Does anybody else think the heater in the 8 sucks ***, or is there something wrong with my car?

I have to drive for about 10-15 minutes AFTER the car reaches normal operating temp with the blower on 3 before it even gets warm inside the car. This is when it is about 20-30 degrees outside.

It seems to take forever for the car to come up to operating temp too. I literally have to drive at highway speeds for 5-6 miles or more before the temp gauge even gets into the normal range. Then even when the temp gauge has been into the normal range for 10-15 minutes, it still seems like the air coming out of the vents is not hot. Most other cars I have owned are blowing HOT air after about 5 minutes of driving and usually cooking you after about 15 minutes.

Is my thermostat toast or something?

Just wondering if others have experienced this.

 

It's been in the upper 20's here in middle Georgia lately, and I have no complaints as to how my heat works. If anything the seat warmers could heat up faster...

 

I just did a search and found this thread

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ight=thermostat

Looks like somebody else had some complaints about this and it might be an oil cooler issue? Oil is staying too cold to allow the engine to get up to operating temp?

 

Now that's an interesting theory.

I found that blocking the ducts for the back seat passengers helped quite a bit.

 

Check this thread - Sloooow warmup in cold weather .

forum member akrx8 in Alaska was experiencing the same thing - he said his dealer was told to see if the PCM (ECU) had a code related to delayed warmup. His did, and they reflashed the PCM and his situation was greatly improved.

When the engine does finally warm up - the heater is very powerful (hot). For some of us, or maybe for all of us in cold weather, it just takes too long to warm up.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Glad I don't live up there in the Great White North. It was 40 F here this AM (what's that 4 C or so?) and it sure wuz cold to me. Once the heater gets going, it's pretty good though. That seat heater cycling on and off is annoying, but I like it when it's "on." :D

 

I found a good solution is to live in California. :D

 

You gotta be kidding. I've BEEN to San Francisco, and had to wear a jacket in June! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Cool place tho.

 

I was just at the dealer yesterday and he told me that Mazda is gettnig a lot of complaints about the seats. I was told they are only set to heat up to body temperature since people complained about some of the other models seats getting to hot to use.

He also said he wouldn't be surprised if they issued a TSB in the next month or so if Mazda could determine a way to make them hotter.

 

I hate it when my *** sweats... I like the way the back gets warmer than the seat.


As far as cabin heat goes, mine gets plenty hot - I usually have to mix in some cold and set the fan speed to lowest setting.

 

The oil coolers are thermostatically controlled, or so I saw on one of those technical courses about the renesis floating around the forum

 

I would have the dealer check it out- I had -7F and -5F readings Monday and Tuesday mornings on the ambient temp display this past week, and had heat within a mile of driving my daughter to school... too much heat after a short while. I do however wish my seat heaters kicked in quicker, warmed up a bit more, and were more consistent. Hopefully Mazda will be able to modify the controller for these...

-Sean

 

If I had to make a complaint about this sweet handling car it would be about the climate control system. In the summer the vent blows hot air even when the ambient temperature is moderate forcing you to put on the air-conditioing or have the windows down. Now that winter has arrived in Toronto, I have found that the heater blows cool then hot requiring frequent adjustment. Also, your feet get cold when the temperature really drops even with the heat cranked.

Mazda should have put in some automatic climate control mechanism and should consider a retrofit for existing owners.

 

I also think my RX-8 does't put our quite enough heat - either from the blower or the seat heaters. The car does get up to normal operating temprature fairly quickly though. Of course, the climate in Virginia is not too harsh.

My first roatary was an RX-2 purchased in Okinawa and shipped back to the states. I am from Minnesota and returned there for awhile with my Mazda. During that time it got down to about
-25F. I took the car out on the highway driving for hours, and the temperature guage remained pegged on cold - like when first started. There was no appreciable heat. Apparently there was no thermostat at all on the oil cooler. The oil definitely was in no danger of becoming too hot. My next rotary, an RX-4 coupe put out very nice heat. Obviously it had an oil thermostat. I do not know whether the RX-2 problem was due to me buying it in Japan, or if they all were that way.

