I've noticed a few odd things with my 8 while idling the last couple of days.

The first is when I start it when it's cold, like after work.
It starts, sits at about 2100 rpm for a minute or so, the abruptly drops to 1500, then bounces back up to 2100, then slowly lowers back to 1500 or lower. And once, on tuesday, when I left after only letting it run for maybe 20 seconds, when I stopped at the end of the driveway, it did it two or three times in a row (2100, drop to 1500, jump back to 2100, wait a few seconds, repeat).

And today, after driving in to town (6 km or so), when I hit the stop sign at the bottom of the off ramp in dropped down to 600 rpm or so. I thought it was going to stall. It recovered but was idling at about 800. I could have sworn it used to idle at about 1000...

So, is this just me noticing stuff I missed before, or is something different?
If it's something different, any ideas?
The only things that have changed lately are:
it's a little colder these days
I broke 3000 km on the weekend
I had to put half a tank of Irving premium in it (I usually use Petro Can)
The car now has 9 fewer HP (That's a joke folks! :) )

Idle speed changes as the car warms up. This is true for any car. I have noticed my RX-8 idling at about 600 when warm and 1000 or so soon after starting. It didn't seem like it was going to stall at 600 RPM though, it seemed to be running perfectly smoothly.

Same, here, actually today I was in a hurry, started it up and went. And it did that idle up down up down, many times.

Car should idle at 800rpm when completely warmed up. Nothing to worry about mine did the 1000 - 600 - 800 yesterday.

After warming up, mine idles at about 800 RPM. Must be that Irvine fuel! That's a joke...

Originally posted by Jasper_the_2nd
And once, on tuesday, when I left after only letting it run for maybe 20 seconds, when I stopped at the end of the driveway

Dude, take a look at the manual, I thought there was a cautionary in there about not starting the car and shutting it down right away again.

If its not in the manual, then it was a Mazda release.

I believe the advice was let the car idle for 5 minutes. A good cautionary for the rotary engine.

I also thought there was a thread on this somewhere, but have not been able to locate it.

He didn't shut it off, he said he stopped the car.

Originally posted by Wing
He didn't shut it off, he said he stopped the car.


AAAARG OK if thats what he meant

Originally posted by Evolv



AAAARG OK if thats what he meant

Yep, that's what I meant.

But you can find the original info about the whole short trip thing here: http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7829

It is a memo from Mazda to the dealers.
I remembered it because I posted it. :)