'help!!!!!' is not a very good thread title. This thread is about misfiring
 

I have a 2004 RX8 with 104,000 miles on it. I am looking for some help on what could be wrong with it. A few months ago we fixed 1 of the rotors seals. A few weeks ago the code p0301 came up. made an appointment with the shop I take my car to. At 1 point car did lose power. Prior to my appointment to take car into shop my husband was driving car and it started smoking from bottom of car and up through ebreak. got the car into a parking lot and it died. When the tow truck came asked if we could start car and back it up a little. I was able to start the car engine light was blinking and there was a real strong smell of gas. Since the car has been at the shop the spark plugs and wires have been changed and coil. Now there is a p0302 code coming up. Mechanic said that when the car is driving it drives well but the car is misfiring. He can not figure out why this is happening. At this point he is thinking car has to go to mazda dealer. Anyone with any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

P0302 is still a misfire on the rear rotor
We have seen brand new coils be bad right out of the box.
I think he should spend more time possibly locating the bad coil(s).
You said "coil", but you meant "coils" right? He changed all four.........right?



bad plugs
bad wires
bad coils
wires not secure


Scares the crap out of me though.......given what else you have described.
I can't remember if a fried CAT can actually throw this code if taken to the extreme to which it appears you may have done.

Yes all 4. I do know there was talk about replacing cat but did not do that. What do you mean by taken to extreme? Sorry Im a girl and don't know much about cars and trying to explain it the best I can.

You can read the first few pages in this thread so you have an idea what to tell the mechanic or the dealer to check:
Suffering a misfire, START HERE!

I think what Mazurfer mean about "taken to the extreme" is when you have driven the car for thousands of miles with a clogged Cat-converter, this is also mentioned in the thread above.

ok thank you

Posted From RX8Club.com Android App

Misfires most frequently start from degrading spark plugs, plug wires, and ignition coils. They can also be caused by fouling of the e-shaft sensor or MAF sensor, failing O2 sensor, vacuum leaks, grounding problems, cat damage, or engine damage.

Failure to address the misfires will generally lead to cat damage, probably quickly. This cat damage can in turn cause misfires all by itself. The cat damage can then also start killing the O2 sensors and the engine, both of which can also cause misfires all by themselves. Eventually, driving on a clogged cat will light your car on fire. No, I'm not exaggerating.

So, it's possible that you were misfiring from your ignition, you fixed that, but further damage was already done and now you are misfiring because of those reasons.

As you can see, it's pretty critical to keep your ignition healthy, and since it fails on average every 30,000 miles, it's really something that needs replacing regularly as part of normal maintenance.



Maz,
Yes, you can misfire from a clogged cat. When my cat clogged nearly solid several years back, the only CEL I got was a misfire code. Also took out an O2 sensor and my engine was never right again, though it took 40,000 miles to fail a compression test.

Correct

All of this is what I meant......but didn't have time to type it all out........so thanks!
:mchase: