So I am a new RX8 owner and I need some tips on the car. Kinda embarrassing but I want to make sure I am driving it right

It's an 05 Manual-- And when I test drove it everything was amazing. But... When I took it home, which was a short drive I noticed it was a little harder starting up... Which I learned the engine gets flooded very easily. So I revved it 4k rpms for a few seconds before shutting it off and it seems to work fine. But a couple of times I have still noticed it being a little stubborn turning it on again. Just wondering if anyone has any tips for me with this flooding issue?
Then someone freaked me out saying this isn't suppose to happen and they never have to rev their car up before shutting it off.

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated :D

-RX8 Newbie

 

05?

Either it's still on the older version of starter, which has a maximum speed of something less than 200 rpm, and it's quite often cuz most Rx-8 owners are clueless about this and missed their opportunity to get the newer, faster spinning version(200-300~ish rpm) for free.

or

worst case, Engine going south.

 

Danie,

Since you just got it, but didn't mention how many miles it has, nor did you mention if you have done any work on it as of yet, I am going to recommend that you replace the ignition coils, spark plugs, and spark plug wires.

If you look around the forum for a while, you will see that these are the most common items to get chewed up and spit out by the RX-8's, and are usually in need of replacement by the 30k mile mark, if not sooner in some cases.

There are lots of places you can buy the parts for cheap, like Advance Auto Parts online, where there's usually coupon codes that can seriously decrease the cost of the parts.

I would recommend replacing those parts first, and seeing how that improves the cars behavior.

BC.

 

I would reccomend a compression test first and foremost, to check if the engine is ok, would be a shame to dish out on new spark-plugs, coils and starter, just to find that the engine was shot.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention it has 55k miles on it, I have done no work to it.
I have owned the car for about a week now and I knew the car could be a little bit of a diva, but I after a couple of times of it literally taking 10 minutes to start back up again I didn't feel like it was right.

Also, I let someone drive my car and they ended up accidentally killing it, and it wouldn't start up for 5-7 minutes and we were stuck on the road. Even with all the tricks everyone taught me.

Well part of me is glad to hear that I am not crazy, but part of me is a little worried now. At least I still have my warranty... I can take it back to the dealer and get all those tests for free.

 

And the 10 min of trying to get it to start back up would be short distances, but it wasn't running cold.

 

Welcome... There are 2 threads in my sig. I suggest looking through both, and given the age of the car, doing the first $100 stuff. After that, I really think you need coils, then if necessary plugs. Folks usually do plugs first because they are cheaper, but IMHO the plugs last longer than the coils.

 

If the coils are being replaced, the plugs should be as well, at the same time.

OP, if you have the money to, invest in the BHR igniton. Solves flooding issues and starting issues (depending on whats wrong with the car, though). It was the best investment ive made.

IMO, get some stuff mentioned already checked out.

 

I said it before, I'll say it again:

REPLACE THE COILS, wires and spark plugs.
NOW.

BC.

 

LOL well someone is quite firm today

But yes, good advice!

 

I have the same car, same issue. I KNOW my starter is bad... it's one of the earlier ones like nycgps said. Sometimes it won't start after running the A/C on a hot day. It cranks forever, but won't catch.

Get a flashlight and look at your starter. IF you're lucky, you can just see the tag... If you see NH31, you have an 'old' one.

If you can easily pop-start your car in 6th gear at 5-6 mph, your compression is probably ok and it's probably your starter.

If you know a little about recording audio, you can check your cranking speed by recording the sound with your laptop. That's what I did, took 5 minutes. Start an audio recording, crank the engine. Save the audio file. Open the audio file in a program that lets you see the waveform. You'll see obvious peaks... measure the distance between the peaks, calculate the frequency.... voila - engine speed. Mine came out to 160 rpm.

 

I had the same problem awhile ago, my 8 shut off on me while I was driving home from class one morning..then everyone told me to change the plugs wires and coils..once that was done she started right up, and ran like nothing ever happen.

 

Me too. I'm about to change the coils and maybe the plugs too. I hope it will run fine when those are replaced...wish me luck.