when i turned off my car, there was a sound going off near the front of the car. it sounded like a fan. when i turned on the car and turned it back off the sound stopped. has this happened to anyone? or know why this happened?

 

It was your fan. It'll happen from time to time, if the car is really hot when you shut it off. Driving for an extended period in hot weather is usually enough to trigger it. I live in south florida, and I have a 30 minute highway commute followed by some stop-go city driving. If It's really hot and muggy out the fans will come on after I shut the car off. The reason the fans shut off when you turned your car on was that when coolant began circulating through the system, it immediately dumped the heat it had been soaking up after shut down. The reason they came on in the first place? The coolant stopped circulating. When it stops it can't do anything with the heat, so you get heat soak. The temp sensor reads this and turns the fans on to cope with it. It's a pretty common mod to do this to an rx7, since they run so hot.

 

I had this happen only once...

 

Yup, radiator fan...

BTW, I see quite a lot of questions here that don't apply specifically to the RX-8 or rotaries in general. Many people on their first car? First car they've driven hard? Or just the first car they've cared about enough to notice? Maybe yet another poll is in order

 

I've noticed the same thing- I think people are just paranoid about the car in general, since it's a new model and a rotary engine, which a lot of people think is unreliable.

 

If you read the manual carefully and also the quick-start guide, you'll find out about those strange little noises the happen when you turn the car off. One is the radiator fan if the engine is very hot when you turn it off. The other is a self check which involves some sort of valve opening and closing near the rear of the car. I think it makes a clicking sound or something but I haven't been concerned enough to notice.

I've heard all sorts of interesting noises from this car. But I'm not going to worry about it unless it starts making an obviously wrong noise. I think it's important to remember that where you sit in relation to where the engine and transmission are is much closer than other cars, so you will here many more mechanical sounds you wouldn't otherwise hear in other cars.