Well... To keep this short. My RX8 stopped starting. As in no cranking. Just silence when I turned the key. The dashboard lit up fine just nothing. So I checked out the battery and it was kind of weak. At friend at the autoparts place brings over his battery checker thing and tells me the battery needs changing. He ended up having to give me a jump so I could get home.

So it happens again even after an overnight charge so I buy a nice new super great mega cold cranking battery and fit it in with a shoehorn... I turn the key and nothing... Lights again but no cranking just silence. So I read some posts and one of them talks about a guy who didn't like how dirty the engine compartment looked so he hosed it down and blew a bunch of fuses. I'm kinda scratching my head because I did just clean up the engine compartment but I know better then to take a hose to it. Papertowels some cleaner. However I did drive the car in the rain before this is happening. So I am looking around under the hood and trying to see if I put the battery in so the contacts were tight and clean. I get to the fuse box but something catches my eye. There is something wrong but I don't know what. So I get down on the floor and look at the port oil cooler and then it hits me. HOW am I looking at the oil cooler through the Fricking Wheel well??? WTF! No splash guard. So I look at the starboard side and there is a splashguard but its missing half the plastic clip plugs. *The guy I bought this from did major engine work but apparently thought a lot of screws, etc were all optional... scary...

So my engine compartment probably got an ocean of water blasted into it... I start checking fuses. Two are blown. One is for one of the front running lights nothing that makes the car fail to kick over. One is the STOP fuse? 15 amp? Its in front of the ignition fuse so? Whatevers wrong with the car at least two of the fuses are popped. I'm making a huge assumption but is it a dumb idea to just put new ones in and hope that whatever got wet (I'm thinking) has dried up? *And does anyone know what the STOP fuse protects? At first I'm thinking (don't laugh) thats for the STOP light... Ahhh... yeah. Not normally part of the car...

 

STOP fuse is for the brake lights.

Question: When you turn the key, you don't mention anything about an audible "click" or the cluster lights disappearing. Could you clarify what happens with them?

No Click, cluster lights don't disappear = a failed relay. Which one I'm not sure off the top of my head. If the lights disappear and you get a click, the relay is activating properly

 

I just went out to check that out and your spot on. I turn the key to on and dash lights come on. I turn the key to start and the dash lights remain the same. The radio goes off but nothing seems to happen with the dash. My hearing is a bit blown out (Stupid Band I was in) but I don't think there is any click at all. Other then the key.

So - THANK YOU! I was starting to think starter motor removal and if I did that and it was the relay I think I would have pulled my own head off. I looked at a relay that is listed as ignition but its a solid sealed gizmo so I guess I'll need to bring it inside and try testing it on the bench. Or possibly just get a new one.

 

I tried uploading a short video of me trying to start it a couple times. Don't know if this will work but here is the link
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ok8ef2r07...CbEJQ2rea?dl=0
I really appreciate your help.

 

I also put up a JPG of the engine compartment fuse box. The crude yellow arrows I drew show the two popped fuses and the big yellow arrow points to where I think there is supposed to be some huge fuse? Is mine missing or is that hidden someplace else possibly?

 

And btw Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here and in particular thanks to you guys who spend time to help us with our RX8s. You guys rock it!

 

A quick update. I replaced the blown fuses *And they work. I replaced the Starter Relay and tried to start the car. Nothing. Then I put the car in neutral and stepped on the clutch hard and Zoom Zoom. I'm not quite sure what made it start. The fuses didn't seem to be related to anything that would preclude starting. The starter relay could well have been the problem... I'm not sure if it mechanical or electronic. Water clearly got dumped into the engine compartment because of the missing spash guard. I'm taking a careful inventory of missing bolts, screws etc.

I also am pondering replacing the switch that the clutch uses.

 

There is also a procedure for resetting the clutch pedal switch. My guess is that it got messed with and was never reset properly.

 

Well that could well be. I certainly have been pulling the battery cables on and off and swapping in a new battery. *Turns out the "old" one is two years old and its fine. But.... I have a serious cranking mondo battery and wow does it turn over like a swiss watch. I had not read that there was a clutch reset procedure. That is good news. I looked over some videos about getting at the switch and it didn't look like happy fun time.

I love my car but things that I don't like about modern cars are the obscure "universal" ECU things. Turn the key on crank your wheel to the left crank it to the right to turn off an idiot light. Idiot lights that come on for a burned out tail light but no clue (To me - the clueless) why. Reset the ECU, Really reset the ECU. I think a guy could make a lot of people happy with a replacement Dash with actual plain english text rather then these universaly moronic icons. I know you can plug in an odb cable and get it on your laptop or pad but just as standard dashboard display I think would be nice. I wonder how many people would buy one and if I could make one that was "fitable" to a wide variety of cars... Hummmmm.

 

Those "idiot lights" are for the average vehicle consumer. A light pops up means bring it to the shop.
Why do you think fast food is so popular?

The world isn't tailored to the DIY'er. If you want to do your own work, you gotta do your own work. Simple.