Interested in buying an 8 buuuut....
 

Hello all. I have been looking at 8's for a while now and love the styling, interior, handling of the car but am having an issue with the acceleration off the line.

I have driven 3 different cars from 04-06 with between 39-77k miles on them, all 6 speeds and they all have this oddity. When launching from a stop. If I get on it hard, they pull to 4krpm and then fall down to 2krpm and then pull cleanly to red-line. Now I know these are not torque monsters but this dip, flat spot, hiccup, stumble...whatever you want to call it would drive me nuts if I bought it.

I want to know if there is a way to eliminate it so that it will pull cleanly. I tried with DSC on and off, tried revving to 2-3-4k rpm and dumping clutch, slipping the clutch as well as normal aggressive takeoffs and the only way I can get around it is with MAJOR clutch slippage witch would roast my clutch in no time and it pretty much kills the acceleration anyway.

I love every thing else about the car but this is a deal breaker as it stands. Hoping to find a fix here. Maybe via tuning, bolt on, technique?

Thanks, Rob

Never had this issue with mine, nor have I heard of anyone else having a problem like this. The odds that all three cars suffer from the same issue seem pretty low to me. I'd look at the common denominator in the situation (you) and see if there's something about your technique that doesn't fit so well with the car. Maybe have a friend drive the car and see if it still happens. I'm not saying it's your fault, but see if somebody else can reproduce the problem as well just to make sure.

Short answer, they aren't supposed to do that. It's not normal.

I really felt like I was the problem as well. I had not seen mention of this in any of the tests/reviews I had read about the car.

The first thing I said to the sales person when getting back from the test drive is, What am I doing wrong here? What is the trick to making this rotary sing? He got in and we took off again and he got the same odd performance hit as I did.

Maybe I will try another dealership and see if I can find a salesman that can show me what I am doing wrong. Not like I am new to manual tranny's, learned to drive 25 years ago with a 3-speed on the column and driven 4-5-6 speeds all my life, even drove semi's for a while. Still feel like it's me tho especially if you guys don't have the issue or know of it.

Thanks

very strange that 3 different cars from different years have the same issue, what are the chances?

people starting to dump the cars because they get odd performace and don't want to bother fixing them (which probably just means new coils,plugs, wires)

sounds like they all had carbon build up or weak ignitions.... time for coils/plugs/wires

yeah i dnt have an mt 8 BUT from my experience with my other mt cars that definitely sounds weird

Guys, its called TSC.

If there's any wheel slippage that is..

Hm maybe I'm wrong but what he is describing is his clutch/pedal combo to get a smooth launch off the start instead of going too low an RPM and bogging it or too high and jerking it which would be why he goes from 4k down to 2k then back up again.

IF I've interpreted what you meant then the rotary indeed is different than piston vehicles I've driven when shifting. I find myself letting the clutch out smoothly from a stop with the RPM around 3-4k and not letting it all the way off until the car steadies out so to speak so it doesn't drop back down in RPM. I prefer to say this is clutch control contrast to slippage as I'm not constantly holding it to a certain position then letting off, just gradually backing it off instead of dumping it off. Of course if you go too low on RPM it bogs. There's only been a few occasions I've done it perfectly and was able to let off the clutch quicker than usual and got up to speed with no jerks from dropping the clutch nor bogging it. It's trickier than other manual vehicles I've driven.

You got it right on the nose.