Just brought my "8" out of storage. It has not been started for about 6 months and the battery is completely dead! Tried jumping the car from my other car, but when I go to start the "8" the alarm keeps going off and the guages go crazy. Dealer said it may be that the battery is just to low to take a jump, they also said to leave a battery charger on it all night with a slow trickle, if this does not charge it properly, I may need a new one. Suggestions welcome.

 

I have the same problem - just went outside in the garage (it's just above freezing here, so I wanted to start it and roll it a few feet to get the wheels moving) - the car is completely dead. Remote wouldn't unlock the door, interior light wouldn't come on - it's completely dead.

I would appreciate some suggestions, too.

 

Before we bought our 8 they had to charge the battery and the service guy jumped it backwards. They had to swap out a bunuch of parts from another 8 on the lot. It took them until 3:30 the next day to get it fixed (we had pickup scheduled at noon)

 

My salesman said that if they have an 8 sit for a few weeks without running, it will drain the battery. Whenever I park my 8 for any length of time, I disconnect the battery. In cold weather, I take the battery inside from the cold garage. I also have a battery charger to top of the battery as needed (while disconnected of course).

 

Here's what I did.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...battery+tender

 

I watched my 8 get carted off to the dealership this morning. It wouldn't start.

It had been nearly 2 weeks since I had been able to drive it because of winter road conditions (I don't have snow tires), so I've been driving my truck. The remaining ice on our road finally melted yesterday, so I was all set to get my 8 back on the road.

I tried to start it and I got a VERY slow crank. I tried a second time, and the crank was faster but I guess it flooded because it didn't get a strong enough spark the first time. Then I tried the flood start procedure, and got almost no crank at all. So I called roadside assistance, waited 2 hours for them to come pick it up, and followed it to the dealership in my truck. Waiting to see what they say.

Under normal circumstances, 2 weeks shouldn't be enough time for the battery to die from disuse, so something else must be wrong.

 

Mine flooded after 10 days sitting in the garage. The cold weather could have cause it. What mazda will do is replace the spark plugs and charge your battery.

 

So far, I've been fortunate in that my car has always started. Only have had my RX-8 one month but I'm always careful to not shutdown cold and I do drive every day.

Still, I hope I never have to watch her being towed away. I did that with my Audi A4 once, and it was very sad :-(

I'm no expert, but it sounds to me more like a dead battery than flooding. I've read that the Rx-8 battery is not the greatest and that there is still a small degree of electrical draw even with the car off. I would guess that sitting for 10 days without a start, the weakened battery coudn't pull of a low temperature start.

 

This samething happened to me. The car had been sitting out in the garage for 3 weeks with sub 0 temps. Finally the roads cleared up to take it out and exercise it, but the car wouldn't start. Cranked some but not enough to turn over, tried 2 more times and got the same thing. At this point I knew it was the battery but was worried about fuel going into the engine and not burning off. I put a charger on it for an hour or so and it fired right up. not a problem before or since.

When I bought the car I remember the dealer telling me something about the crank amps on the battery being too small or low. He suggested keeping a charger on during the winter with a trinkle charge. So now, if it looks like it'll be stored for more then a week, I put a charger on it.

 

Make them give you a new battery. I did. There is a TSB that shows a new battery. They won't do it unless there is a problem but in your case there is a problem. I had the same problems. I got it in December and it would sit unused for 10 days or so because I was driving my truck and I only have the summer tires (sounding familiar?) I had to jump start it a few times and finally when I knew it wasn't going to snow for 2 days in a row I drove it to the dealer. It cranks much better with the new battery. I always felt luky that it started in the cold even if I had driven it the previous day.

I'd point you to the right links but it might take me a week with the fourm such as it is. Do a search for my posts and you should find a lot that have to do with the battery. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the tip -- I'll look for that TSB and insist on a new battery. No battery should die after a week and a half of temps in the 20s. Maybe if it were in the minus 20s, but not in the 20s.

 

Happened to me after 3 days in about 60 degree temps.

REDICULOUS

 

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones so far. I drove my car on Jan. 17th and not again until Feb. 3rd (parked in the garage). All these threads made me so nervous when it was time to turn the key, but mine just fired right up. And it gets cold up here.

 

I had mine parked outside uncovered and it hadn't moved since Jan 9th. I drove it to work yesterday... started up fine. Over 2 weeks ago... it was covered in 2+ feet of snow. There's still snow on the ground from that storm near the car.

