Power loss when outside temp gets to about 70
 

My 2004, 43,000 miles has a a major power loss when the outside temp reaches about 70. I have had it in the shop many times for this. They have replaced the coils, plugs, and have done the updates, but to no avail it is never fixed. When this happens the engine knocks and pings, (it always has that chirpping/marble sound)I have to rev it up lot more than normal just to let the clutch out, that of which the clutch begins to burn. It also begins to break up around 4000-5000 RPM'S. It feels to me that it is overheating or the cat is clogged but the temp guage reads normal. They have checked the cat but say it is ok.I'm beginning to wonder if I'm in store for a new motor. Has anybody else had this problem and how was it rectified? This has been happening for a long time. I am at my wits end with this car and warmer weather is here. PLEASE HELP!

My 2005 RX-8 had a power loss when it was over 70 as well. My 2004 does not. I never was able to figure it out.

OMFG !!!!

SEARCH SEARCH AND SEARCH !

My 05, 28K miles running 9K rpm without any problems. I do it all the time :worship:

Synthetic Oil Rules ! :P

Wow yet another sh*tty answer by nycgps :Drooling_ , I having the same problem and Ive asked around and SEARCHED for about 2 hours a day never finding an answer!!

You guys are on your own becuase it seems like your only going to get responses like : "search" "coils bad" "bad cat"

Good luck guys hopefully we can get this powerloss thing fixed but I doubt you get help form this site?

I had a similar problem and it was infact the cat. Just ask your dealer for a pressure test on your cat. The emissions equipment is warrantied for 10 years or 100k as mandated by law. So it will be a freebie even if your bumper to bumper is up. Also, the ignition issues (bad coils in my case) resulting in bad burn and etc pumping crud into your exhaust seems to be the #1 cause of cat failure.

my 07 had a massive engine failure on the highways.............

Yeah ok.

What kind of *solution* that you want people to give you ? Do you know how many possibilities are there ?

You didnt even try to find the solution on your own. Automobiles aint a scary thing to work on.

- Car has a problem that the dumb dealerships cant fix, what they did was just follow the shop manual (hint)
- Go to an internet forum, post something and hopefully get a respond.

What kind of *effort* did you put into this matter ? other than driving your car to dealership and made a post about the problem ?

Im not sure about the others but Im not here to babysit you. (and your car)

Can I borrow your pic for a second supergoat ?

Possibly a atmospheric sensor such as the barometric sensor or temp sensor.

I would buy the scanalyser and compare the engine's readings on temp, etc, to the actual weather values of the day.

Maybe a clogged fuel injector.


Think about the engine for a second. It takes gas from the tank, pressurizes and filters it with the fuel pump. Sends it to the fuel injectors into the engine. The engine sucks in air from the outside to mix with this fuel. In order to burn effectively it needs to know how much air is coming in, (the temp, pressure, volume sensors) and it needs a spark (plugs, coils, wires, intact and uncorroded.) everything else is bells and whistles.

The very first thing I would do is check to see if they hooked up the igniton system correctly.

the wires from the ecu should go the coils that fire the following:

white=front trailing
blue/orange=rear trailing
green=leading front
yellow/green=leading rear.

Check to make sure that the snap connectors from the ECU are connected to the correct coils that go to the correct spark plugs. Who knows, maybe a dipshit mechanic accidently switched a wire during an oil change and you are completely firing your sparkplugs out of sequence and everyone's too lazy to check.

If thats too much for you then take it to another dealership and tell them to check the igniton routing, make up some excuse like (got my oil changed at a small place and I think they fooled around with some wires and connectors, can you check this stuff for me)

But, there is no way to know it is correct unless you do it yourself.

search for pics of coils if you need help locating some of this stuff, my thread with the title "magnecor wires" has pics.

good luck

PS. the gauges on the dash read nothing.

they are literally idiot lights, the temp gauge starts to move at about 140 degrees, reaches center at 175. operating temp is around 187 degrees. Ive seen the temp go to 230 degrees and the temp sensor stay happily in dead center.

the oil pressure gauge is worthless too also, when driving around my aftermarket gauge is flopping around so much between 20 and 70 psi that there is no way the dash gauge is accurate.

NYC - c'mon man- that isn't fair.
It's one thing if someone shows up and just says "OMG, help". But the car has had its plugs, coils, CAT test. Not everyone has the knowledge just to go out and "work on them".

This IS the place people should come if mechanics can't figure it out.

If you're not here to babysit, then you shouldn't be here to scold people for not meeting your concept of a proper post. I probably should not be scolding you (in general, forum members should not moderate other members) but I think RADDMAN99 deserves to see another post supporting him.

