Flashing engine light after leaving the dealership in my new RX-8
 

So I went to the dealership today to pick up my new 2005 RX-8. As I'm driving back to work on the freeway I tried to accelerate (not hard) at around 5,000 RPM's. All of a sudden the car starts cutting out like it's fuel starved and the engine light starts flashing. I pushed in the clutch and started coasting and the engine light stopped flashing and went off. I pulled in to the nearest gas station and called the dealership. They told me to drive it back to them so they could look at it. When the problem had occurred there was a strong smell like burning oil or plastic. The dealership told me this is normal for a new car like this. Anyway, the problem didn't happen again on the way back to the dealership (I was very careful and kept it under 4,000 RPM). They checked the codes on the car and found nothing. They also took it for a test drive and didn't have the problem happen. I headed back to work with the car and didn't have the problem happen again, although I tried to reproduce the situation to make sure.

So basically this has only happened once and it was after about 15 minutes of driving. The dealership can't find anything wrong, but it seems to me that a flashing engine light and loss of power on a new car with less than 300 miles is an issue.

Has anybody had anything similar happen? Any thoughts as to what the problem might be? They had filled the car up for me, but I didn't see if they used premium like Mazda recommends. I doubt this would cause a problem like this though. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Maybe its just low on fuel when it happened, were you below a quarter tank?

Plenty of fuel
 

Nope, the tank was almost completely full. I only had about 20 miles on a new tank. I've driven about a hundred miles since then and haven't seen the problem again, although that burning smell is still there.

maybe you should try to RTFM, there are some interesting instructions in there regarding the break-in procedure

The car has to be fully up to temperature before you cane it. If it isn't, what happened will happen every time. The engine software is configured to limit the RPM when the engine is cold.

Normal operation.

getting on it hard before it's broken in or warmed up, we have a winner ...

BTW, the burning oil or plastic smell you refer to is Cosmolene. Cosmolene is a corrosion inhibitor applied by Mazda to exhaust components to prevent rust forming during shipping.

You'll smell it for 300 miles or so. Especially when the car is up to temp and stationary.

Cheers,

Gomez.

This wasn't due to cold temps
 

I wasn't running the car hard and it was up to full operating temperature. I had been driving for about 15 minutes, and had been on the freeway for about 10 of it, so it was plenty warm. And I wasn't ringing it hard. Just a mid-range roll-on to change lanes.

As far as break-in I'm sticking with Mazda's recommendation of not running a steady RPM and not ringing the hell out of it. The most important thing for break-in is to vary the RPM, get things warmed up, let them cool off, etc. I'll probably change the oil after the first thousand miles to get the initial batch of gunk cleaned out.

At any rate, this issue was not related to a cold engine or to hard acceleration.

The DTC error code for the flashing check engine light should have been stored in the PCM. The dealer should have pulled the code to determine the specific cause of the problem. Apparently they didn't do that or you would have mentioned it. They probably just cleared the CEL and basically sent you on your way. If it happens again, find another dealer and specifically ask them for the DTC(s). If they can't diagnose the problem with that information, there are people on this forum who can point you in the direction of a solution.

Well if it were up to temp, then my money is on a misfire. Bit of crap on a plug or something. DTC P0301 or P0302 is my guess.

Here's hoping it doesn't come back. Cheers.

It is a new car right?

It is more like faulty plugs.... :dunno:

When my car have similar symptom at 8000rpm, it did not give me a engine code nor I get a freeze frame.

Not all flash engine light has a freeze frame and hopefully the dealer has not clear it.

There are many thing from fuel map, air filter, apex seal, engine compression ratio and down to the spark plug that can cause a problem of misfire... I know since it happens to me and I studied it.

Ask them to read their service manual: Chapter 2 (bookmark number 12)

Under that they should check a long list of things.

Do that if it comes back (touch wood) :fingersx:

Keep watch out for more symptoms like this:

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ht=CEL+Bucking

The flashing CEL is a misfire. It won't store code unless it happens repeatedly. Its wierd that it happened on a new car with new plugs. Its not damaging, but you might just check that all the plug wires are tight.

MD

Thoughts and ramblings on the 8
 

Thanks for all of the info about the possible issues with the misfire. My car has 750 miles now and the problem hasn't happened again. The smell I mentioned is almost completely gone, and the symptoms are right in line with what Gomez mentioned about cosmolene, so I'm sure that's it.

All in all I have to say I love this car. It's a wonderful car to drive. It's been 7 years since I stopped racing but this car brings back a lot of the feel. My only complaint so far is gas mileage, but I didn't really buy the car to be efficient. The last tank of gas was primarily cruising on the freeway in 6th (roughly 200 miles) and I only got 18MPG. Of course, during the other 50 miles on that tank I was getting on it a bit, so that's probably where I dropped the most MPG. :)

So far I'm happy leaving the car completely stock for the next 20,000 miles or so. I'm going to pull the spare out and sell it though. There's an Autocross in Bremerton (Washington) on May 28th, so I'll probably try the car out there. Anybody from here autocross in the northwest?

-Loving my 8

No worries....happy cruizin' :)

It happened to me the 2nd day I had my 8. It was most likely a misfire. 15K miles later, I havent seen a single CEL again. 18 MPG is pretty damn good for a new car. I started off with like 12-14mpg, but now that she is broken in, I get around 19-21mpg mixed driving with an occasional hard accel.

Agreed. I got some misfires in my first 1,000 miles or so, then I had my CAT clog up. After 1,000 miles I never saw another misfire. Once the CAT was replaced I never saw the CEL light again (except for the all-lights-flash at start-up).

Now at 9,000 miles my engine is smoother and gives better gas mileage. I can get 18mpg with 50/50 city/hwy. More hwy driving gets me to 19mpg easy.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the car! :mdrmed: