Well after a few years of loving this car I finally worked up the courage to buy one and I've never been happier! It's a 2007 GT, absolutely beautiful.

The first test drive I had with this car I brought it to redline and noticed the CEL started to flash then turn off after I drove at lower RPM than 5k. When I got back to the dealer I noticed the a/c blew hit air for a few seconds then went back cold.

I made the dealer take it to Mazda and they did a compression test (which it passed) and also ran a diagnostic which showed a misfire in cylinder 2 I believe (I don't remember the code).

I bought the car anyway since I got a pretty decent drivetrain warranty with it. The car drives great and seems to run fine except it's a bit sluggish in 1st gear on the take off. Now the CEL is always on but still flashes at high rpm.

Coils???

 

flashing cel is always a misfire. coils, plugs and wires

 

A Flashing CEL is always a misfire. Driving with a misfire is going to start causing you all sorts of problems, nearly all of them are VERY EXPENSIVE problems, including cat failure and engine failure.

See my signature for the Misfiring thread and work through that ASAP.

 

Thank you! I already spoke to Mazda they wanna charge me 900 to change plugs wires and coils. I'm a pretty handy guy and I have tools, think I could manage any of that on my own?

Also I need a new key fob but they want about $400. Can I get it cheaper elsewhere?

 

Welcome to the world of stealerships.

You can get all 4 coils, plugs, and wires for as low as about $192 shipped if you shop smartly (avoid ebay though! some counterfeit coils showing up). Changing them requires a plug socket, socket wrench, 10mm socket, an extension or two and a phillips #2 screwdriver. That's it. If you don't know what you are doing you can change everything in about an hour. Many of us can change it all in about 20 minutes.

As for keys, you can get an unprogrammed key fob for about $25 off ebay (make sure you pull apart your current one to get the ID number to make sure you get the right model), have it cut for less than $5, possibly even for free, and you can usually find a locksmith with the Mazda software to program it for less than $30.

 

That's awesome man thanks!! Could you point me in the right direction as to where I can find this stuff??

 

Oh and is their anything I should know before I do this? Such as "don't force this or else.." or "don't pull this thing or your engine will explode.."

 

The internet

Lots of places sell our maintenance parts, namely places under the category of "auto parts". I can think of about a dozen off the top of my head. Forum vendors are a good option too.

And there are good DIYs to follow for a huge range of stuff that you can do yourself on this car, just google search for them easily with site:rx8club.com DIY coil change (for example)

 

So after some research I decided to just buy the parts I need from Mazda. I changed the plugs and wires today but they only had one coil so I bought it and need to go to another Mazda tomorrow to buy three more. I haven't installed the coil yet.

Even after I replaced the plugs and wires which were all pretty bad, the car is literally non-stop misfiring. CEL is almost always flashing and sold for some short periods of time. I hope if I replace the coils it's gonna solve my problem.

This car just had a compression test done and it passed so I know motors good. I just have a feeling coils aren't gonna solve this problem..

Also, I noticed directly to the left of the battery that their was a wire unplugged. I'm assuming the dealership I bought this car from unplugged it. After I plugged it back in Im now getting the red coolant light (bird cage) coming on. It's always on.

Car seems to be running pretty quick and power is there.

What gives?!

 

Hi, you probably have bad coils still.
You can get lifetime warranty coils from Advance for around $35, and possibly swap them out for free after 30k miles when it's time to change them.
Coolant sensor is probably unplugged cause it's bad.
Leave it unplugged and check visually, or buy a new tank.