A dumb question?
 

I hope this isn't a dumb question because I'm not as mechanically knowledgeable as some of you guys. But when the RX-8 first started showing up at my local Mazda dealership in Charlotte they had two 6 speeds and 3 automatics. They had the 3 automatics parked out back for weeks and I asked the mechanic that works on my Miata what was up with that? He said "They had to remove the car's computer and send them back to Mazda to be reprogramed because they were set up for the 6 speed and not the auto and they couldn't sell them until the problem had been repaired." Could it be possible that this could have happened to some of the 6 speed cars that are reporting a power loss after 6 thousand RPM? If they somehow made a mistake and programed the car as a auto would that be the reason for the power loss? If so then maybe that's why some of the cars seem to run fine and some don't.

Not likely for tons of reasons, only one of which is:
Folks reporting power issues are getting well over the redline imposed by the 4AT's ECU.

I do, however, find it interesting that they have to send the ECUs back to Mazda for reprogramming, and can't simply re-flash, swap ROMs, or swap ECUs in the service bay.

hmm. My dealer recieved two cars (a yellow one and mine) as the first shipment. The yellow one was not to be sold - at first I was told that it was the dealer car and had to be kept but later by 2 salesmen I was told that there was a problem with the fuel system controller - anywho one of the sales managers bought it.

The ECUs are capable of being re-flashed, but the RX-8, Mazdaspeed Protege IIRC, and the 04 Mazda6 are the first Mazdas with this capability. It's entirely possible that the dealers don't have the equipment to reflash the ECUs yet.

Regards,
Gordon

but when they do how hard would it be to roll up and request a JDM 247hp ECU map? :p

This has already been gone over is other threads. Closing...

---jps