Gord, not trying to hijack but along the same lines, I find my car takes forever to give me heat in the cabin and never does seem to catch up to feel really warm such that I can turn it down. This is even when the engine temp shows it as warm. (needle in the middle)

Overall, the heating and A/c system is poor, Fan is wayyy too loud- the single biggest disappoint I have with the car.

Temps last two days from 5 to 18 F... Thank god for seat heaters. Can't imagine what you folks have to deal with.

Craig

 

My miata would fill the cabin with heat within about 2 miles from home, on a cold morning. The 8 takes three or four times that. And the heater motor is SOO loud past #2.

Small gripes - yeah. I know.


Remember, the Temp guage is a 'timer' - it moves to center-mast based on how long the car has been running; not how warm the car is. Another note, running the heater before the engine is fully warm can slow the rate at which the engine heats up, as heat is wicked away from the coolant, etc.

 

Oh, you mean that noisemaker that comes on while you're waiting to get some actual heat from the heater? Gotta admit, the heater is better at making noise than heat. I notice on the vent setting that the temperature of the air is actually very hot, but my feet take forever to get warm. I'm guessing the design of the heater fan and ducting took a much lower priority during development.

BTW, the manual mentions a cabin air filter that I thought was optional. Anybody know about this? Maybe the filter is interfering with air flow? Just a thought...

 

No problems at -16° C so far. The car warms up better on the way work (driving through the city, standing at red lights) than on my way back (autobahn starts 500 m from my workplace).

What annoys me slightly is that the windshield / headlight washing water keeps running over the side windows and also hits the mirrors. And the right wiper has problems with cleaning the far right side of the windshield.

 

http://www.weather.com/weather/local/55343

Car started just fine this morning as it always has and did exactly what Gord is describing in the Cold Stuff. Personally -15 C is not all that cold if you ask me, but the Car never really warmed up. My commute is only about 5 miles, but it is all stop and go suburban traffic. It is supposed to be colder tomorrow as well with a high temp of -15C. Ill let everyone know.

Personally - I think the fact that there are not as many moving parts in addition to the oil cooling system, it just takes that much longer to get the RX8 warmed.. Nothing more...

 

Cold?!??? Huh?!?!

Come to Minneapolis, MN someday in late december or early january. That will change your perception on cold...

 

WHAT??? Are you serious? (As in, do you seriously believe what you wrote about the temp gauge being a timer and not a real temp gauge?) Sorry, but wherever you heard that is a source that I would permanently put on an ignore list. In fact, I'd recommend killing that source so they can never spread that sort of ridiculous misinformation again!

The temperature gauge may be damped and non-linear, but it certainly IS a temperature gauge, and warm-up time varies significantly depending on outside temperature. Warm-up (as indicated by the gauge) certainly varies, and is not fixed at a certain duration of time. I haven't heard something quite so funny in a long time...


To update - this winter, we haven't had any temps cold enough to reproduce the problem, but I did experience it several more times last winter after I started this thread. In my experience - once the car is fully warmed up, it is able to stay warmed up, and the heater will put out reasonable heat. It's no mini-blast furnace like a Miata heater, but it does very well even at -20. However, if the engine isn't warmed up before you start getting significant airflow through the engine compartment and radiators, then the car struggles to warm up to operating temperature, and can even get colder. NOTE, this is only an issue experienced in COLD temperatures - near 0F. If it's not that cold, you won't see this problem. I've seen it where the temp gauge will indicate nearly operating temperature but not quite, and a long downhill stretch of road will result in the temp gauge dropping to just barely over the 'C' cold mark!

Regards,
Gordon

 

Ever thought about adding a thermostat to the oil coolers? Maybe just to one first, to see how it goes?

~ Matt

 

And I've also noticed a few times, when I take a sharp corner, the fan blows cold air momentarily.

BTW, isn't the oil supposed to be thermostatically controlled? I don't remember the details though.

I like Gord's idea of restricting the oil cooler air flow a bit.