I've had my 05 RX8 since Feb. of 09. Since then I have had the motor replaced due to the back rotor not firing. Now I am having frequent issues with battery life.

I had deployed to Afghanistan in early '10 and came home for my 6mo R&R. Car was completely dead. I went to Pep Boys and purchased their highest performance battery. Not long after coming home in '11, the car was having problems starting and eventually would not start without a jump (I have a battery charger, and this worked for a while, but over time only a jump would do the trick). Tests on the battery revealed a bad cell. Pep Boys would not replace the battery without a receipt (as if they could not look up the stock number and see the battery was purchased there) even though it was supposed to be covered by a 36 mo warrenty. So, I bought a new battery, this time through AutoZone because they have a better record with customer service. Well, that was about 4-5 months ago and the battery is dead again.

I've had the service center at a Mazda dealership run a parasitic draw test on the car to diagnose the problem and all they can find is that the battery is dead. I find it difficult to believe that I've purchased two straight faulty batteries. I took my car to another Mazda dealership in another city for my 60,000 mile service, and one of the mechanics mentioned to me that there are known issues with RX8s with the Bose stereo when I had asked them to run a test on the alternator.

Has anyone had similar issue or any ideas to what is going on? I absolutely love my RX8, but it isn't proving to be the most reliable car even though I try to baby her.

 

What kind of reading did they get when they ran the parasitic draw test ?

 

Do you leave it for months at a time between starts?

...or are we talking 'fine yesterday, won't start today?'