Hey all, relatively new RX-8 owner here!

Bought it second hand from someone who did a lot of vacuum deletes and performance stuff on here, catless, etc. His reasoning was to push more power out of the engine but I have a hard time getting it above 5k rpms without feeling like it's sputtering but that could be my spark plugs, but i digress.

I've been driving it well for about a month and some change but it has a list of issues I've begun to notice. The most annoying of which was my power steering light would be on and it'd be out sometimes upon starting up the car, so I've been cleaning them with a toothpick and a napkin which seemed to do the trick for the duration of that trip.

Now the actual issue- Day started out like any other. Was gonna go grab breakfast, flicked my key to ON, noticed the power steering light was on again. Perfect because I just bought contact cleaner. So i pop the hood and before I even get halfway to opening it, I hear a click, what i could only describe as a faint wind down near the front driver side of the engine bay and all power shuts off in my cabin, save for stuff like hazards, interior lights, headlights, etc. putting the key in didn't do anything.

Narrowed it down to the IG KEY 15A fuse popped, so I went and bought a big box of assorted fuses off amazon. replaced it, great! Time for spark plugs. My DCS light was flashing and my traction control dash lights were on. I figured that I had to recalibrate the wheel so I turn it far to the left, then far to the right and DCS turns off. (had to shut off my car but it was already warmed up. Turned it back on and Traction light was off so good to go i guess). Anyways, Drive to autozone to grab some ramps, drive back. I get about 100ft into my neighborhood, waiting at the stop sign to turn, and start to move forward, then the car shuts off. At first I thought I stalled out but i went to turn the key and nothing happened. Damn fuse again.

So i change it there in the middle of the street. Start it up, a few seconds pass and it pops again. So i proceed to push it to a safe area nearby and go through about 4 more fuses trying to troubleshoot. I cant even leave it running idle without it shorting out, much less having the key ON for longer than a few seconds.

I'm honestly at a loss I have no clue what it could be. My gut says it might be the power steering being sus and shorting out from me ******* with it but I'm not 100% convinced. I'd really appreciate the help, as a new RX8 owner and new to working on cars in general, I wanna do right by the car and take care of it.

 

What ignition do you have? With the older BHR set, and maybe some other Yukon coils, the #1 or #2 ignition harness wire can rub on the engine hanger and short, leading to this. You're supposed to remove the hanger when installing them.

Check the front coil harness wires carefully.

 

Not sure what coils i have, previous owner installed them but im getting a set of BHR anyway soon. Im not 100% but i believe I've found the culprit. It matches up with the general area i hears the click/whine when it first happened. The metal contacts on the wiring harness on the far cable seem to be touching and rubbing against what i assume is the air injection block (in the last 72 hours I've become a 'car guy' so bear with me) which i assume is what's
causing the short.






I've heard that with some coils if you didn't take off the bracket it can cause issues which i assume is why that plate of metal is crudely screwed into the bottom of the injection assembly instead of just using the U piece directly. The whole thing wobbles like crazy too because it doesnt sit flush bc the bolts on the underside of the metal plate. He had a vacuum hose wedging it into place on the back side. I'm planning on new coils soon anyway so i zip tied it to the center strut bar for the time being to keep it in position. How long that'll last is anyone's guess but with the heat i wouldnt imagine long. I dont plan on driving it in any case until i get this sorted out.

Will report back when i do a bit more testing when i get my short detector

 

Dear lord. Yeah ok, plenty of opportunity for rubbing wires there. I would resheath the wiring when you install the new coils.

 

Another potential culprit and seems more likely is this wiring connector that was absolutely drenched in coolant from the compressor. My guess is when the prev owner was replacing the tubes, he didn't drain it all the way or something and failed to clean up the coolant properly because there's plenty of rust around the area and stuff, but also that wiring connector just sits below the compressor and could be dripping onto it because it was wet and covered in this black stuff. Not sure what it goes to but I'll be able to find out when i jack up the car to do the coils and spark plugs

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That second connector is for your OMP. I don't think it's on the IGN1 circuit.

Also.. WHAT is going on with your battery terminals?