it does NOT go to MUSA but to somewhere NOT WORK SAFE.

LOL zoom...

back on topic... so no way to clear a CEL short of pulling the battery right? I do know that if you do the odomoter"test" clear and go all the way to #55, the check engine light starts blinking a lot.

Hey guys,

I've read through this forum looking for answers, because here's my situation:

I had an intake backfire the other day that burned a few holes in my air filter and fouled my MAF sensor. Well, if you must ask, I was improperly using my nitrous system, but I've learned to not do stupid things with it anymore. The engine was idling very rough and I had a CEL.

Anyway, I replaced the air filter, spray cleaned the MAF sensor and the throttlebody opening. The engine runs great now, very smooth at idle and high revs, but I still have a CEL.

Do you think the CEL will clear on its own during normal driving, or will I have to do the brake pump to clear it? I've read other posts about doing the pump and am not sure what affect clearing the KAM will have on engine performance, so I'm hesitant...

it will clear after a certain number of warm up cycles.. usually 20-60 depends on the error. it's easier just to pull the battery wait a minute and plug it back in. no more cel. if it comes back you still have a problem and will need to pull the code and fix whatever it is. The abs/dsc light may be on just turn the wheel all the way left and right and restart the car and it will reset . the brake stomp is a nvram clear.. only need to do that for certain things like a pulley change. it won't clear with the battery removal.

Question,

If you pull the negative terminal and it clears the CEL does the PCM still store the CEL in it's history?

Basically if I clear the CEL and take it to the dealer will they still be able to see that I threw a code if they hook it up to the scanner?

My SRT did that for certain codes.

Thanks all.

Which flash do I have?
 

Is there a way of figuring out which Flash I have on my car? Or do I need to call the dealership and have them look it up?

You need to have it disconnected for ten minutes and drain the system.

When Battery is disconnected push and hold the brake for ten seconds.

You also need to do the odometer ECU clear.

Then on newer cars you have to drive it for a certain amount of miles. I hear 100.

If you don't drive it they will know you cleared it. That's ok for the dealer, but not for smog testing.

If used:
Look under the hood and all the door Jams. There will be a sticker.

If you had the work done, look at your old reciepts.

Else, go to dealer.

if you pull the battery the cel and the data freeze frame with it will be gone, however it will show a miles since last cleared and number of warmup cycles etc..

http://www.performancedesign.com.au/images/dtc.jpg

stole hymee's graphic for example..

hi i am new in this forum. Btw i just got my RX8, do i need to reset the NVRAM Or KAM?
it is a used RX8 car and the mileage is quite low around 10k.
please advice.

cheers

If the car is running fine then just leave it alone. If it feels slugish then sure read this post and reset it, you shouldn't be able to hurt anything.

resetting it will clear the bad habits.. but they will go away in time too.

What's up with the Honda sucks avatar? But yeah, resetting it won't hurt anything.

Just my personal opinion. Too many riced out Hondas around my area.

it can mess up the timing if you clear the nvram and it messes up the eccentric shaft profile. especially if you sensor is iffy or you have a bad ground.

I have reset many and never had a problem. Maybe we are all lucky I guess.

I have been trouble shooting a loss of power and strange intake sounds since I put my Typhoon 1 on. Yes, the filter is a bad design for sure. No argument. I have played with different cones. During this time I noticed something funny about the ECU reset. I will just talk about the reset here. There are some interesting things I discovered about intakes on the Rx8. I will talk about them under a different thread.

Over a week I made 3 adjustments to the intake. On each adjustment, I disconnected the battery for 20 min or so. Did the clear on odometer and brake pedal too. Here is the catch.
You have to let the car warm up completely at idle. To play it safe I would let it run 30 min after you reconnect the battery. The first two times I let it warm up a little and took off. Ran great, like a different car. Since I never let it idle from cold to start, the car would die everytime I let off the gas pedal. The fist time it stalled at idle for two days. It will do that until you let it sit there and idle for 20 min. Shut it down, crank it back up. Then it would idle. Then it did not run as good at high RPM. I almost was ready to let it die at every light just to get it to run that good at high RPM. On the 3rd time. I made my adjustments to any mods or etc. I hooked the battery back up. Did the brake pedal and odometer reset too. Cranked it up and let idle for 20 min. Took it out and It ran better at high RPM and idled better than it has ever. That ECU makes a huge difference on how the car runs. I still am amazed how big of an affect it can make for the better or worse. I have put on a host of mods. Every change you make to this car will need to go through this process, at least intake changes. The cone filter I replaced the Typhoon 1 with can be adjusted. If you move it 1/4 of an inch, it will raise hell with your MAF. Someone double check my work.

