First off, thanks to everyone that has shared info on this website over the past few years. This is my first post, but I have benefited very much from reading other posts since buying my RX8 3 years ago.

My 05 currently has about 56k miles and is starting to give me problems. Over the last 2 weeks, it has died on me 4 times....at which time it is immediately flooded. If I let it sit for 20-30 minutes, it will then start right back up. The 4 times it has done this have all been after driving on the interstate at 70-80mph.....then when I get off the interstate and come to a stop it dies.....but, not all the time. Sometimes, it's my very first stop.....sometimes it's my 3rd or 4th stop, and sometimes not at all. Once, it actually stopped fine, idled for a while, and then died when I pressed the gas to begin going again.......It has never done it after simply driving around town at lower speeds. My check engine light is never coming on, so there doesn't appear to be any sensors picking anything up.

The only other problem I've had with the car since buying it was about a year ago. The check engine light came on and the code indicated a sticking valve. My local Mazda dealer yanked the engine and replaced the intake manifold...luckily under the warranty.

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone might have!

Welcome to the club!

I would check your cat first. Also how old are your plugs & ignition coils? Beyond this I would get a compression test for your engine. It could be going bad, you never know.

Sorry for not being more versed....... my cat?

The plugs and ignition coils have not been replaced since I've owned the car, so they are at least 3 years old. I bought it from a dealership and the original owner only drove it about 25k miles, so they probably have never been changed........

Catalytic converter. It's in between your headers and muffler as part of your exhaust. It could be clogged. This could explain your problems.

Also if your plugs and ignition coils are that old then that could be it as well. In our rx8s our spark plugs only last 15-20k miles and the ignition coils are prone to failure within that time as well. It's worth spending the ~$200 every 15-20k miles.

Please give us the history on your car. The service it's had and parts replaced. Model, type of driving it gets(long commutes), fuel used, oil type and consumption, ever flooded, red lined. Just any thing that you can add.
You might have some carbon build up from a lot of short trips and not seeing the red line much. You might run a few cans of Seafoam, BGK44 or another carbon cleaner.

The only major service it's had other than regular oil changes etc is the intake manifold replacement I already mentioned. As far as type of driving goes....mostly short in town trips. I only use premium fuel, usually from Shell. I use non synthetic Valvoline oil. Yes, it has been flooded before, due to not adequately being warmed up before shutting off.....but that hasn't happened in over a year. It has never been fully redlined, but close. I usually let it run up to 8000 rpm almost daily when going through 2nd and 3rd gears as I enter the interstate on ramp, but I never keep it in the higher rpm ranges for long........

Valvoline oil is bad. you might want to switch it to another brand.

it feels like either you have sticky seal, or its just bad motor.

ask your dealership to compression test it. constant stalling after a long drive and/or on hot days means 90% of the chance that your motor is shot.

oh also you might want to tell him to check the Throttle body sensor(its inside), and compare it with factory spec. its easy. just plug the wds in.

Wouldn't a sticky seal, compression problem, or Throttle body sensor problem trip an electronic code and illuminate the check engine light?

Valvoline was the only non-synthetic 5 20 I could find......what do you use?

since you had flooded your car before and you haven't change your coils and plugs, I will suggest to change wires, plugs and coils.

yea start at basics, wires plugs coils and see how it goes.

*some* valvoline is bleh, i personally use their VR1 oils in my rotaries, seems to reduce carbon when i tear them down.

if the above doesnt improve anything we can go from there, dont wanna go wasting all my breath in one post ;)

kevin.

I am having the same Problem with my 04 66k. Has anyone had t his fix and where to start.

^start off with coils :yesnod:...my cars starting to do the same, and i know its my coils, but it isnt to the point where i dies, but the idles way weird

Yeah it idles crazy before it dies and once I get it started agian it doesnt die agian. I can drive around town and nothing once i hit the high way and come to a stop or i can even put it in nutral and the R's drop really low and then it cuts off.

+1 for Coils..

Had similar situation, and it was the coils. Just got my car back and it's good as new..

Def need change mine...runnin on 35k on orginals......stalled twice so far on a stop light in the one year I owned the car......should coils be changed when spark plugs are changed too?