He had a perfectly good post. His first here, and actually very good. He's been through the mill with the dealer not fixing his car, and he came here asking if any fellow owners had similar symptoms. He deserves a lot better than "search, noob" and "dealers are stupid."

Ken

see PM

Thank you dbright007 and ken-x8!

the cars seem to have this problem after 40k+ miles, at first everyone told me it was my cat, I have a catless midpipe with an 02 sensor overide (no cell :D: ) so its not that! But, if it were coils wouldnt it happen all the time and not just when its warmer outside?

PS nyc: I do all my own work but I always shop around for second and third opinions, my cars out of warranty so im left rolling up my sleeves and gettin down to the nitty-gritty to make an "effort" to see whats wrong with my car, I pulled my coils and they didnt seem to be bad but i have some on order and Im hoping it fixes my problem! Im not here to post fight you im here because I love the RX8 and I would love to know more about them, the others are right your not a moderator, i just keep seeing you giving people negative posts, these renesis motors are completely different from piston motors that most people are familiar with so naturally people are goin to have questions! Now im sorry your perfect but the rest of us arent so if someone needs some help give them help not some crabby short answer to get your post count up. It sounds like you know the 8 pretty well, who cares if theres 100 post on the same thing just help someone else when they need or dont waste your time posting. We all love our cars and we need to be here for eachother when we need some help!

i would not be so sure your car is out of warranty.. what is the last recall you have done, and what is the ecu flash..

the rules changed..

as to crabby and increase the post count, this same ? has been covered several times in the last several days.

and before you jump at me. i do know a lot about this topic..

beers :beer:

No swoope i know you know ur stuff as well as nycgps, believe me guys ive red tons of threads, searched for hours on end!

Before I broke 50k miles i brought it in and they told me they did all the latest recalls (when i did this i didnt know as much as i do now!?!?) they said they did the spark plug recall and i think something else it was quite a few months ago so im not sure?sorry my bad?

that tells me nothing. what is the last recall done.. it is on the paper the dealer gave you when you picked it up...

a recall is a recall.. if you cant answer the ? stop yelling at people for you problems.. you also need to know what flash you are on..

and if you dont know the warranty has been extended, well you dont have a clue... it was in the mail, as was the recall notice with a # on it..

we are here to help, but not you bitch..

if you need some links to the info and cant find them you can pm me and i will help... i do that..

beers :beer:

I have this exact same problem. I replaced the coils and plugs when it first started happening but the change did nothing. I am glad to hear that cars without a cat is having the same issue so it makes it easier to believe when the dealer tells me that my cat is ok. I did check my coils last week and they were showing burned spots again (and these were the "new and improved coils"). So if you do find an answer then please post it because I am tired of my car driving like shit. Some days it drives like it has all the power in the world and then some days it has about the same amount of power as my old 4 banger pick up truck.

As a side note, I recently ran a grounding wire from the coil grounding location to the - battery post and car seems to accelerate better. Might be worth a try.

Off topic question, but I've seen this mentioned in other threads as well and am curious about it: what is the big deal with post count? Does it matter how many posts someone has? I've been reading this board for a while but don't post often. Just wondering if there's a reason to increase post numbers or if it's just for the ability to say "I have 10,000 posts!" Thanks.

i dont think a thing about it.. it is just a #.

beers :beer:

sorry Ive never recieved anything as far as papers from the dealer nor the mail?

1: im not even sure what the flash is? sorry?
2: Im just trying to get some answers, im not bitching.

Damn ive seen so many stupid questions on these boards that still get answered with legitament answers, Ive had a horrable experience with this board, im on lots of other boards but it seems like the poeple on here arent satisfied with their 8s and give only crabby answers?

ohwell sorry for my posts :dunno:

you need to find out if the last recall was done..

the dealer can answer that ?

with out that info no one can help you..

beers :beer:

I'm sorry that there wasn't anything on here that helped. I would go to the dealer armed with any of the tsb items listed here and demand that they all be addressed. Also, make sure they check the cat, although re-reading your post I'm not so sure thats the problem as it would manifest regardless of ambient temp once the cat got hot. Try multiple dealers as some are far more helpful than others. I switched dealers and that grately improved my situation with warranty work. Maybe see if you can get a tech to take a ride with you. I'm sorry people jumped on you and gave you a hard time. This forum has been a great resource for me as a new 8 owner even with the sometimes prickly responses. It helps if you head up a post like this with an acknowledgement of having searched, not found something that specifically addresses your concern, and an explination of how your issue differentiates itself from those already addressed.

Good luck and let us know if it gets fixed and what the problem ultimately was.

Ahh. Thanks. :)