I was trying to take the various plastic covers off today to see how the come apart and was suprised that the battery is the older type the requires periodic checking of the battery cells. Wonder why.


On another note how the heck do you get the air filter cover off?

 

You don't actually. You disconnect the acordian tube connection, then the entire assembly has to be pushed back and up, then it can be lifted out. Once it's out, you can open it and get at the filter element.

 

the owner's manual blows for describing these things...thanks

 

Your best bet is to toss the old weak battery and even though they are a bit expensive buy an optima red or yellow top. the new red top has 1150 cold cranking amps. which means at freezing it produces every one of those 1150 amps. when i bought mine my friend put the tester on it and it came out to 1438 amps at about 50 degrees f. this was after months of sitting on a store shelf. go check out the Optima web site. In addition to out cranking everything out there they also last 2-3 times longer and will take loads of punishment. my girlfriend toatled my durango completly crushing the front end and the only things that survived were my intake and my optima. The battery I promptly put into my replacement car. and it is still running even after being completely deadend several times due mostly to stupidity and also a bad alternator. I know i am ravine but they are no joke.

 

Spin, can you tell me the # of the Optima that would fit the RX8?
Their website is no help at all.

Thanks.

(I am not RX8GUY73, I just 'became' him when I posted. I kind of like it, now I live in Seattle and work as a construction electrician!))

 

What did you do with the I am assuming brand new Mazda battery?

 

I have the red optima in my car and are very pleased, only thing
to think about is not to re-charge another type of battery with it because you can cause problems.

 

75/35 fits the 8 with a slight mod to the + pos battery cable

 

Which model has 1150 CCA? I couldn't find one.
During a Canadian prarie winter you will be lucky to have half the rated CCA's available when it is very cold, unless you use a battery warmer blanket, or trickle charger to keep the battery warm.
Can anyone explain the sizing of batteries to me? It seems that a few different sizes will fit the 8.

 

I don't think any battery that really produces 1150 CCA will fit an RX-8 ........ not in the normal battery compartment anyway.