bassy

I got a steady (not flashing) CEL tonight. I checked the gas cap to see whether it was closed properly, and it was. So I started driving away and the car wouldn't accelerate like it should. There was major power loss as it probably went into limp mode. First and second gears took forever and 15-16 mph was the max. Third gear topped out at about 25-26 mph and no more than 3K rpm. I tried to rev it in neutral, but it wouldn't go past 3.5-4K rpm.

After getting home, I shut the car down and restarted it. All of a sudden I could rev it to the redline. But the CEL is still on.

I brought the car into the dealership about a week ago because I heard this noise/vibration from the rear. They said it was just my noisy snow tires and gave the car back to me. Now I got the problems I just describe above. My car's at 17,XXX miles and is gonna run out warranty this August.

I'll bring it back in tomorrow morning, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea what the hell is going on with my car...

WAR CRUNK

dude, clogged cat prolly, happend to me, open the cat up and look in. =)

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

got to a local auto parts store like Autozone and see if they can pull the code for you. (so you know whether the dealership tries to pull your leg tomorrow)
Do NOT let them clear the light

Go to dealership, have them fix

bassy

WC, I just read your thread about your "duel" MS exhaust and clogged cat, too...LOL. Not sure if it's really clogged as my gas mileage seems normal.

Jedi, I thought about stopping by an Autozone near home and asking them to read the code first. Hopefully, they'll be able to do that. I'm just so leery of all dealerships (not just Mazda).

I actually took my car out for another spin just minutes ago to see if the problem's still there. It seems to drive/accelerate normal now. It goes all the way to 9K rpm. But the damn CEL is still there.

bassy

I got in the car this morning and the CEL was still there. So, I drove to Autozone to have them read the code. Amazingly, it returned no codes. The Autozone guy was baffled, too. He asked me to turn the key on/off a few times and start the car as well, but there was still no code. He then decided to erase it...

My car seems to drive normal now...but whatever happened was just strange.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

not all AutoZones will have the proper code readers to pull them. it needs to be able to read CAN.

Too late now but if it happens again, don't clear it. Head to the dealership just to be on the safe side.
Glad to hear the car is working properly now

bassy

Thanks for the advice, Jedi.

I didn't even know that NOT all code readers were the same. So I assumed that if he didn't get any code, chances are the dealership would probably get the same thing, and why waste a trip to the dealership only to have them say that there's nothing wrong. That's why I let him erase it. Well, it was more like he was telling me, "Let me erase it" while doing it at the same time. If I had said no, it would be too late anyway.

A friend at work told me that even if the CEL was erased, it wasn't completely erased from the OBD or something? He said that it's kind of like a black box. You would have to go some extra step to erase it completely, or something to that effect. Does that sound correct for the RX-8? He said that's how it is for his Subie WRX and he thought that it would be similar for the RX-8.

Anyway, I just hope that if there's anything wrong, the problem would rear its ugly head before the warranty runs out...Having this car is kinda similar to playing Russian roulette or something. Now that I've got a CEL, I'm waiting to see when it'll get flooded..(knock on wood, of course).

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

any time Bassy.

As for not 'completely' deleting the CEL; that's not the case with the RX-8. I have a SCANalyser unit that can read codes, sensors, etc etc and after I delete a CEL, it's out of there for good. (as far I can see)
What does happen is often time there will be a stored code which is basically the car has deteremined something is out of spec and if it repeats Xamount of times over Y drive cyles the CEL will pop back up.

I wouldn't sweat it too much, could have been something as simple as a loose gas cap. IF it's something more significant (which Im' hoping it's not) then the CEL will resurface and make sure to call MNAO and get the car into a dealreship. (either towed or driven in if possible)

Good luck!

bassy

Hey Jedi,

The CEL was back on again this afternoon.

I was at a shop to get an alignment done. While at the shop (fastrackservice.com), I learned that the co-owner, Jaime, is knowledgeable about the rotary engine because he races/has an RX-7. That's why I asked him about the noise/vibration/hum I heard on my car, which I posted/asked about in another thread (thought it was a DSC/rear diff problem). So, he agreed to take my car out for a spin after the alignment job to see what's wrong. He came back and said that he couldn't hear anything, except for the tire noise, rotary whine (high pitch), and exhaust sound. I wasn't too surprised, either, because it's hard to pick out the noise unless whoever test-drives it also drives it daily like I do. I also talk to him about the CEL and what happened two nights ago (limp mode).

Anyway, as I left the shop, the CEL came back up. I turned around and came back in pronto. I came in looking for Jaime to ask him to read the code. As Jaime got in and plugged in the scanner, he was like, "You got other warning lights on, too!" I was like, "Huh?!?" So I took a peek at the gauges and saw the DSC and ABS lights on also. We both thought that it was really odd.

He plugged in a bigger scanner first, but it returned no codes again. He tried a couple of times before he decided to bring out another smaller and "cheaper" (his words) scanner. This one returned a P0121, which he said was a TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) problem.

