I realise that most people don't use thier RX8's as a daily driver and therefore won't often use it in the cold winter, but I was wondering for those that have started there cars up if they have had any strange issues...

So being that today was the coldest day for a very long time in Toronto (-15c or more) but leaving me no choice - I started my car up and it almost immediately revved just past 4000rpm. I gave it just a few seconds until I realised that now my car was throwing up alot of bluish smoke from the exhaust... Frantically deciding if I should shut the engine off and therefore flood my engine, or to let it be, I turned it off.

I just couldn't imagine this being the normal startup procedure and it seemed like most certainly the car was just dumping excess fuel causing the car to rev very high while leaving unburned vapours from my exhaust...

Luckily it didn't really flood my car since I was able to start it up, and idling correctly. It did have just a bit of residual fuel (blue smoke) being exhausted but otherwise the car drove fine

Has this happened to anyone before? Anything I should look for? Will this inevitably happen again in cold weather? I really don't want to do this again as it will surely wear the engine prematurely...

 

completely normal in cold conditions. Look it up

 

Not unusual, and also not that cold!

 

I have the same happen today.. just about 15 second then go to normal around 1500rpm... I just let the car warm up and wait about 5 mins then drive

 

I appreciate the feedback but I still have my doubts this normal... This never has happened with my old old motor and I drove that all last year and before without it revving over 4000 with plumes of bluish smoke happen.

I am totally aware that in fact almost all cars have elevated rpms upon cold startup, but this just seemed way too bizarre for it to typically happen

Surely this must be absolutely horrible to be revving past 4000rpm when the car has been sitting in -15c weather. The oil temperature and therefore viscosity wouldnt be even close to ideal conditions for that sort of abuse. And why would it be programmed to dump an incredible amount of gas to produce a very similar effect as If the car was flooded and started for the first time?

 

-36F Stealth? Man that's cold. God bless Texas. That is all.

 

then don't take our advice and start searching.
This link should help...

 

I am taking people's advice. I'm now discussing why this occurs. I prefer to understand, rather than be told "well that's just the way it is" answer

I really need to stress that I did research prior to posting and typically idling in cold weather is around 3000-3200rpm. It may not sound as much of a difference, but warming up past 4000rpm is Very high.

Furthermore, it doesn't explain why after I shut off the engine after 10 seconds, and restarting it (without flooding surprisingly) it idled at a level I expected and experienced in previous cold days (aka. What "normal" would be)

 

I don't have a pic but one morning in Saskatoon it was -51, and she still started.
Cold temps are a test of your battery, can cause high idle, idle hunting(loping) and all sorts of fun, I couldn't even get into second gear this morning lol...