Update: I checked the wiring under the steering wheel and immediately noticed the floorboards on both the driver and passenger side were pretty soaked. The rear floor was dry though. When I parked in the rain it was parked on a decline (nose down). Also checked the fuse box in the engine bay and the wiring box next to the battery. Both of these looked bone dry and checked a few fuses and they looked good.

The wiring under the steering wheel looked dry from just a very very basic inspection, didn't see anything that looked wet. I'll need to read the manuals some more to better understand the wiring. Right now everything under there just looks like a cob of confusing webs I want to unplug some of those connectors and inspect them.

I also need to determine how the floorboards got wet. Looked through some other posts of people with water in the interior. Sounds like a leak, clogged drain hole....any number of possible culprits.

 

Does your 8 have a sunroof? There’s threads here regarding blocked drain holes that result in water tracking down the A pillars. Mine doesn’t have a sunroof but, had water coming in through the door drain holes. Door drains probably not related to your electrical issues so try checking out sunroof drain hole threads.

 

Hey Meat Head, yea it does have a sunroof. Thanks, I'll look at those threads closer. I also have one of the service manuals that might show more details about them. I didn't realize there were RX-8's that came without sunroofs!

 

Thank you to all for these posts I'm digging this post up here in 2024 Im lucky I found this forum after digging for so long I have narrowed my problem down to a few things its either a short in the wiring loom on the drivers side or Fuses / Relays / Aftermarket Coils and what not so its good that there is a overall way to run down a diag... For me I have found the immobilizer is detecting a short and bricking the whole car everyone has had there share of what there issue was so I wanted to share mine since its quick., It started 3 days ago I had gotten my Rx-8 tinted no problems and what not I even sat there and watched him do the whole thing so thinking nothing of it he had finished and I was on my way home when I noticed my door ajar light was on I didn't think nothing of it so... The next morning I had gotten up to warm her up for work and everything was fine up until I actually got to work. during lunch I decided to go out and get something to eat and when I got in my car the imob light was flashing rapidly and I had thought I had bricked my car some how bc I knew something was off bc when I had gotten a switchblade key cut for this thing the locksmith said his programmer did not support the rx8 and on top of that he wanted 400 dollars which is insane so I tried to do the programming trick but it was only for the buttons, otherwise I knew that I couldn't use my car so I go a day without her and come to find out when the guy was tinting my car had messed up a few times so he had to re clean and cut the tint spraying water everywhere even tho he had the precautions and what not to prevent that and had made its way to the loom of wires that go to the steering wheel or the key coil I'm guessing it gotten in the connector but there is may ways and fixes for this problem and I wanted to share my experience bc these forums are so helpful I can't sell this car now bc nobody would have the time to acknowledge all this diag and info so its a wiring gremlin and of course I can't take my beloved rx8 to the dealer because there's not one up here in Alaska and how in the living hell am I going to move a 3k+ paperweight off a island and into the lower 48,, that wasn't feasible so I dug in and now with all this info I found thanks to you all i can go about this and post updates if the rabbit hole goes deeper because this is all lost knowledge and I hope I can help the next person that has these issues don't loose hope yet I have found out these cars are quite easy to understand once you figure out how everything works and what are common problems and issues good luck to you all...