I then made a quick dash to the dealership (128 Mazda Liberty), which was just a couple of highway exits away. It was about 1:30 p.m. and they're closed at 4:00 p.m., so I knew that they wouldn't be able to do anything today. But I just needed to show it to the service advisor before the all the warning lights went out again.

My car idles a little rougher than normal now. I can hear more misfire, thanks to the RB exhaust. (The stock exhaust would probably make it harder to hear/feel the misfire.) I don't know whether the hum/vibration/noise I feel and hear has anything to do with the TPS problem. It feels almost like I'm driving with the e-brake slightly engaged or something. The vibration can be felt starting at around 30 mph, but it's more prominent at like around 70-80 mph. It can be subtle if you're not driving the car every day. I thought it was because of road imperfections and lowered suspension, but it's not. It does it on perfectly smooth roads, too...

Man...I love this car, but I don't know if I can put up with all this stuff. My last car, a '97 GS-T, never gave me any of these problems for the 8-9 years I owned it. It was still running like a champ when I traded it in.

I'll have to bring the car back to the dealership bright and early this Monday morning...

bassy

Hahah...man, this was too funny. I dunno whether I should laugh or cry.

I was gonna bring my car back to the dealership yesterday morning, but when I started it up, all the damned warning lights (CEL, DSC, ABS) went away. So, I didn't even bother to drive it in...

Just like that. It's driving like normal yet again. I hope my car's not possessed by the devil or something...

Herblenny

I'm experiencing something similar today. I was driving and all the sudden, I lost power and the car felt like I was running out of gas... I pulled over, checked everything and did the same thing.

I then thought it might of went into limp mode so I reset the ECU and everything was fine.. .until I saw my DSC/TCS came on.. Now everything seems to be fine except for the light.. I'm going to check it and see what happens.. NO abs light though

clank

I have a 2004 Rx8....automatic....I was told that there is an IMR valve attatched to the manifold. It happens to be stuck open.........they want $1200 because to fix it I have to buy a whole new manifold ..Anyone heard of this before? I have searched and searched and can't find a single thing to learn more about this problem. ??????????

HiTMaNN

What was the CEL code that popped up?

clank

there were a few.....I have an air leak in my gas line somewhere and I have to get and o2 censor replaced ( I hit a brick in the middle of the interstate) . I can't remember all 3 codes. The third code was the one to do with the IMR valve. The mechanic I go to called the Maxda dealer and was told the IMR valve being stuck open was a common problem with RX8's that had over 90,000 miles. I would think if this was common, there maybe an after market fix. ???

Herblenny

What is IMR valve??

So, it happened again on my way back from New Orleans..

I drove over 180 miles without a single issue (I reset the TCS and no lights came on).
But after about 180 miles, I was just cruising and all the sudden car started to stumble and I lost power.. It was like I was running out of gas.. but still showed over 1/4 tank.

I went from 80MPH to about 30 mph in less than a min. Then from 30MPH to 0mph in another 30-1 min.

After that, I restarted the car, rev came back, got up to 40MPH in 4th, then started to stumble again.. Finally after 5-6 re-starting the engine as I was rolling down the hills during my 3-4 miles to a nearest gas station where I reset the ECU. AFter that I top the fuel and drove another 100+ miles until it happened again!!!

Luckily I was only a mile away from the next exit and repeated the procedure again..

This time I had 1/2 tank of gas and drove about 100-120 miles.

Since last reset, I haven't witness any issues even during my commute to work (10-15 miles).

Weird issue.. But VERY annoying? Any suggestions?

Herblenny

Oh by the way, Zero warning lights came on.. NONE!

Razz1

Bassy,

Read the sticky and clear all codes.

I bet it's your CAT going bad.

MEOW!

bassy

Well, I'm too lazy now to go through all the threads/stickies. My car is also running perfectly fine now, after all those strange things I posted about above... I don't even want to guess what the hell was going on. If it happens again, then I'll try to deal with it.

Thanks for the advice, though.

Pixie

This same exact issue happened to us today on our '07. The code came up as the TPS, after we had the car towed back to the house I started it up to pull it into the garage and then the car behaved somewhat normally but the CEL was on. I need to know if this is going to be covered under the power train warranty or if we are F'ed and if so how much F'ed?

On another crappy note my finance SVT is also down to a mystery issue that's transmission related. We are down 1 car for me and 2 cars for my finance, in other words we have no running cars at the moment.

Help please!

P.S. Anyone with any warranty info/documents that I can read tonight so I know whether to tow it to Mazda or just to our Ford dealer along with his SVT tomorrow.

Pixie

Naturally the dealer couldn't find out anything was wrong and the CEL turned itself off. So should I just spend my $120 and replace the TPS myself and be done with it?

Thoughts?

Mazurfer

Since you did get the TPS code, I think I might go ahead and get the TPS, keep it in the car, and wait to see if the CEL comes back.

Pixie

Fiance

I drove the car today and it behaved normally. I also gave it the beans redlining it a couple times, the car seemed to enjoy it. lol

Now my SVT Focus on the other hand, the damn dealer hasn't looked at it yet. *grumpy*