Motor dying? Please help
 

First of all I have 2004 4 speed AT RX-8 with 104,214 miles.

Here's the story: I was warming up my car for 15 minutes, after that I left my house ( I use manual mode ) and got on the highway. I was going about 60mph on 3rd gear when all of a sudden I couldn't accelerate anymore and my car starts to die. I pull over and check my gas cap to see if it's closed properly. Then I tried to start the car and it was hesitating, so I open the hood to check the battery. The positive terminal had like a hole on the side because I had a screw on there to hold the positive clamp, so a friend of mine went to the store and bought a new battery. I plugged in the battery and went to go start the car. The car was trying to start but it didn't. After a few tries, it started but it did not sound right, my friend said it sounds like it's misfiring and the motor was shaking bad. I revved it a few times and it sounded horrible. I also noticed that when I was revving it, it would not go pass 5k after a few revs. The whole car shook.

I don't know what to do now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Check the ignition system. Make sure spark plug wires are firmly attached to the spark plugs and that one of them didn't slip off (I've had that happen.) Most likely it is the coil pack and you may need to get new coils. Might as well replace the plugs and wires too.

Explain more about the hole on the poss terminal pleas was it burnt,melted what?

I changed all three and it still doesn't start. Every time I try to start it, it "pops". A friend told me that it was shooting flames when it did that.

It was melted.

That kind of sounds like the fuel pump.

Also 15 min warm up is overkill man. I turn my car on, wait for the revs to trickle to 1,300, and off I go. I think all that extra idling is wasting your fuel and redundantly wearing your engine down.

Are there any CELs? How did your engine feel before the incident? Any problems starting the car before the incident (warm v. cold)? Have you checked the CAT? Letting the car warm up while idling has more than likely fried your CAT. A clogged CAT could cause starting issues as well.

The only CEL I had was because I did an air pump delete, also I have a CAT delete.
I had no problems when starting the car before this incident.

I want to say it sounds like the fuel pump is starting to go, but it also sounds like you have some other problems. Did you regularly let the fuel go below 1/4 tank? but also the fuel pumps are known to go bad in the 80k-100k range. Not to hard to change but make sure you get a quality replacement if you do. Did you notice the color or any badly worn tips of the plugs when you changed them? I would also get a compression test done. You can also do a diy compression check with a regular gauge just search here for the diy.

Not if you want any usable information

A proper compression test on a rotary gives you compression #'s at a specific RPM on each face of each rotor

You can use a quick and dirty test with a regular gauge to tell you if the motor is completely fucked....but that is about it :)

well at the rate that it happened I'm pretty sure that's what he needs at the moment is to make sure his ENGINE isn't completely toasted before he starts to dump money in it....

Ahem...... Did every one miss the fact his batt was melted on the poss terminal? Sounds like he has suffered a massive power overload to the batt that could have fried a lot more than just the batt. Look for a hot wire grounding out some where something fried the batt and that could be the root of all you problems.

1/4 tank is a myth. As long as you have the pump sucking in fuel, it's well lubricated unless the final 1/4 of your tank is filled with contaminants, then that could cause problems.

I wouldn't call it a myth. If everything is working right then it wont be a problem but if theres a problem with your Venturi it could be. And there is a record of them failing. Normally with an upgraded pump but it is still a possiability.