^its recommended...its a really easy job, you can do em both coils and plugs urself

Does it have powerloss on the highway trip. Does it accelerate in 6th or does it bog when you floor it? If it bogs, if you clutch and redline the car, does it run fine again?

If so it's a carbon problem, probably from crap oil and/or poor quality gas.

Seafoam it when the engine is really hot ( redline it in the driveway some and let it get toasty ) and use better gas, and get some good quality oil in there. consider going up from 5-20 or 5-30 to something better.

ask your dealership to compression test it. constant stalling after a long drive and/or on hot days means 90% of the chance that your motor is shot.

Exactly what mine was doing at 22k when my engine was deemed bad.

Wouldn't a sticky seal, compression problem, or Throttle body sensor problem trip an electronic code and illuminate the check engine light?

Valvoline was the only non-synthetic 5 20 I could find......what do you use?

remember, an engine is nothing but a piece of metal, it will NOT be able to tell you that "oh I am not feeling well".

sure it has a lot of sensors here and there, but the monitors are all pretty "passive", so it will detect a problem eventually, but dont wait until that day comes.

many people (including mine) throttle body went bad without any noticeable signs, your idle might jump around, but nothing that you would pay attention on.

Coil CEL? yes. but ONLY if your coil is like 99.99999999% dead. so yeah, it will be too late.


you should start replacing your coils and see what happens,

samething happaned to me, it was the ssv value that was stuck open.

Yeah, My car doesnt really lose power at 70mph and up in 6th. And what is a good oil to use. Im new to the rotory so i need a little help. Also what are good coils to buy and how much will they run.

samething happaned to me, it was the ssv value that was stuck open.

SSV was not the cause.

it wouldn't cause your motor to stall.


Yeah, My car doesnt really lose power at 70mph and up in 6th. And what is a good oil to use. Im new to the rotory so i need a little help. Also what are good coils to buy and how much will they run.

You're new to rotary so yea you should go ahead and do your own homework, STOP ASKING PEOPLE TO SPOON FED YOU

all we could be is tell you what might be your issue.... JUST take it in to your dealer and get it tested to find out want is wrong with it. if you have to pay, so what... this way you know what needs to be done.

SSV was not the cause.

it wouldn't cause your motor to stall.




You're new to rotary so yea you should go ahead and do your own homework, STOP ASKING PEOPLE TO SPOON FED YOU



Homework! Its an Rx-8 not a math problem. I was simply asking for help. What do you think i am doing asking ppl who have owned an Rx-8 longer than I. I am doing my own homework. I figured I could get some heads up on what it might be. You however seem to know alot about the Rotory so insteed of blasting ppl in a Blog you might want to share some of your knowlege.

At night, take your car out. Beat on it for 10 minutes or so(high revs) after its warmed up, pull into your driveway, get out and look underneath to see if the catalytic converter is glowing, specifically around the o2 sensor.

The placement of the catalytic converter is pretty much right in the middle between the engine and the exhaust, look at it from the drivers side of the car. See if there is any glowing, faint or otherwise.

As long as you are under 80k miles, take it to the dealership and say that shit is glowing red, they should give you a new one. Especially if its been flooded or had a decarb done.

SSV was not the cause.
it wouldn't cause your motor to stall.
I would have to disagree with this statement.
I worked on a local's car and he constantly stalled and it ended up being a stuck SSV valve.
His was actually stuck closed and I believe it only generated a CEL for SSV not open/closed once.
Since then, he has not encountered the stalling issue.

Here is that thread to refresh memories (or if you're bored and want to read):
http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=162200
Its not until the 2nd page of that thread that I figured it out and pics were posted.

Now... problem that the OP described doesn't sound like what we encountered, but you can easily test out the valves to rule them out.

yea start at basics, wires plugs coils and see how it goes.

*some* valvoline is bleh, i personally use their VR1 oils in my rotaries, seems to reduce carbon when i tear them down.

if the above doesnt improve anything we can go from there, dont wanna go wasting all my breath in one post ;)

kevin.

What weight of oil do you reccomend?

