You can do the 20 stomp brake pedal reset or you can unhook the battery. You are better off doing the brake pedal one since that doesn't reset your radio settings. You are right you should be unhooking the negative cable instead.

I have heard about people putting plugs in the wrong spots but have no first hand experience with that. It would definitely not run right though. Your best bet would be to pop off the wires 1 by 1 and read what the plugs are to make sure they are in the right spot.

 

Cool man thanks, I think tomorrow I will give it another shot and look to double check if the plugs are in the right spots, it's really my last option. My question is though do the fuel trims and things get out of whack when you change plugs and wires? Is a 20 brake pump reset normally needed after doing this job? Or should it just fire up like normal?

 

If for some reason the fuel trims were messed up it would fix itself without a reset. It is something the car is always changing so it wouldn't take very long.

When you do a reset it can drive a little weird and not idle properly until it figures itself out so that could be your problem also. I have never had it not start or idle badly when I do a reset but I have seen other people mention it.

 

Just doing some searching around and came across this thread

https://www.rx8club.com/tech-garage-...change-145174/

I read through his post and my problems seem very close to what he is experiencing. With some differences but sounds more or less the same problem he had as far as the idling and cutting off.

Also noticed what nycgps mentions:

and, you did say u pulled your battery b4. So yes, your car WILL DIE in the next few drive cycle at stop light. It happens to almost every cars out there these days. Not just Rotary. Nothing to worry about (unless you mess up something in the reinstallation)

 

Yea I know that is what they say will happen, it just hasn't been my experience with it. I just pulled my battery cable yesterday and had no idle problems at all. It can happen though, just not to everyone I guess.

 

Started my car today and it started right up and seemed to idle pretty normal, was a high idle at first because it was a cold start and cold outside. Let it get up to temp and took it for ride, came to some stop signs and traffic lights and for the most part it seems ok. It dropped down sort of low a couple of times but nothing like last night. I took the car on the highway and got through all the gears, got it back home and put the ebrake on and watched the idle and I think all is good

Although and I could be wrong here but I think I am experiencing some power loss but I am not entirely sure. Guess the only way to check that would be a compression test?

 

Another question, after unhooking the battery which resets the fuel trims, is a 20 brake pump reset needed for it to relearn the fuel trims? Or can you just start doing some drive cycles for it to start relearning?

 

They both do about the same things, removing the battery cable will just reset some extra stuff like radio presets and what not. You don't really even need to do either one, the car is constantly adjusting the fuel trims anyway. Some people just prefer to reset the trims and start fresh but I don't think it matters.

Here is a good post about resetting fuel trims and other things. https://www.rx8club.com/tech-garage-...r-reset-27548/

 

Hey thanks for responding, appreciate it.

 

So ah... I changed all the plugs and wires one at a time to make sure I put them on the right ones. I did however neglect the lil wire bracket. If the wires touch will it mess anything up or are they usually shielded.

 

the spark plug wire loom? you will be fine but why not do it right?

 

I was down on the ground doing the plugs and had someone handing them to me. So technically they didn't do them and I didn't want to struggle with getting the intake filter stuff off and on again.

 

Just for reference if you order ngk wires the color coding for leading and trailing plugs were blue and black blue and black.
I searched and found some more info but thought bumping this may help other searchers

 

i replaced my plugs and wires the correct way and after start up my check engine light is still on and the motor sound like its miss firing what do you guys recommend???i have a 2006 rx8

 

Changing your coils with plugs & wires is usually recommended. Coils probably fail faster.

 

I so appreciate this thread!! Are these the correct plugs? I ask because they show as RE7C-L on all 4, and I thought 2 were supposed to show as T? Thought I understood, now I’m confused. Thanks for advice

 

L=Leading
T=Trailing

 

Well yea, I said that.
I am confused because in the comments, folks say these fit and work perfect, but the description does not say ‘T’, only ‘L’, and it is a set of 4.
was just asking if this set is correct.
thanks
Joe

 

Folks have said you can run 4 Ls but not 4 Ts.
They are made differently.

If it was me I'd get the 2 Ts and save the extra Ls for the next tuneup.

I think if it was OK to run 4 Ls then Mazda would've made all 4 the same, that's my opinion.

 

Thanks!! What I was thinking, but wanted to be sure.
Thats exactly what I will do.
Joe

 

From NGK's website: