I think my 8 has brain damage.......
 

About a week ago, I was driving along minding my own business. Cruise control on, radio playing, 4000 rpm in 6th (80 mph), when all of a sudden the cruise kicked off, EVERY warning light in the car came on, the steering got "heavy" (not like it quit working, but like it was much less effective than before), the speedometer read "0", and the tachometer would go back and forth between 4000 rpm and 0 rpm over and over. If I slowed down the tach would always go between 0 and whatever rpm I was supposed to be at and there was NO speed display.

EVERYTHING else in the car worked fine (A/C, radio, etc.), and it seemed to be running alright, so I pulled it off at the next exit, stopped and restarted the car, and all was fine except I still had a check engine light. Later that day, after two or three more cycles of the ignition, even the CEL went off by itself!

I had not given it another thought (well, not much anyway) until yesterday, when it happened again coming home from work. Again, 80 mph cruise and "click", the cruise released, every light came on, steering got a little heavy, etc.

I drove it home (5 miles), around the neighborhood (to video the phenomenon), and down to Jeff Haas (12 miles), and started it several times. This time, it didn't reset.

I would LOVE to wait and let my regular dealer look at it, but this seemed like something I need to have looked at pretty soon. Upon arriving, I had made a CD with the video to show them (just in case), but it was still acting up when they looked at it, so I didn't have to figure a way to have to describe this to a service writer.

He looked at it, went and got a mechanic to have him look at it, and (of course) pronounced it "not normal" and something "they had never seen before". At least I got a Mazda 3 to drive in the interim (from Enterprise, not the dealer) - nice little car.

They also claimed to not know about the A/C amplifier fix, but that's another story.

Has ANYONE heard of such behavior? The car will be a year old on the 30th, has 14000 miles on it, and has been perfect until now.

I thought others might have some more insight into this strange behavior...............

UPDATE - I just returned from hand delivering them a copy of the A/C amplifier TSB (of course, they know about it now, and they are on backorder). It's in the shop, hood up, and claim to have been working on it since yesterday evening, but they don't know anything yet. I asked what code it had written to memory, but they claimed to not know, and would call me when they DO know something. Looks like it could be a LONG wait.

They still have that condesending attitude, but I guess we'll see how they treat me (and my car) THIS time...

Ya know, the Mazda dealers are really starting to piss me off. They just assumne you know crap about your 8 and like they are doing YOU the favor by trying to see what the fck is wrong with your car. I'm starting to believe the 8 is going to be a complete lemon in the near future... IMHO

Plus I swear no one at the MAzda dealers know how to even work on or troubleshoot an 8... grrr

at least you know the difference between the dealership and the manufacturer :) Mazda has a program where they certify delaer mechanics to be "Master Rotary technicians" and even sponsers a annual contest where they rip out engines and replace and stuff line that. if you do not find a shop with a master rotary technician, might as well take your rx-8 to a nissan/honda/ford/etc dealership. we might have 6-7 mazda dealerships here in the Valley, but only 2 of the shops have one of these master techs. guess which shop i bring my 8 to?

When I complained about my A/C cycling, they kindly set it on "recirculation" and told me that should fix it. *sigh* I may not be the brightest, but I'm NOT an idiot, like they assume.

Calling them back today about it again, and to fix my temp control knob that just broke.

tpryor, I hope they figure out what is wrong with your car.

tpryor - friend of mine had a similair problem with a different car, turned out he had to replace his wiring harness and that fixed it...may or may not be the case here, but just thought i would share...

good luck man.

Hey, what kind of problem did you have with the A/C cycling, I asked my dealer about this ticking noise when you turn on the front defogger and it ticks every 30 seconds, is that the same thing your talking about, the dealer told me that its recycling too.

I JUST heard from the dealer.

It's a faulty steering angle sensor, they don't have it in stock (big surprise), won't have it until late Monday, should get the car back on Tuesday.

We'll see if this corrects it or not.

It cycles back and forth from cold air to lukewarm air about 2-3 times a minute. VERY noticible with the temp above 90, and when I'm sitting in traffic.

tpryor, glad to hear they figured it out. Hope it's a quick repair like they say.

As for the A/C fix, it is Service Bulletin number 07-002/04, issued on 4/22/2004. The part to repair the issue is FEY2-61-540, and is on nationwide backorder.

Applies to all VIN's up to 118171.

Elara, thanks for the thought.

<---Master mazda certified and rx8 specialist

oh good so then you can answer the question-"how would a fautly steering angle sensor cuase the symptoms he observed?" so i don't have to look it up!

I would be lying if I didnt say that it makes me a little nervous to see an RX8 expert so in to Fords... :P

Great info.. Ill be sure to choose a shop with the proper qualifications!

Yeah, my next step was to print the service bulletin out and shove it in their faces, but I was trying to give the ninnies at chance to come clean and be nice. We'll see what happens on Wednesday when I take it in.

i have noticed that the A/C seems to kick off at idle. Rev it up and it comes back on. I do have the base version with sport package so there is no climate control getting in the way. I drive alot on the highway and it seems very capable. Its 100 here during the day and I have it set on "1" on the highway. The unit can cool the car off well if the electrical gremlins aren't in the way.

Hope they get that resolved for you pronto, Tim. It'd suck if something like that bit you in the middle of an a/x run.

Everyone went off about the A/C. Back to the brain damage issue....

I posted almost exactly the same symptoms last month over in the tech garage. Only major difference appears to be that my tach continued to operate correctly.

Mine was first diagnosed, or should I say non-diagnosed because no errors were trapped. When it happened again, they diagnosed the ABS module had failed. The ABS module was replaced and I haven't had a recurrance although I have only driven about 500 miles since the fix.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/pseudo-power-steering-failure-long-post-32389/

Interesting side note, that while driving around with an inoperative ABS module, my fuel mileage went up significantly. Between 24-25 mpg.

Additional side note, why would your dealer not know that this problem had been previously reported? hen it happened to my car, the dealer conferred with MNAO and it was entered into the database.

Fords are what i like to drive. No mazda compares with the aceleration of my cobra or gt/drag car. The rx8 does handle and brake better though. I have ford certs also but prefer the mazdas and not so much of the ford built mazdas as far as working on them.