My 2004 RX8 has been non op for about 7 months. Just recently put in new battery & drove to mechanic. Got new clutch & clutch plate & was told to drive for a few days before smog. After 4 days, did not pass smog & new battery drained. Swapped battery drove a few extra days, still can't pass smog. I'm at a loss, not sure what to do or what the problem is. Any suggestions or advise?

 

Disconnecting the battery, replacing the battery, or letting the battery drain will set all systems into "Not Ready" status, which will cause any OBD2 emissions check to fail. Each system will go through it's own checks over the next 1-3 drive cycles, although you can specifically get all systems to set by going through a very specifically followed set of driving conditions.

You haven't stated why you failed, so I can only guess that this is why you are failing emissions. However, you could still fail emissions due to problems that the ECU is seeing, whether or not they are actually problems, instead of failing due to not ready status.

It also sounds like something is draining your battery. If you are very very sure that nothing was left on, then you have a dark current problem that will require some fairly thorough testing over the course of days, if not weeks, to pinpoint what is causing the current draw. There is no easy answer, although normally aftermarket audio and aftermarket alarm systems are the two most common reasons.

Another possibility is that your starter is draining the battery as expected, and your alternator is having trouble re-charging it. This would be an alternator failure OR a simple connection problem.

 

Thanks for posting back RIWWP. Can you provide the specific driving conditions to reset the car CPU with a new battery? I was told be a family member it is like driving at 55mph for some distance then about 45 for another distance. Knowing the exact driving condition would be a great help.

 

Here's the "technical way" to reset the ECU, if that's what you're really trying to do:

*Credits to user Teknics from rx8club.com

How to Reset ECU on mazda RX8