Finally, after following this car for what seems like forever (I've got 4+ year old magazines with the RX-Evolv stacked up in my room), I went ahead and bought an RX-8. I got in on Friday, filled up the gas tank for the first time on Sunday (17 mpg) and have about 90 miles on the second tank. About 2 miles into my 3 mile commute today, I got a solid CEL. Any ideas on what could have caused it? Do I win for earliest CEL (just over 300 miles on the car)?

~ Matt

(P.S. Mine is a Velocity Red with the Sport Package, Appearance Package, Rotary Accents and Navigation System)

Nope, I think I had you beat. Same exact thing happened to me right after my first fill-up.
It's possible you simply didn't tighten the gas cap all the way... that will throw a CEL. As long as the CEL light isn't blinking, it's not an emergency... just cruise into the dealer's and have them diagnose it.

My dealer couldn't get me in for several days, and by that time the CEL had extinguished itself. Tighten the gas cap (turn several clicks) and after a certain number of start/shutdown cycles on the engine, the CEL may spontaneously reset and go away.

I thought it might have something to do with the gas tank cap, but I also have over 90 miles on the current tank before the CEL popped up, so I thought maybe it'd be something else. I sure hope it is just the cap!

~ Matt

Hope its nothing but the gas cap. I got a CEL the day after I got the car. Still have CELs almost a year after. It is repeated problem for me and the dealers can not find out the problem. They are supposed to send a Mazda tech next time I take it.

spear what is the code they find stored when the check the CELs?

forget about it, just bring it back to your dealer and have them turn off the light for you, cuz you are very lucky that you have 17MPG when your car is still what, 300miles? My 8 just pass 2000 yesterday, the BEST i've gotten so far is 11.13MPG, and mazda said, it's NORMAL and I've got ALL THE UPDATED FLASH AND PLUGS in my car. oh yea, I finally know why heads turn everywhere i go, because my brake is yelling at even 20mph, and Mazda told me it's also NORMAL because of rotor gaze.......what a nice new car huh.

They ended up pulling the code and it was for a misfire. So, the dealership flashed the PCM up to the M-flash (which I was going to have them do, anyway) and put new plugs in. Plus they washed the car. So far, in buying the car and bringing it in once, I've had a really good experience with Menlo Mazda.

~ Matt

So, how bout a new topic. Owners manuel says you can run 87 octane gas, but the performance will suffer. Since the cops here don't let us race on the streets anyway, I run 87 octane gas and I haven't noticed any change in performance. What is the dropoff in performance when you run regular gas?

if you want to change the topic you can open a new thread, i mean, this is someone else's thread and you're hijacking it?????

I've got you all beat for quickness of CEL. < 2miles from the dealership after buying it(21 total miles). The code was the one for Cat Converter efficiency (a known problem in the ECU software). Updated the flash and have had no CEL's since.

Picked up my RX-8 and had the engine light come on at the first light.

Was about 150 ft from the dealer lot.
Car had under 60 miles on it!

Took it back on Monday to find out the converter needed to be replaced.

Got the M flash and a new converter. So far so good!

I've got you all beat for quickness of CEL. < 2miles from the dealership after buying it(21 total miles). The code was the one for Cat Converter efficiency (a known problem in the ECU software). Updated the flash and have had no CEL's since.

I got the same thing- though I think it was actually more like 25 miles total miles on the car