No issues. Do you let the gas prime before starting the car? Turn the key to 'on' you'll hear the fuel pump start then shut off... THEN try turning it over... works like a charm in almost any fuel injected car when the temps are consitantly cold.

YMMV.

 

I hadn't started mine for about 5 weeks and it had a dead battery. I swaped it with one I had from a wrecked corolla and it fired up and runs good. The toyota batt. is same width but 2" longer but fit in with a little lenght to spare. Thanks for the tip on the TSB, the battery should last longer than a few months before dying especially that the car only has 6k on it and less than a year old. Only problem I had so far, build date of Aug. 03 and no reflashes.
Jeff B.

 

Hello, hello? Earth to Major Tom? Flat battery does NOT mean faulty battery!
You are going to look really silly when your new battery that you DEMANDED goes flat after two weeks, because the dealer didn't look for the root cause of it going flat.

Don't DEMAND anything from the dealer, other than that they fix your vehicle, and fix it proper (i.e. so you don't have the same problem again). If you tell the dealer to replace the battery, they will replace the battery. That's 100% customer satisfaction, they gave you what you asked for...

And demanding doesn't do much for your relationship with the dealer anyway.
Good luck.

 

M's right. I didn't demand a bettery, I just brought in a copy of the TSB and told them how many times I had problems. I think if they gave me a load of crap and no new battery I might have started demanding. I was pretty sure by the way that it died and the temperatures when it died that the battery in there was just not cut out for the job. But I was starting it around -10 degrees, not 20 degrees and that's a big difference to a battery.

 

I'm curious - the people who've had the dead batteries, were they all 04 models? I wonder if Mazda figured that out and put a different battery in the 05?

I've heard many/most of the 04's came with the Bridgestone Potenza tires. My 05 came with Dunlops, and they aren't any better in snow. But they're terrific in warm weather.

 

Mine is an 04. They did upgrade the battery but I don't know just when the cutoff was.

I have the potenzas and it's not just the snow but they don't even work in the cold. Can you comment on the dunlops in the cold weather. I had the experiance of being on a cement on-ramp at about 0 degrees in 3rd gear, around 3000 RPM. I hit the gas to merge and the *** started sliding around and the DSC kicked in hard. The car has power but not enough to kick the rear end out at low RPMs in 3rd. I don't trust it below 32 degrees any more with these tires. Sorry, a little (lot) off subject but I was hoping to get the comment on the Dunlops.

 

Update: I didn't "demand" or even "insist" on a new battery -- I just took the car in, told them what happened, and let them do what they need to do. I got a call this morning from the dealership, the engine was flooded & the spark plugs fouled. They've cleared the flood, replaced the spark plugs, changed the oil, and ordered a new battery (because they didn't have one in stock). It will be here Monday.

 

its kinda cute how the car demands to be driven constantly lol

 

Funny, almost everytime I go to the dealership to test drive a car, the batteries are dead and the cars won't start. This has happenned on two trips to the dealer and one one trip it happened on two cars. The dealer said something about the car's electrical system shutting down but that was obviously BS.

I live in the Chicago area and it can get pretty damn cold up here...

 

I think with all the on-board electronics and the blinking red alarm lights almost every second will drain a battery in a couple of weeks. Try starting it once a week to keep it running some or get a battery charger. Mine can usually sit for a couple of weeks but I have not gone longer than that. We have bad winter conditions out in CO too so the car sits mostly in the garage waiting for better days. I hear Blizzaks for these cars works really great with snow conditions.

 

Just like the ford focus commercials! :D Can you imagine if it could talk? Of course it would have to be female, unlike the focus..."Hey baby, let me take you for a ride! What? You're taking the truck! What am I, chopped liver? Come on! This is RX abuse!"

 

Dunlops in snow = hockey puck. Absolutely useless.

As far as cold, they seemed to be doing okay until it got down to 20 degrees (F). I accelerated out of a sharp (ie fun) turn with them that I usually take, and the rear slid around a little and the traction control kicked in. I tried it again on the next turn, and the same thing happened. I wouldn't say they were dangerous, just that they weren't their normal mega-sticky at that temperature. I've driven them on dry pavement down to about 10 F and they worked okay.

They're Dunlop SP Sport 8090 225/45 R18 91W