stretchycheese

Hi all,

I recently bought an RX-8 knowing that it's a high maintenance car. It's a second car for me and I love it. Call me crazy but the quirks of the rotary are half the fun.

My car has a CEL light. Strange as is it comes on and off at different times. One in every 6-8 drives the CEL will be off only to start it up again and have it return.

Ran a scantool and it presented the code: P0661

Driving issues: It's an amazingly well looked after car, looks no more than 3 years old, but it's a 2003 with 120,000'ks (Aussie here so 74,000 miles)

When you start the car from cold it performs well, and i'm talking about the entire drive, after 1 hour of driving it still performs great.

If I turn the car off and then go for another drive (started with warm engine) it's completely different. I rev it out and it struggles between 4 - 7,000 rpm before jerking back to power above 7,000 through to redline.

On another note:

I'm doing a seafoam carbon clean and upgrading the starter motor. The starting time seems to vary. When I looked at the car 2 days ago it started quickly both hot and cold but now it's taking longer to start regardless of temperature. The Idle also dips very slightly every 10 seconds or so and a slight pop is heard from the exhaust.

Here are some videos I took today.

Hot Start - Quick - started after 30 mins of cooldown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_foR...ature=youtu.be

Hot Start - Slow - Started after 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aukr...ature=youtu.be

Idle when warm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JyV...ature=youtu.be

Cold Start - Early Morning Cold Weather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66Q...ature=youtu.be

Thanks for your help...

Loki

iTrader: (1)

P0661 refers to the SSV solenoid. Fairly common problem, you need a new solenoid.

That may be all there is to it. It looks like you've done a bit of reading, so read up on spark plugs and ignition coils and replace as needed.