I can already guess that it's a battery but I do vaguely remember getting involved with battery issues not that long ago and perhaps even replacing it altogether, otherwise I wouldn't ask what seems a somewhat reduant question.

Have been driving the 2009 rx-8 r3 daily for basically years. Past 4 days exactly I have not driven it at all. Went to turn it on now and :
Backlight on dash flickers and speed indicators and other arrows flare up and down. Nothing from the engine just remains cold. Also no crank. Just nothing.

It's also at 190k

 

Definitely a power issue. Is the immobilizer light flashing fast then the key is in and turned. Light looks like a car with a key on it.

 

Sounds like your battery ran down. Any lights left on? Trunk light, for example?

Recharge it, clean the terminals and maybe see about getting it load tested.

 

Nope not seeing a such described immobilizer light at the time. I can check again when there's time.

No trunk lights this morning, although I have observed this when I went down last night : turn the key and at least the dash flickered on persistently and the indicator arrows went all over the place. Went down to try again this morning and nothing at all not even close, what I just described in the previous sentence didn't even occur. Pretty sure that confirms the very last of the battery life.

Thanks for getting back regarding this.

 

There's 2 things to it: the battery might be dead, but also, something is draining it. You may want to take a multimeter and check for phantom currents (you can google how to do this). Normal draw on an RX8 that's completely off is <10 milliamp. If something is drawing more, it will drain your new battery too if allowed to sit for a while.

I have a phantom draw in my headlight washer system that I haven't been able to pin down, so I just pulled the fuse for that circuit. Otherwise my battery would run down in under 2 weeks.

 

Good to know actually. Yea I checked that scotty Kilmer (just lol) YouTube dude for cars won't start and he introduced a couple other possibilities so I'm aware it may not be the battery either. I'll try to look into that thanks man I appreciate it

 

Roughly what should be a budget for the battery, if indeed that's what it is, the dealership quoted me a oem 250 Canadian (lol?) and said they couldn't get an aftermarket one. Or if someone has a link by any chance to some aftermarket battery that's sensibly priced.

 

Just about any Size 35 battery from any auto parts store will do.

But yeah, I would want to find out if there is a parasitic draw if I were you.

Electronic glitches are pretty normal when the battery is very low. When I was buying my C7, it was sitting around for a while so it was also glitching pretty hard with a dead battery, showing messages like service rear diff soon, etc.

 

Pricy but totally worth it. An optima red top.

 

Alright, so end of the world caused me to put away the 8 for a few months, called up CAA to boost the battery and use their diagnostic tool to see whats up. Terrible idea, they send some guy with barely any English. I mean you cant even do the most basic sentences with him. Idiot me should have at that point said, ok this isn't happening you're not touching my car if you cant comprehend the words don't turn off the engine yet. Hooked up the diagnostic to the battery, told me to turn on the egnition, fine, it started, but the car alarm went right off, it was also in underground parking so it was unbearably loud. One thing led to another and he shut off the ignition while I was telling him not to. Not that he understood amidst the noise, and cause of social distancing, I couldn't exactly tackle him either.
an attempt to restart the engine while having it plugged in with the battery then didn't work. Chances of it flooded are good aren't they? It's a 2009 r3 so ive had it flooded before while transmission work was done, so im not freaking out, but now the issue has compounded, what would be the next best step?

 

Take the top two spark plugs out, leave it awhile to let the gas evaporate.
Clean the plugs with solvent.
Charge the battery overnight.
Try again tomorrow?