Losing power
 

I have had my rx8 for about two months now. I bought it used with 39,000 miles and it ran fine for the first month. The other day i was driving it and i had the pedal through the floor, but the engine seemed to kick in and out a few times. I thought it was the traction control but there was no reason it should have been kicking in.
I did an oil change on it today but there seems to be no difference. And also i will be going 75 mph and drop it to 3rd gear and nothing happens besides the rpms shooting up to 8000, it feels like the car just doesnt want to speep up any. I didnt buy the warranty that was offered with the car and i have one last chance to get it. I dont know if it would be worth investing in it due to the uncertanity of my motors condition. If anyone knows what the problem could be any information would be great.

gpoprock07, welcome to the club.
Please use the search function, loss of power on RX-8's has been discussed in multiple threads.

The short answer:
your ignition coils or spark plugs are probably bad. These cars run awfully hot and those items do need to be replaced from time to time.

pull your spark plugs and take a peak at them, if they're the original ones they definitely need to be replaced at the 34k mark. Brown is okay, black is bad.

As for the ignition coils: it's about $100 or so for another set or you could look into the BHR ignition upgrade. The coils on that kit are supposed to last much longer then the OEM's. (I'm on my 3rd set of OEM coils)

oh, also it could be a clogged cat. do you hear anything different? you should hear a rattling sound or the cat will glow red hot if it's clogged.

Just for clarification....

Are you saying that if you accelerate hard in 3rd gear, the engine speeds up, but the car doesn't?

Are you auto or Manual trans?
What year is your car?
What country are you located in?
Do you know approximately (year/month) when the car was sold to the first owner?

Check plugs and coils first, if that does not help may be a slipping tranny

ha ha i know it sounds stupid but the rpms go up but my speed seems to just creep up so slow

that sounds like a cat. Time for a midpipe :)

The reason I asked for that base info is that your cat (and other emissions parts) are probably still under warranty. If you are in the US, it's 5 years.

However, your problem with the revs increasing and the car not speeding up is a slipping clutch (M/T), or a problem in your transmission (A/T). If you're A/T, then you may be under powertrain warranty.

Take the car to a dealer, even if you're not the first owner.

what does it sound like? Is it really loud?

Sounds like a cat. Go find a steep hill. drive up it in high gear. See if it slows down or has problems going up the hill.

This is comparable to what is happening to my car in the following thread:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/rpm-dropping-%3D-engine-stalling-162200/


I assume you don't have any CELs or codes coming up. Sometimes a clogged cat with throw a CEL, but if its not that bad yet, it won't.

However, start with the plugs and coils if you're not getting a CEL... if that doesn't fix it, than it could be something more serious like I'm looking at...

Could it also be fuel trim problem... running too lean at higher rpms?

well it sounds normal to me, I have a greddy catback on it. But when it idles my car shakes and vibrates. I dont know if that has anything to do with it?

My guess, in this order, would be:

-Coils
-Cat
-Compression loss

New Engine club!!!! No J/K prob a cat that would still b covered under warranty

I'm going to bump this to try to get some more info. I have the same problem, i get these deep vibrations at idle. I've got new plugs and coils in my garage that im getting ready to install, but is that the source of the shaking?

Im also having horrible power problems like the ones mentioned earlier. I'll give the car plenty of gas and it just creeps until it get to about 4~5k (which is embarassing at intersections lol). I've check to see if i had my cat was glowing. Is there any other way to tell if it's clogged?

My car is at 32k so im right around the time for replacing all of these parts anyway.

One last question, what kind of shops will do compression test? I'm going to get one done because i've got an odd feeling that with my luck, my engine isn't going to hold.