed the oil, spark plugs, trans fluid, diff oil, coolant, upgraded to LS1 coils, and removed the cat for a BHR midpipe. After about 100o miles of driving the neglected 13B began to show its pain. The car would not start running at idle once warm and had extremely low compression. Awkwardly, it runs GREAT when in motion but the stopping part kills it. So now were off to part B of saving the RX8.
1E849B65-294B-4542-8FE7-DE7221FDAB7D.jpeg
64E1E203-2AAE-47A2-A3DF-7583AA6AD596.jpeg
2AC5F19B-D794-45D3-8F4A-4E3B39ADECF3.jpeg
8910C390-0BBF-4F2B-B751-3174497DD64B.jpeg
In November the Army decided it was time for me to go to FT. Hood for 18 months to teach soldiers how to shoot. I decided that I did not want to come up missing in Killeen so I chose to make the drive from Austin every day. On my first day at my new apartment, I noticed an RX8 covered in dust and had clearly not moved in years. I called my dad to show him since my first car was a 2004 yellow RX8 that I saved up all of my money to buy back in 2005. We decided to put a note on the windshield and see if the owner would even call me back.
74D92810-00FB-4890-9339-7318B5CA9715.jpeg
9CDFFE51-0823-4467-9BF3-2F1FF08657E5.jpeg
F1EB6624-3566-450E-AA74-4EC93A5BA693.jpeg
Much to my surprise in 2 weeks, he gave me a call. He was hesitant to even discuss the car as he was the original owner and emotionally attached to the car. Come to find out the car had not moved in 4 years as he could not figure out why it would not start (more coming on that part). After an hour of talking, we agreed to touch bases in February if his mind changed. From this point in he was in the parking garage every day trying to make the car work. Finally, on February 6th he called me back and said it was time to let the car go as he was losing his mind trying to get it back working. I told him I would see what I could do to at least help get it running even if he would not sell it. Why would the car not start? The negative battery terminal was corroded and he overlooked it. The car was running in less than 15 minutes. The next day he called back and told me I could buy the car if I could come up with $1500 by the end of the week, needless to say, I jumped all over that deal.
The first order of business was to replace the dry rot tires and make the car safe to even be on the road. After that, I had to wash away 4 years of stale dirt and grime, and wow did it clean up great. I got a new set of Pilot Sport AS4s in 245/40ZR18.
63AB048B-2E1C-479D-BE78-9F4A193F4A36.jpeg
3EE13632-55B4-465D-AD35-FA1FBB491130.jpeg
875AD2DA-EA5F-48A5-9AD7-E403BBCC8308.jpeg
4B5C98D6-BB29-4164-B60A-08138230E66F.jpeg
1BF16574-29B8-430C-8C67-7C109885888D.jpeg
Next, unfortunately for me, IT was too much too late, I decided to do a full tune-up and fluid change as I knew the car was not properly taken care of. I changed the oil, spark plugs, trans fluid, diff oil, coolant, upgraded to LS1 coils, and removed the cat for a BHR midpipe. After about 100o miles of driving the neglected 13B began to show its pain. The car would not start running at idle once warm and had extremely low compression. Awkwardly, it runs GREAT when in motion but the stopping part kills it. So now were off to part B of saving the RX8.
1E849B65-294B-4542-8FE7-DE7221FDAB7D.jpeg
64E1E203-2AAE-47A2-A3DF-7583AA6AD596.jpeg
2AC5F19B-D794-45D3-8F4A-4E3B39ADECF3.jpeg
8910C390-0BBF-4F2B-B751-3174497DD64B.jpeg
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