scarroll

Here is a close-up.

In this pic, it shows a kill switch for the passenger airbag.

Is this a non North American option?

oreo

Sounds like you have a base MT w Xenon, fogs. The regular lights look amazingly similar to the Xenon, are you shure, if so you got yourself a verry expensive set of lamps there :-).
I have seen people put xenons on their base models.

And no, if you can get it to spin it doesn't have DSC period. Taking it to 4k and dumping the clutch on a model with DSC activated wold have an initial tire chrip and then the nanny would modulate throtle for you and the tire spin would stop. also it would activate your front brakes to stop you from spinning. I.E. It is almost imposible to spin an RX-8 with DSC on.

Glyphon

i don't know if its an option or standard, but its only available outside the north american market.

KYLiquid

*1 PUSH* - 'DSC OFF' comes on the dash under the fuel gauge

At this point there is no more 'traction-control' the rear tires are free to spin (at a launch, ect) you can push the button again at any time to re-activate the 'traction-control' I belive the only reason for this feature to be built in is possibly due to the fact that in cold weather (snow and ice on the groud) the car may become 'stuck' meaning the car wont let the rear wheels spin in the traction control...so you wont go anywhere, they built in a feature so you could turn it off, slip the back wheels a bit and get moving, then turn it back on so you dont crash into a mailbox or something. The 'stability control' remains on so you cant get the car into a spin.

Basicaly You can spin the tires but you can spin out.

*PUSH AND HOLD 7+ SECS* - 'DSC OFF' comes on the dash under the fuel gauge AND a little 'drift icon' come on in the top center of the tach

At this point you have no 'traction control' (see above) and you also dont have any stability control. You are now free to wiggle your sexy little *** all the way down park ave. if you chose. I think this cant be turned back on (without restarting the car) so that you couldnt accidently bump it (its right by your left knee) and turn it on DURING a slide...the sudden activation of the system while the car is in a 'loss of traction situation' could cuase the car to go completly out of control...or become unpredictable, causeing a crash.

Basicaly the power is yours, its just you and the LSD.

I hope this makes sense and people can now better understand the cars saftey net!

Happy Motoring

oreo

first time I see It,
Mabe 2005 option but not MNAO

KYLiquid

I dont understand what your talking about....are you saying the person that has the car with all the sports package but no DSC might be an option for 05 but not from Mazda North America?

scarroll

Sorry

The confusion, starts from my question about an airbag kill switch. (beside the dsc switch)

I wanted to know if it (the kill switch) was outside of NA.

We think it is a base model with xenon fogs and regular lowbeams.

But we haven't confirmed it yet.

Hyperborea

From what I've heard, if you compare identical cars except one group has DSC and one doesn't the single car accident rate is twice as high for the non-DSC cars.

alcimedes

I'll check when I drive home from work, and upload photos if necessary. So the regular headlights have the sharp cutoff point at the top of the beam as well as the rotary accents? Not that I care too much, I've got an 8. :D

Aseras

i know my car will go into donut mode just with the tap.. not even with the full off mode.

alcimedes

Well, no DSC button and no air bag control either. Guess I'll see how it does this winter, but the grip while driving on that much water was amazing. Friend of mine had an old Firebird and that thing was a deathtrap. Guess they've made a few improvements over the years though.

rotten42

you are correct sir

Glyphon

there is a turn into my neighborhood that activates my dsc just about everytime i turn in, no matter what speed i'm going...its downhill with a slight bump. nothing that causes any traction issues at normal speeds but sets the dsc off.

if i turn the dsc off by just pressing the button (not holding it down) the turn doesn't activate the dsc. i can also get power on oversteer as well.

also, according to the manual (which is always right, right? ) pressing the dsc button switches off both tcs and dsc and that holding the button triggers the error condition (dsc off light and traction control squiggly light) because it thinks there is a problem with the swtich.

Shinka13

That's what I read and interperated in my owners manual too.

Hard 8

I understand that while in the soft-off mode, DSC will come back on only if the ABS gets activated.

Glyphon

what makes you think that?

in "soft-off" you can reenable the dsc at anytime by pressing the button again or by turning the car off.

if the button is held down and the dsc is turned off that way, the system thinks there is a problem with the switch and disables the switch until the car is restarted and it turns on both the dsc off lamp and the squiggly line lamp.

i'll be the first to make the assertion that both modes do exactly the same thing in regards to the dsc/tcs systems, the only difference being that when the button is held down, the switch is deactivated, which keeps the dsc system from being turned back on at the switch until the car is restarted.

Hard 8

Right. No argument there. I assumed everyone knew that already, and was just talking about when the system would reactivate by itself.

I have to quibble there. At least, per many other threads on this issue, DSC will ALSO come back on when ABS is activated, in soft-off, but not in hard-off.

There was even a thread that linked to a Mazda (?) video, filmed on a rainy track in Japan, where they made a hard, sideways stop in three different modes: DSC on, DSC soft-off and DSC hard-off. The differences between all three modes were dramatic, and in the order stated the stopping distances and amount of spin increased significantly from mode to mode.

Under your theory, soft-off and hard-off would have exhibited the same distances and degree of spin, because in each mode DSC would remain off unless the driver reactivated it manually.

OK, now I'm going to do a search. Stand by. I'll cheerfully eat crow if I'm wrong.

Hard 8

OK, here's yet a third theory: A good discussion here: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/turning-off-dsc-tcs-11106/

Not exactly what I was saying, but close enough for me.

Glyphon

i only questioned it because you're mentioning it was the first i've heard of it.

also, a quote from your linked thread...

seems to refute the claim of it automagically reactivating when ABS comes into play.

i guess the higher threshold theory with "soft-off" is possible/plausible, but i still think, based off my experiences with the car, "soft-off" and "fault-off" are the same, but one mode allows for the dsc to be re-enabled without turning the car off.

not saying i am right and you are wrong, just giving my theory based off what i've experienced

Hard 8

Roger that. I haven't tested it myself. You should do a search for that video, though. The car really seemed to behave quite differently in each mode. But it was in Japanese, so it was a bit hard for me to follow.

Glyphon

will do. i'll look around and see if i can find it.

Hard 8

Lemme know if you do. I just struck out on it myself. It was really a cool video. I tried DSC rain video as search terms. You might try RX-8 rain video or some such.

Glyphon

yeah, i found it.

but i have issues with it...the driver seems to drive each mode different. for instance, in run #1 he accelerates to 119km/h, then coasts to 110km/h and performs the manuver. in run number two, he accelerates to 119km/h, then coasts to 114 km/h then does the corner. in run #3 he accelerates to 119km/h but this time he brakes, then eases off the brakes some. and on run #4 he accelerates to 119km/h but this time when he brakes, he stands on it until it comes to a stop.

in his different runs, he plays around with weight transfer to help create the dramatic differences in each mode. it was pretty interesting to watch, but because of these differences i'm still a little skeptical.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ight=dsc+video
post #7

Bigdog6060

I have the base model and every so often it get some tail slide but in general it doesnt move a inch. I think the problem with people that turn the dsc off is they are used to it on and drive as such

Hard 8

Cool that you found it. I don't know the answer for sure, and I didn't watch the video that carefully. Some day I guess I need to try out the soft-off in the parking lot, and see if I can get the car to activate DSC on its own.