OK...I just ordered new plugs.... no local parts store carried them in stock....... sorry for the stupid question, but it does just need 4 right???? the guy at the store told me that his system showed that it needed 4 ea of the the trailing and leading plugs for a total of 8...... please tell me that he was wrong and I'm right...... again, sorry for the stupid question.

2 leading and 2 trailing..total 4 :)

Parts guy is a goof :)

Thank you, that's what I thought...

Wouldn't a sticky seal, compression problem, or Throttle body sensor problem trip an electronic code and illuminate the check engine light?

Valvoline was the only non-synthetic 5 20 I could find......what do you use?

You should be using 5W30!!!

From the 'well, that's disappointing' department:

Recently, I was experiencing lack of power and low/rough idle, with the engine occasionally dying at stoplights/stop signs. I took a trip to the dealership and had the PCM reflash (part of MSP16) applied and the coils/plugs/wires replaced. All seemed well - the engine felt about right again, the car was able to idle while stopped without dying, etc - for about a week.

Last night, my wife told me that while she was driving home, the car seemed to lack power again. And it was idling low/rough while stopped. And, on at least one occasion it died on her, and was VERY resistant to start back up. Now, it was about 90° out yesterday... but I seem to remember when we first bought the car, in August 2005, it was about that hot and the car ran fine.

So... any ideas what I'm up against? Lack of power, poor idle, sometimes dying while stopped. Especially bad at high temperatures. Coils/plugs/wires have JUST been replaced and PCM software flashed to the latest version. I haven't tried looking at the catalytic converter yet, but I thought that would be something the dealership would do when troubleshooting/repairing a car with loss of power...

dealerships can be a pita to get anything done with. Just go in tell them you feel power loss.

they will usaly use some seafoam like stuff to clean the engine first then compression test. but getting them to perform that last compression test can be a royal pain at times. Why i bought the rotary compression tester tool from twisted rotary

You're right about that.
As it turns out, when I was there a little while back, they didn't replace ALL the coils, just the one(s) that had logged an error code. So the trouble I experienced recently was determined to be misfires - AGAIN. This time, at least they had a coil in stock, so they were able to replace it while I waited. Apparently, for warranty replacement of coils, Mazda doesn't just authorize replacement of the whole set. They have to independently approve replacement of each coil based on error codes.

Now that makes me curious about how these errors are logged. I wonder if there is a separate field for misfires on Rotor 1 leading/Rotor 1 trailing/Rotor 2 leading/Rotor 2 trailing? Or is there just a general misfire field that gets populated with the name of the offending coil? I hope it's the former. If not, I'm afraid that in another week, I'm going to start seeing misfire codes on ANOTHER coil and have to go back to the dealership AGAIN.

ehhh? they threw on all new coils and all new spark plugs along with wires, on my motor before they finally declared the motor gone. That motor got better mpg then my new one

You're right about that.
As it turns out, when I was there a little while back, they didn't replace ALL the coils, just the one(s) that had logged an error code. So the trouble I experienced recently was determined to be misfires - AGAIN. This time, at least they had a coil in stock, so they were able to replace it while I waited. Apparently, for warranty replacement of coils, Mazda doesn't just authorize replacement of the whole set. They have to independently approve replacement of each coil based on error codes.

Now that makes me curious about how these errors are logged. I wonder if there is a separate field for misfires on Rotor 1 leading/Rotor 1 trailing/Rotor 2 leading/Rotor 2 trailing? Or is there just a general misfire field that gets populated with the name of the offending coil? I hope it's the former. If not, I'm afraid that in another week, I'm going to start seeing misfire codes on ANOTHER coil and have to go back to the dealership AGAIN.


Check the spark plugs too. If one is cracked it would bring up a code for the ignition coils, not the plugs themselves :)

My 8 was having the exact same problems as this guy's and it ended up qualifying for a new/remanufactured engine. 04 MT with 70k miles...never had any mods, oil changes every 3k miles and always followed maintenance schedule. Put in brand new coils plugs maf cleaner after problem started occurring but none of that did anything to help the situation...cat was fine too and was not clogged, and worst of all there were never any CELs.

