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My car shutdown on me and is no longer turning over. I replaced my coils and plug wires about 100 miles ago. Monday night I replaced oil, oil filter, plugs and starter. Car was having issues with slow start up, our temperature locally had been between 0-30 degrees for the past 2 months on and off. It was taking anywhere from 3-7 seconds before it would finally start up. Which is why I started replacing these parts. After replacing my plugs and starter it started up quick. I let it idle until warmed up, took it for a test drive down the street and got about a mile away. Wanted to make sure a hot start would work so since the road was dead I turned around and turned the car off for a moment. Started the car back up normally and everything was still working properly. Started driving and made it about 20 feet and the car started to sound different. I came to a stop and the car shutdown completely. I quickly got out and made sure there was no leaks and everything was still secure. Jacked the car up and got under to make sure the starter was not loose nor the cables. I attempted to turn the car back on, but could not get it to start. I tried about 2-3 times before I gave up so the car didn't flood. Luckily I wasn't too far from home and the road is not used much. I walked home and grabbed my other car to try and jump the Rx8. No luck and after 2 more tries the car completely stopped turning over.
I verified fuses are good, coils are secure, plugs to coils are good, plugs are secure, wires are secure, and I put the old starter back in. When I try to start the car all lights go dim and acts like the battery is bad. The battery was a year old. I took the battery at first to Advanced Auto which they ran a test on and said it was good. So I start going through everything else and still not finding anything loose or damaged. My friend brings his multimeter over and the car is losing ~6 volts when starting. I took the battery to AutoZone to have them run a load test and they confirmed battery was bad. I replace battery and issue is still present.
So... does anyone have ideas on what I should do?
Here are two videos, one of me starting it and the other is listening to the key being turned to on.
**Update** - Found the grounding issue, it was the matting surface between the starter and tranny. After sanding them down and cleaning them the car finally was turning over. From there I found the ignition coil rail wasn't in the best of shape so I sanded it down as well. (note-when I originally replaced them 100 miles ago it was pitch black out and freezing so I never checked the rail.) Next was to deflood it since I had tried to start it so many times before. During this I pulled the fuse and air pump. After many many many and you guessed it many attempts I finally was able to get it started. Of course it ran like poo and I had to keep it revving to stay alive. After several minutes when I had the car 'warmed up' I blipped the accelerator a few times causing a few backfires. Shortly after the backfires I started seeing smoke come from the engine, but there was a little wind at the time coming from rear-front of the car. So I checked the cat and found that my 61k cat is sadly glowing red :/ I quickly turned off the car. Found my buddy had a newer cat from his old 40AE Rx8 that he will sell to me. So I now have this bad cat... why not gut it and make it a midpipe?! You're damn right I will, lol. See pictures below, the first element was fine, but the second is destroyed.
Coil rail before, forgot to take an after pic, but you can see where I started on L1
Infamous glowing red cat!
Cat - first element appears in good shape
Reverse side of cat
Cat - first element removed, you can see where the issue is.... -___-
Im assuming after getting these tests, the battery was removed?
When the battery is removed, you need to reset the cars ECU.
Turn your car on, not the engine though. Then press on the brake 20 times in 20 seconds, you should then see the oil pressure gauge sway from one end to the other.
I know, it sounds bizarre when this is necessary everytime the battery is taken out or replaced. I actually learned this from a rotary specialist, so goodluck.
03-11-2015, 08:53 PM
