Hey guys, I've found this site extremely helpful in the past, so here's my situation:

Bought a used 2004 RX-8. Second engine, 85k miles on it.

For cold starts, it would start kinda slow and then idle rough for about a minute while white smoke came out of the exhaust. This would happen for a minute or two, then completely go away after the car was warmed up. The car still ran smooth all the way to redline as well.

Anyway, so I ended up replacing the coils, plugs and wires, as well as the radiator cap, because my rotary mechanic said it was spewing out coolant. I also got an oil change. After that, I drove it back to college (about 200 miles). Now, it starts up instantly for cold starts and doesn't idle rough at all. The white smoke is even completely gone. The car still runs extremely strong up to redline, and I drive it hard like it's supposed to be driven, because to my understanding, these things will run like **** if babied. I haven't noticed a loss of power, either.

Other than this, I had a CEL code for a Crankshaft Angle Sensor.

Now here's my problem. This car has somewhat long warm starts. When I go to the gas station for example and turn it off, and try to turn it back on, it takes a few seconds to turn on. I've noticed depressing the gas pedal all the way for 1 second causes the car to start much faster warm. However, doesn't that mean I'm disabling my fuel pump to start the car? I thought people with flooded engines did this as part of the de-choke method. I've only done this a couple times anyhow, and thought I'd take note of it due to the noticeable difference in hot start time.

This brings me to my question about the hot starts. Should I replace the crank sensor and see if it brings a noticeable difference? Or should I go straight to getting a new starter? A fuel pump was also a concern of mine. Once again though, according to the vehicle, it's the Crank Angle Sensor, but I just figured I'd see what you guys thought. Please let me know your opinion. Thanks!

 

Step 1: Fix what's broke.

The sensor seldom fails but often gets dirty. Clean up, then try again.

 

How about having a compression test done?

 

+1.

 

Your search-fu is weak.
Had you searched well enough, you would have fount countless threads that would have told you several things:

Slow cranking over is either a weak battery, or a weak starter, or corrosion on the connections between. Fix that problem and you can move onto problem #2.

Reset the ESS profile to see if it clears your CEL.
If it doesn't, then clean the sensor, and then redo the procedure again, and see if it goes away then.

If you're still having starting issues after that, its time for a compression test, and a replacement motor.

BC.

 

I feel sorry for mankind, is Google really that freaking hard to use? or is the world full of freeloaders(READ:IDIOTS) now ?

 

sounds like a bad coolant seal, any decent rotary tech can test for it.

 

that's some pretty hard thing to find @ some states ...

Dealership? oh HELLLLLL NO!

 

if you like the car it may be worth travelling for. not every state has a decent rotary shop but you may find one a state over and a few hours of travelling.

just had 2 customers in today, one from northern california and one from utah.

diagnosed an '04 2 days ago with these symptoms and unfortunately the engine was ingesting coolant overnight. not too uncommon but a rather costly repair, even more if you let the car sit without running it every several days.

 

When my car is warm it seems like it struggles to start but starts within 2-4 seconds is that bad or ok or what? Starts perfect when cold 1 second or so sorry for the caps

 

More information would be helpful. Year? Any steps already taken? Things inspected? If it is a 2004 or 2005 you may want to check the starter. Many will jump straight to a compression check, but with mine (which is a 2005) I upgraded the starter to one from a 2006+ RX8 and haven't had a problem since. The 04s and 05s had a weaker starter and can cause what you are experiencing. Not saying this is definitely the case, but sounds very similar to what I experienced.

Give this a read: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-...ummies-189410/