Ownership Verified: MadCat360's Mazda RX-8

I'm reminded of the viscous LSD in Nissan Silvias, which is horrible in this sense. You'd have to lose grip on one tyre before the diff would grip, IF it would grip.

I love my super-diff. :)

Viscous LSDs are horrible in almost every sense. They break a lot, their locking characteristics are terrible, they don't really torque bias all that well, and they are not adjustable.

The one I had in my 1.6 Spec Miata was annoying as hell. Super loose on power and super tight on coast. You just can't tune the preload so it doesn't do that. You choose a viscosity of fluid and that's it.

The only thing they are good for is a center diff.
 
So my car now has a shot passenger side motor mount (yay, headers right next to the rubber thing!), busted front main oil seal, and the air injection pump has burned out.

BHR motor mounts are on the way, which were the same price as the stock ones (well okay, 10 bucks more), and they are polyurethane so they will endure the heat, plus to replace the bushings when they wear is only $40 instead of $365. Ended up getting the "stock-ish" ones. I don't want mad vibrations, I like the smoothness. The main oil seal will be done at the same time.

The air pump was a bummer. Basically it injects air into the exhausts to keep the mixture from being too rich in the cat. It runs for about a minute or two on cold days while the car idles down. The Bosch motor seems to have gone kaput, and the CEL comes on. Tore the thing out with the hopes of rebuilding it, but it's corroded and lots of black stuff came out when I pulled it. It smells awful, like burnt electrical things. The corrosion is hampering my attempts to tear down the motor itself. It kinda looks like it's been sprayed with electrical contact cleaner. You know that salt-encrusted look it gives some metals? It's nasty. A brand new one is $400, so I found one with 50k miles on it from an '07 wrecker for $160 shipped.

So those parts will hopefully fix this round of problems. For the last couple days I've been haphazardly straightening my oil cooler fins with a tiny screw driver, ala this method:




Should be done with in a few days, they're pretty bad.
 
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That's dedication. :lol:
 
I agree.

Those tedious, pointless tasks in car maintenance/detailing are usually the most satisfying. :lol:
 
I'm not sure it's pointless. The fins are *very* flattened from rocks and bugs. I looks like barely any air is passing through. I'll take a picture.

Right side (no work done):


img-20140131-173541.jpg



Left side was far worse when I started on it.


My motor mounts also came in today!


1623659-641994745864732-1928648948-n.jpg
 
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I picked up my car today. My mechanic wasn't able to identify exactly where the oil was coming from (I wanted to be sure it was the front main oil seal before we did the replacement) because there was too much oil caked all over down there. Got it steam cleaned and they road tested 3 times, with no oil (containing UV dye) to be found. So I've got the car at home and I'm going to do a couple commutes to make it spew a bit. Back into the shop on Monday.

The BHR mounts are crazy. They said it was "slightly" firmer than stock, but these feel like they are from a formula car. Revving the motor at a stop results in no movement in the bay. Below 2k RPM has some pretty intense vibrations, but idling is smooth. It's a very direct feel and throttle response. I can't even fathom why they have 2 stifnesses beyond this, but I'm glad I decided on the softest one! I love it, it's completely changed the feel of the car.
 
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