In Review:
Battery disconect
odometer reset
brake reset
idle for 20 min
shut down
restart
cruise for 10 mile and gradually increase throttle

I had a CEL today, and went to autozone. They used their OBD2 scanner to pull the code but it wouldn't link up with my car, it had some kind of error. So i pulled the - terminal off the battery and that got rid of the light, drove it about 80-100 miles since and it seems normal.

1 side effect though. After I pulled the battery and reconnected as soon as I put the key in and turned it the DSC OFF light kept blinking and the car with the squiggly traction lines behind it stayed illuminated. I drove the car for a while and then turned it off and on and all the warning lights went away and the system seemed to act normally. Is the DSC blink thing standard after you reset your ECU?

Also do you just have to pick 1 method to reset the ECU or was pulling the - terminal off and holding the brake pedal down for a few seconds good enough?

When DSC light flashes, turn the wheel all left and right.
Let the engine go from cold all the way till temp needle is straight up.
Do not drive until the temp is normal at idle.
Drive easy for at least 100 miles. Let the ECU remap correctly.

A standard odb2 scanner isn't going to work, it needs to also know CAN. So that is likely why.


I would recommend getting a usb canscan ($120) to do the reset yourself, or even a scangaugeII ($170, has a LCD screen).

Also, very important, don't run your AC while your ECU is remapping and trimming fuel. The initial crack cycles are the foundation or baseline. No wonder so many people are having trouble. If these sequences are not just right people are going to have to think it’s a bad car. I have driven this car all 57k miles. 57k of it has been a learning curve. This car is 95% digital and 5% mechanical. First thing dealer said when they put my ACT clutch and flywheel. "You’re going to lose the bottom end and it going to be hard to drive daily. They were wrong. The typhoon version 1 they sold and installed for me in early 04 was the only problem I have had with this car. If anybody has done any intake adjustments, big mistake. You got to get these three things working correct no matter what.

ECU
MAF
o2

If the ECU does not do pull down accurate information from those sensors, then the car does not run right.

If anybody is experiencing problems from this thread topic, 80% of you are going be in the scope of those three items. If you have an aftermarket intake on. Put your stock one back on. Anytime there is the slightest change to your car, I recommend a full reset from battery disconnect. Make sure to drive easy after your reset. Unlike all other car resets. If it were any other car you would want to run the piss out of it after reset.

The but dyno is +/- 20 HP from ECU changes. My mods have not done that much.

With the last reset I made, it runs perfect. I have a midpipe, TB coolant bypass, VFAD removed, mod intake, and a breather replacing vacuum line of intake.

No smoke, no odors what so ever, no CEL, no pinging, and power is there at any moment. The ECU had time to manifest all the data it needed to operate from the baseline maps. The ECU actually rocks. Of course full control would be the solution.

The reason that the air filter placement on the intake pipe makes a difference is because the MAF sensor is VERY sensitive to turbulence caused by the right-angle of the filter flange. Both the factory box and Racing Beat's intake system have the radius horn for this reason.

Yes sir, I think you are correct on that. The inverted cone filter I replaced the Typhoon filter with makes a big difference.

Is CAN a different programming language specific to the RX8 or something? Also as far as the usb canscan is it just software and a cable that is usb on one end and obd2 plug on the other? I have an IBM thinkpad and a toshiba pocket pc so I'm guessing either would work?

the usb canscan is a odb2 plug, going to a black box, then going to a usb cord that you then plug into your laptop. you can read and reset CELs as well as data log. I think it runs $127.

CAN isn't specific to the rx-8, I think all cars will be using it by 2008 or so, but the RX-8 had it really early (2003).