stalling
 

i have read a ton and haven't read one thread where the symptoms are the same so excuse me if it's been stated here before.

my car runs flawlessly. once warmed up it rev's fast and smooth i can bring it up to redline and down smooth but occasionally and after various driving situations if i pull up to a light or toll booth or stop sign, my idle will drop really low and bounce alittle and sputter, if it's left alone sometimes it corrects itself and is flawless again. other times it will straight up stall. if i restart it it is smooth as silk . I'm clueless. any help guys?

I'd reset your fuel trims for starters. Free and easy to do, and could be the issue. Lack of symptoms anywhere else means ignition is likely not at fault. Still possible, just not as likely.

If not that, then it's possible your MAF sensor is faintly dirty, and it has trouble reading the volume at really low volumes, causing it to not add enough fuel, or too much.

+1 I have been experiencing this lately as well. How do you reset the fuel trims? Hit the brake 20 times? In order to get it started again I would have to do the deflood procedure, then change out my plugs because they were fouled up. This has happened twice, very odd. I think I need to let her warm up a little longer before I bring her to 5,000 Rpm and above since it is getting colder now.

AJ, yours sounds a bit more like ignition than EMS, but you also could benefit from a fuel trim reset and/or MAF cleaning.

Pull the room fuse (I believe), for 20-30 seconds and it will clear the fuel trims. You could also disconnect the battery for the same time, though that resets everything else as well, and you might not want that.

The brake pedal pumping and related tricks have never triggered any of the expected responses for me, so I don't use them.

It could be as simple as your battery or alternator is gone. I stalled a few times because my battery was not pumping out enough volts. I tested and replaced the battery and everything went back to normal. Stop by autozone and have them check it.

I changed out my plugs and I will pull the room fuse tomorrow. I checked the MAF and it was immaculate. Thanks!

Idle Reset?
 

I recently replaced coils and plugs and the car is running great, except for the fact that occasionally when I start it and pull out, it will not idle. the RPM's just drop to 0, I can restart it and it runs great until the next stop sign then, 0 again. Now here's the part that I can't figure out. I can turn the ignition completely to the off position and restart the car and it runs great, idles at around 800. It's almost like something is resetting when the ignition is turned off and back on. It doesn't do this on restarts, only when the key is turned to the lock/off position and restarted. Ideas Gentlemen?

templar99- Do you have a manual or auto?
If its a manual, will the RPM drop to 0 when the clutch pedal is down (even if the car is still in motion)?

my coils are new and are LS2's with race roots wires and new plugs. it happens more often when the clutch is in and either moving or stopped but still happens when clutch is out. i will have my battery tested. i have pulled the battery a few times for random stuff and it happens regardless i have also cleaned the MAF a few times as i live nect to a concrete factory and have more dust than the Pharaoh's in Egypt plus i have a shitty HOT air intake. i can't figure this out and it's killing me. the battery is likely the culprit as when i had the car painted i know they let it die with the key in the on position all day because i stopped by and they couldn't pull it in to the booth cuz it was dead. actually all of my symptoms lately have started after that. oh and the room fuse was blowing left and right due to the fact that the door curtisy light socket was crushed at the shop and was arking so it has been ripped out for the time being as i need a new one.

Jon,
It's a manual and it dies as soon as I push the clutch in, stopped or not.

Could be a long shot, but your story sounded similar to an issue I dealt with last December.
Read my posts in this thread and let me know if this sounds like your issue:
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/rpm-dropping-%3D-engine-stalling-162200/

Adventures in Idling
 

Jon,
I read your post and the problem is similar except that whenever I get the no idle problem, turning the ignition completely off corrects it, of course it returns a day or two later. Here's a new piece of this puzzle. Coming home from work yesterday I got a CEL. Not flashing, but solid all the way home. It came on in first gear at around 4500 RPM. The car is still running great but the CEL is on. When I got home I disconnected the negative battery cable to do a reset. I haven't reconnected it yet so I don't know if that fixed the problem. I've got a couple of ideas about what may be going on though. One thing I notice is that when I installed the coils and plugs last week, the guy helping me disconnected the positive cable from the battery instead of the negative. Not sure if that could have cause a brain fart in the PCM or not. Also, since we had the air filter and hoses disconnected I'm wondering if something isn't going on in that area with the MAF or vacuum lines so I'm going to try cleaning the MAF and checking the connections. As a long shot I'll check the gas cap too since I filled up yesterday. Maybe I didn't get it on tight enough? I also had a low tire light on the way to work due to the 19 degree temps and I put air in the tires. I wouldn't think that would cause any computer glitch but this is an RX8....

I read something about a reset with pressing the odometer and pumping the brakes. Not sure what that resets but should I try that too?

This would be an interesting problem to figure out if it wasn't my car!

pull your room fuse, and put it back. it resets it.

but it sound like its TB or engine going bad ...

So I have replaced my fuel pump now...

Update on the idle situation.... As I mentioned earlier, I changed coils & plugs then the car developed the idle problem. Since it could be remedied by turning the ignition off and restarting, I suspected something in the PCM had not reset properly from being disconnected during the coil install. SO, I disconnected the neg cable again, left it overnight and reconnected. PROBLEM SOLVED! Hope this comes in handy for somebody having a similar problem and as always, THANKS to all for your help.

Hmm.. Good post I too will try disconnecting the battery since my problem also started during my coil replacement and see if this works. Glad to see it worked out for you templar. Sorry for hijacking I was just hoping to see if it was a similar problem and could help each other out. Thanks for the advice RIWWP!

By the way,the CAT is also going to need to be replaced, probably a side effect of my coils/plugs going bad. My car runs great now but the CEL came on after about a week and I notice the car sounded more muffled than usual. Took it to the dealership and their analyzer shows a bad CAT. The good news is it's a 80,000 mile warranty item and I'm at 77,500.

I'm having the same exact problem. I just replaced my coils, wires, plugs, AND Battery at the same time. It's running perfectly except when my rpm's are winding down while coming to a stop. It's will either drop to about 500 rpm and sputter or it will just stall outright. I'll probably try to drive it for a few days to allow the fuel trims to settle, but if that doesn't iron it out, I'll reset by disconnecting the battery again. I guess I'll check out the MAF again even though I didn't really do anything to it.

Anyone else have any suggestions? I'm not really looking forward to taking apart my car again to diagnose.

Sorry but you lost me with the room fuse?? please explain

pull the room fuse and it resets the fuel trims.

2 years and 5 months lost? :lol:

The fuse is in the kick panel, drivers footwell.