The engine never died when highway speeds were kept at 60 mph or lower...but driving it above 65 for more than a few minutes was a guarantee that it would stall as soon as it had to be stopped and/or sent back to idle RPM range. After stalling out, I usually had to wait about 10 - 15 seconds before cranking it back up, but once turning it back on again it was fine. Other than this issue, the car had no other problems and had plenty of power too...did not feel sluggish or slow anywhere when accelerating, and there were no rough idle issues.

Dealer performed several diagnostics (all of which the car either passed or did not solve problem) including compression test, intake valve cleaning for possible carbon, intake manifold inspection, vacuum test...but as far as I know source of problem was never discovered or resolved...plus I was told my engine was still putting up strong compression numbers...but I ended up with a new engine anyway.

First off, thanks to everyone that has shared info on this website over the past few years. This is my first post, but I have benefited very much from reading other posts since buying my RX8 3 years ago.

My 05 currently has about 56k miles and is starting to give me problems. Over the last 2 weeks, it has died on me 4 times....at which time it is immediately flooded. If I let it sit for 20-30 minutes, it will then start right back up. The 4 times it has done this have all been after driving on the interstate at 70-80mph.....then when I get off the interstate and come to a stop it dies.....but, not all the time. Sometimes, it's my very first stop.....sometimes it's my 3rd or 4th stop, and sometimes not at all. Once, it actually stopped fine, idled for a while, and then died when I pressed the gas to begin going again.......It has never done it after simply driving around town at lower speeds. My check engine light is never coming on, so there doesn't appear to be any sensors picking anything up.

The only other problem I've had with the car since buying it was about a year ago. The check engine light came on and the code indicated a sticking valve. My local Mazda dealer yanked the engine and replaced the intake manifold...luckily under the warranty.

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone might have!
i have the same problem , just changed my coil got a little better but the enginr get hot really quick , let me know how u did on ur ? so i can fix mine

[quote=Fast Eddy;3056148]The only major service it's had other than regular oil changes (http://www.rersoft.com/3g2-file/convert-3g2-to-mkv.html) etc is the intake manifold replacement I already mentioned. As far as type of driving goes....mostly short in town trips. I only use premium fuel, usually from Shell. I use non synthetic Valvoline oil. Yes, it has been flooded before, due to not adequately being warmed up before shutting off.....but that hasn't happened in over a year. It has never been fully redlined, but close. I usually let it run up to 8000 rpm almost daily when going through 2nd and 3rd gears as I enter the interstate on ramp, but I never keep it in the higher rpm ranges for long........

i have the same problem with my 8 (05 AT)....the firt time i took it to dealer they said it was my battery..the problem is till happening. took it back they changed the plugs start the car a bunch of whitr smoke came out, left it wrom to normal temp n it went away..got home try to start it back aging after a few mins no juice. and after that the cel came on took it back they did what they had to do and now they tell me is my engine.

Welcome to the new engine club

Hello everyone im new to the club! today was the first time my car died out geting off the highway..... so is the only answer to get a new engine ? also now i have a small whistling sound when i go from cruising speed to slight acceleration .... i have intake no cat 05 with 37000 miles

Hello everyone im new to the club! today was the first time my car died out geting off the highway..... so is the only answer to get a new engine ? also now i have a small whistling sound when i go from cruising speed to slight acceleration .... i have intake no cat 05 with 37000 miles
You don't necessarily have a engine problem. The whistling you hear could be air leaking from the intake or a vacuum hose. Check those first and make sure everything is connected properly.

searched every hose i could see then have the wife rev and hold then rev higher its coming from the air filter :sadwavey:

Do you have the OEM air box on the car? Also, there is a vacuum line that runs underneath the airbox that goes to the VFAD in front of the airbox (behind the front bumper cover).

I knew it was out there so I did a search and came up with a diagram of all the vacuum lines.

http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=161673&d=1283282541

Do you have the OEM air box on the car? Also, there is a vacuum line that runs underneath the airbox that goes to the VFAD in front of the airbox (behind the front bumper cover).

only the bottom of it and that line is connected