I feel so stupid for doing this but yea, I was checking the filter for the cold air intake and forgot to plug back the mass air flow sensor, I had to go somewhere and once i tried to start my rx8 it would fail, I tried again and reved it up a little and it stayed on, but the battery and engine light came on, stupidly enough I tried driving it a little to see if anything sounded out of the ordinary, After driving for 2 min I realized what I forgot, so I turned my car off, plugged it back in, starts fine now but the engine light's still on, it also sounds a little rough. PLEASE HELP, I've already had enough problems having to figure out why my power steering was out (ended up replacing the rack and pinion when the real problem was just the harness)

 

Disconnect the negative cable of the battery for a minute, then reconnect. Start the car and let it idle warm, and then idle by itself for another 5 minutes. Then take it somewhere safe and legal and run at full throttle in 1st and 2nd gear to redline. You should be fine after that. Driving with the MAF unplugged was probably causing havok with the fuel trims, and probably fouled up the plugs pretty good from running massively rich. Doing this will reset the fuel trims and give you a chance at burning them 'clean' (ish, never really clean). If it still runs rough, replace the plugs.

Yup, 99.9% of the time, it's the harness. Avoid all problems in the future by cutting the upper connector out and hard-wiring it straight, with proper solder, heat shielding, and water proofing. It's always that connector getting dirty that cascades.

 

Thank you so much! Ill try this as soon as I can!

 

Quick question, If my rx8 has this odd "hesitation" when changing gears (its an automatic) should i probably change the spark plugs/coils?

 

There are over a dozen possible answers for anything related to power smoothness or stability.