So, anyway, I think the lack of heat may be related to a thermostat set too low to deal with the double oil coolers we have.

 

my car must have some super freak heater then because it was 5 degrees F out the other morning and I had to turn the temp dial down to the 1/2 way mark because I was roasting... and it was still throwing out heat at the 1/2 way mark.

 

Mine takes a while to heat up, too, but I discovered that it's a lot better if you set the air flow to recirculate (left side of button below mode button). Same applies in summer. When set to suck air in from outside, it takes a lot longer to cool off. This effect increases as outside temperature gets more extreme.

Anyway, I only use non-recirculate in moderate weather when fresh air is more or less comfortable already.

 

Only problem is that using the defroster switches it out of re-circulate mode for some reason

 

i live in los angeles, so i haven't really experienced "cold" ...about the worst i've had so far is about 36F...and i still can't have the heat turned any more than half with the fan on 1. once it gets turned into the red it just gets ridiculously warm in the cabin.

 

last week was one of the coldest nights we had so far,45 deg. I find that if you turn the blower on full blast for a few minutes and then turn it to the lowest setting while at full heat, it seems to work quicker that way, but I only used it twice. Hope it helps!

 

Your posts regarding the heater are an interesting subject to me as I am probably one of the few as north as you can get rx8 owners. The car gets up to temp fairly quickly as I start it in a warm garage and pull it out as soon as it starts to register water temp. Temp then climbs quickly to operating temp outside. Have run car at temps as low as -31F for extended periods of time exceeding 200 miles at that temp with no more than a long sleave shirt on with the duct fan set at 2 maybe 3 for afew minutes and then back to 2. This by the way with all windows free and clear. This also with no oilcoolers closed off or radiator covered. At present have taped off 1/3 of both oilcoolers so that they don't receive all that cold air. As for engine water temp stays high unless a long downgrade is taken and then only then will I notice a drop in temp which climbs right back up again. As the thought that engine never comes to temp at those -20f temps am getting 18 miles to the gallon highway at last time fuel 16 in city so the car is not running cold. Dont know what to tell you about cold heat because car here is running warm and the rotary produces more heat than a piston vehicle. If I have a choice I would prefer to run this car than my "cold 2004 Duramax diesel"

 

remember the good old days when evryone was crying out about the excessive heat in the cabin? "it's too hot!!" "it's too cold!!" MAKE UP YOUR MINDS PEOPLE! for the record, mine is just right

although i could do with a little more heat on my left foot sometimes.

 

First, I might say that my RX-8 heats up very well. Today the temps were in the 20s F and on a short road trip south of here and back (100 miles one way), I never turned it up all the way for the heat and never turned the blower past 3, mostly keeping it at 2 or 1. Only went to 3 when my wife had to have the window open to smoke (She had to beg me to let her smoke in my RX-8, I was weak and gave in...LOL). I was wearing a leather jacket and she a light coat which she shed when it got warm. Most of the time I kept the temp mix at mid point between the cool and hot. I also had outside air intake on.

Second thing that comes to mind from reading these posts. The reason you cannot use recirculate with defrost is that if you need to defrost to begin with due to foggy windows or whatever, you would not be dehumidifying the recirculating air which is causing the fog in the first place.

Also, when it is cold out and you see your breath, what do you think you are seeing? You are seeing the moisture which we all exhale out of our bodies. So, you are actually adding humidity to the air you would be recirculating if you could.

Lastly, though vehicles are not air tight, you also breathe out carbon monoxide. I'm not sure it's a good idea to ever recirculate except to do so on a hot day to cool off the cabin then go back to outside intake though I regularly do when it's unGodly hot out there.

 

Maybe you do. I think the rest of us breath out carbon dioxide. Not a problem no matter what your recirc setting is.

 

Maybe you do. I think the rest of us breath out carbon dioxide. Not a problem no matter what your recirc setting is.

 

OK, so I am a combustion engine, , thanks for the correction on the dioxide from monoxide, bernieunger. I got a smile out of that one.