Ok heres my little Rx-8 problem;

Parked my rx-8 after driving home from the movies 10:00 at nite, no hard shifts, driving hard or anything. woke up at 6:30 am to go to work, hopped in the 8 started it no problems (the usual rev to 4k when its cold and then it goes down). Go to take my foot off the clutch and i notice its killing the engine!, move the shifter throughout the gears as well as reverse, it makes no grinding noise what so ever. Note* the shifter is very stiff to move. So after fooling around moving the shifter for a little while (while holding foot on clutch) I try to let it out again....same issue. The car is now warm, but still it refuses to go into neutral!

The temperature dipped to -50 with the windchill apparently and my baby was outside, not plugged in!

is this a normal thing??? just too friggin cold?


Oh and a side note the engine light is on, as well as a light the i have no idea the function but it looks like a pariliment building (yes i know im stupid)

 

the light is the coolant light.

read your manual!

no comment at this time about your shifting issues.

how cold is cold?

 

I think the temperature is too low for the transmission fluid, that's all.

 

You need to get synthetic fluid for your transmission and differential. (Its viscosity is more stable that dino fluid across temp)
Did your car feel like it was in gear? Transmission drag will slow down your idle but it won't typically kill the engine. Either the fluid was so cold that the drag could stall the engine or the neutral switch was frozen or defective (it causes an unstable idle). I guess it's also possible that your shift linkage is defective...

 

Nope completely kills the car in neutral, after reading that tho i went outside, warmed it up moved throughout the gears, put it in reverse, it moved in reverse! put it in first in moved forward! put it in neutral goto let the clutch out....kills the engine. After moving it back and forth about 5 feet at a time it seemed to stall out later upon clutch release???

 

So your shift linkage works.
If you drive the car around enough to warm up the transmission (maybe 20 min) and it still stalls in neutral with the clutch released then the neutral switch seems like a possibility. The check engine light could be indicating the faulty switch. Can you get the code read out somewhere?
The coolant light could be indicating a low coolant level because of the extreme cold weather. It may or may not be real. Does it go out as the car warms up?