I am a former RX-8 owner, now looking to get another one. Last night I test drove a car that is just about perfect, but the engine was behaving strangely. I've searched through this forum and can't find a definite answer, so I'm hoping someone can pinpoint this. Here are the facts from my test drive.

-Car started up and idled fine.
-Once warmed up, I started to push it. All observations below are when at temperature.
-3rd gear pull from about 4k rpm to redline had some hesitation/surging, until 6500 rpm. At that point, the torque surged suddenly and it pulled smoothly to redline.
-repeated the above in 2nd gear, found similar behaviour.
-In one sweeper, while holding the car at about 7.5-8k rpm, the CEL started flashing. By the end of the turn, it was solid. CEL went out once I stopped and re-started the car. CEL never came on again for the rest of the drive.
-Launched the car from a stop. From 2k to 6500, lots of hesitation and surging. Again, from 6500 on it was perfect.
-Same symptoms shown in 4th gear, but I did not get all the way to redline, and don't recall the specific RPMs where the issues showed up.
-When cruising, there is no issue. This only seems to come up at full throttle.

From what I've been able to see on this forum, the issue could be one of three things:

-Coils
-Clogged cat
-bad engine.

Right now I'm leaning towards the coils, but again, if some of the experts can weigh in, it would be greatly appreciated.

Some other pertinent info:
-Car is 2005 (Apr. 2005 build)
-Car has 90300 kms (~56500 miles)
-Car is not equipped with DSC/TC

The dealer offered to have it checked out by Mazda, and depending on what I get as replies, I might take them up on that. I'm thinking the following should be done:

-MSP16
-Verify 4206F recall is done
-Perform "engine lack of power" TSB - http://www.finishlineperformance.com...4-08-1924g.pdf
-Compression test, with results shown to me.
-Any others?

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to re-joining the RX-8 owners club!

 

Simple answer: scan the CEL and you will know for sure.

My guess would be a misfire which would mean plugs/coils.

 

Thanks TheWulf;

I'm pretty sure it did misfire, since flashing CEL usually (always?) indicates misfire.

Having said that, the CEL flashing was one time only. The other times when hesitation occured there was no CEL.

 

The ports could be sticking too.

Your best off finding another car or have the seller repair it before you buy it.