Hey, thanks for taking a look.
First off I'd like to say hello as this is my first thread. I have recently purchased a 2004 AT rx8. The car has 138,000 on the clock, but last fall it had a swapped engine put in it (documented with vin of the donar car). For some reason the PO kept telling me that he had an 05 MT "6 port" dropped in and matted to the AT... yeah... well, I guess I could car fax the donar cars vin and find out haha. Anyways, when Im driving around it is a very cold ride. I had the "sodder radio control repaired," and the AC temp gauge moves from 0-16 evenly. Also, the car is full on fluids, and the thermo stat holds the car right in the middle of the gauge. When I drive around in "M" mode, and hold the RMPS higher the heat warms up . The heat seriously goes from **** cold to nice hot and warm!.. Is this common? do I seriosuly need to roll around in M mode all day to get some heat in this ice box? PS, I live in MI and its been in the low teens all week.

Alright, so my new habit of rolling around in M mode has tripped the CEL, as when ever I shift (normally around 4 or 6k) the light goes from being on, to on and flashing. I'll have to pull the codes somethime this week. Is there a trick to driving around in M mode? I have only owned 5spds all my life, and if it was not for an amazing deal on this car it too would have been a 6spd. Somethimes I really feel like the car in drive has no idea when the right time to shift is, as it will shift up into 4th gear OD @ like 35 mph also, the tranny seemes-- sensitive. is driving around in M mode bad for it?

Has new 5-20 oil,
tranny fluid,
Raid flush

I just really want heat with out having to hurt my tranny.
thanks, Will

 

something's wrong. That's definitely not a normal thing to have to change modes to get any heat.

 

Yeah it sounds like there is something wrong with the heater but I'm no expert. If you had the dial fixed and it does correctly move from 0-16 (and stay at the number you set) I would think it's the heater. Mine was sporadic as well, had the dial problem and once we fixed the dial no more heat problems. I don't know why you only get heat in high RPM's
Edit: Mine's an 05 AT with almost 100K and I have never seen or heard of any 6 port motors being swapped to work with the 4sp tranny.

 

Update: So, the passenger side heat works full time (more than luke warm) and the driverside heat is cold hahaha. Ok throw me a bone here, is there a manual way to "switch" the venting mechanism to only suck air through the heater core? I know this is phrased funny, but I had this problem in a YJ wrangler years ago. What I am asking is, how do i manually disengage the "venting" option from the heater core vent flow, to no longer allow it to suck in air from the outside?

Yeah, as for the 6port in the 4spd AT, is there any way I can verify this? Pictures?... block number?

Thanks, will

 

You do not have a 6 port in an 04 AT. Sounds like someone is full of crap.

Have you checked the coolant level?

 

i have the same problem. drv side cold pass side warm /hot. the only fix i found here is someone flushed their coolant and heater core and it fixed the problem its in the diy section. i havent done this yet because i dont drive my car in the winter but when it gets warmer i will. glo and let me know if this works for you hope this helps