Hey guys. So I was just cruising along and I decided to red-line it. After about 8 grand RPM's I get a yellow engine warning light to the upper left of my odometer. It keeps flashing as the rev's go down and for a few more seconds after that while I continue cruising then it shuts off.

Thinking it was just a fluke I decide to red-line again after a few minutes. Same thing.

Anyone know what might be going on here?

 

probably misfire.... get the codes read from autozone for free and let us know what they are....

 

Might need new coils and/or plugs. Get the codes red. How old are you plugs/coils?

 

No idea how old, bought the car used about 2 months ago. It's MT '04 with 67k miles.

Pardon my ignorance but what does it mean to get my codes read? haha.

 

When they (ex: Autozone) plugs in their reader, it'll display a code (like P0301).
Going off of this we can have a better understanding on how to troubleshoot your issue.

There is a thread that describes the CEL codes here:
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/rx-8-technical-info-cel-codes-pcm-pin-list-collision-guide-26291/

 

Your car has an onboard computer. Its there to control pretty much EVERYTHING of the car.

and it has some kind of "self-diagnostic" logic build-in. if it sense some kind of "issue that it consider as problem in the logic, it will store a code in the memory".

Thats the code you need to know.

Judging from your model year and mileage. a rough guess is that, you have never changed your ignition coils. Probably trailing plugs too. So it might be a good time to do it. Find a friend who knows cars (at least know how to work on it), buy the plugs and coils online, not that expensive. 200 u can get all. then tell your friend to change it (if u dont have a friend like that, A local garage can probably do everything for you for like 50 bucks)

 

I've been in the (probably bad) habit of reseting my CEL light myself on all my cars. If it comes back on immediately, then I have it checked, but I have assumed that if it stays off, then it was a bad batch of air or gas that caused a misfire, and thus isn't a repeat occurance.

However Tuesday while driving to work, my CEL started flashing (1/4th of a tank of gas, straight and level road, ~70mph, 6th gear, 3k rpm), first time I have ever seen that on a car. It flashed for about 20 seconds then stopped.

Then last night on the way home, it started flashing again (7/8th of a tank, hard ~310 degree left ramp I generally take 65-70mph in 3rd gear, so around 6.5k to 7k rpm, and possible fuel shifting from near max lateral G). This time it stayed flashing for about 30 seconds, even after I straightened out, shifted into various gears to see if it was related, stayed flashing, then went solid.

I dug around on the forums some via search, and most comments were regarding bad plugs or coils, but a few were mentioning bad gas. I just passed 23,000 miles, have had all the regular maintenance, including 22.5k service last weekend.

I also have filled up the last 2 times at a new gas station that contracts with the Canadian gas company 'Irvine', rather than Shell like I normally do, so it makes me wonder if their 93 isn't clean enough or a lower actual octane.

I cleared the CEL this morning to see if it comes back, but I am now thinking I shouldn't have. If it comes back up i will head right to Autozone for a read, but anyone else have any input on it?

 

If your in the NE US then that Canadian gas station you started visiting may be Irving, not Irvine. If it is, I don't think they have a 93 octane product - highest I've ever seen is 91. Think your best bet is to get the codes read at Autozone for free or similar and then come back to post with data. Sounds like a misfire, could be water in the gas or other contaminants causing a misfire, but your leaving the door open to way too much guessing right now.

 

Hmmmm. Just red-lined today and no warning light. Weird.

 

Wow, coincidence for this to be the first post I see since i was just about to mention this.


I just got a flashing CEL earlier, doing the exact same thing.

I was taking my buddy for a quick launch in some old backroads here and after shifting to 2nd at redline i began getting that blinking CEL for a good 20 seconds.

I have an 04 with 62k on it, Im gonna do another few pulls tomorrow to see if it happens again and if it does, i'll run by autozone and have them read the codes so we can see how this turns out. Hopefully I dont need to shell out another 200 anytime soon ;/ already spent a good deal on tints, lights and few other minor things today. oh well.

oh also, not sure if this could have anything to do with it, maybe it could since i saw water mentioned earlier but it was also raining when this happened.
75*F humid south florida mosquito *** weather.

 

yeah def get ur codes read and see what they say...the reason u might not get a code now becuas eit did not misfire that time which means if it is ur coil it going bad not completely there yet though..go to autozone and get the codes u will feel tons better