I am looking to buy a 04 RX8. So I found a the car that I wanted on the dealers website. I talked to the salesman and he said that the car was in the service area because someone ran it out gas and the battery also was drained in an attempt to restart the car. He said that the ECU had to be reprogrammed and the computer that they used to do the reprogramming was out of commission until next week. Is this a valid story? Do you need to reprogram the ECU if you run the car out of gas?

 

If the battery was completely drained, there would be no power to the PCM. Only the non-volatile memory would likely be retained in that case. So yes, I would think the PCM would require a flash to bring it up to a recent level. Question I would ask is what flash level they plan to reprogram it with. As far as I know, the most recent flash is still on hold, apparently due to bugs in the update file. Reprogramming to an earlier flash level, like "L" or the most-recent good "M" flash, is a very lengthy processes for the service person and something they probably would rather not do.

As an aside, the "ran out of gas" could actually have been a flooding problem which would likely require replacement of the spark plugs at a minimum, and worst case, replacement of the cat converter in addition to a PCM update. Attempts to restart a flooded RX-8 can easily run the puny OEM battery down, so be skeptical of what the dealer tells you about this car.

 

Yeah, fully dead battery will cause a reset. If you are looking to buy the car make sure the Plugs are checked, latest Flash is in, and go ahead and see if you can get the bigger battery they have now. After a Test drive see what you think.

 

What? A dead battery would require us go to the dealer to get reflashed ......... I hope not. In the factory service manual, they say to disconnect the battery all over the place - I don't recall seeing anything about reflashing required after that.

 

It seems like every maintenance procedure calls for disconnecting the battery. I sure hope we don't have to get a reflash every time I DIY. Though the lack of a reflash isn't a show stopper, it would be inconvenient to suffer the performance penalty till my next dealer maintenance.

 

What a load of rubbish. You can disconnect the battery for months and not require a reflash - a lot people do this for the winter months in the US. On a recent 5 week holiday the battery to mine was disconnected with no adverse affects.