So, lately my car has been acting a little strange.

At first it was just rough idling, but I thought nothing of it. Its a rotary, they are known to do that. So I just kept up with regular maintanance like normal. It got to a point to where I would be driving and come to a red light and the RPMs drop down insanely low and it feels like its about to stall out. I would always free out when I saw it do that so I would just tap the throttle real quick to get the needle back up.

Today was the strangest thing. I get home from work and I go to park (I had to park on the street cause my lot was full). I put it into reverse and I start going back and suddenly my radio goes out. At first I paid it no attention because the CD I had in there was scratched and skipped a lot. I just happen to turn my attention away from trying to park to look at the radio and I notice that it's lost all power to it and the "mazda rx-8" was on just like I just had started the car. I took the car out of reverse and had it in neutral and I noticed the car was acting like it was stalling but wasn't jerking around. The car kept turning on and off. It would turn off for a slight second and then come back on quick enough that the engine would still stay on.

I waited a few seconds and then the car stayed on. I finished parking and as I'm about to pull out to straighten myself out, the car completely dies. Worse part was that there were a group of people walking by so I looked like a noob. So I crank the car back up and finish parking. The car cranked right up, no hesitation at all.

I sat in the car for 10 minutes and it doesn't do it again.

I have tomorrow off but Mazda won't be able to get to me until Thursday. I still have warranty left (2004 6sp, 44,600 miles on the car so I still have some Bumper to Bumper as well as Powertrain) so hopefully they can figure out what it is before my warranty expires.

Anybody have any suggestions or similar experiences?

 

It seems like your battery or Alternator is going esp that you have 44k Miles with the crappy that Mazda put in the car.... as for the Rough Idle when was the Last time you changed your Plugs, Coils, and wires?

Let us know what the dealer says.

 

I could have sworn that the plugs and stuff were changed during the last major checkup (either 30K or 40K).

As far as battery, I had to replace it about 2 months ago. But I'll keep you guys updated.

 

Have you been messing around with the intake at all?
You might just want to check and see if you have any air leaks and or that one of the screens didn't move out of place.

 

Try the new flash that's out. Apparently, it seems to fix some of the idling problems.

 

How do I do the new flash?

And as far as the intake, I haven't done anything. Like I said, other than regular maintanence, I haven't messed with the engine at all.

 

See the link posted in this thread on the very first post. There are a couple of new TSB's and this could solve your issue.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/newly-revised-rx-8-service-bulletins-140702/