I just drove about 140 miles in my 04, 35k miles, zero engine mods; at the end of my trip I had a total loss of power. The car performed beautifully the entire time until I got off the freeway and into town. After about 2 miles of in-town driving the car started balking first while accelerating in second gear and then when accelerating from stop in first. I had to mash on the accelerator just to get the car to move. It died once before I could get it home, but restarted instantly and continuing with the power loss. The car has been babied since purchased. It's about 90 degrees outside but my temp gauge was dead center. I tried to search the forum for answers but came up empty handed, so all I can do now is sit here and worry until someone offers some suggestions. Please help!

 

Take it to the shop. Could be a fuel pump issue, could be the engine. Either way, both should be under warranty.

Take it in, they'll fix it up for you.

 

usually it's a clogged cat that causes power loss.

 

Keep us up-updated.

 

Wilco. I just drove it around the block and it didn't balk anymore. It still seemed a bit doggish though.

 

still take it to the dealer might be a hot weather problem like cat failure?

 

Definiltely take it in to the dealer. Did you get a blinking CEL? If not I'm going to guess it's your Cat. The element may have broken up and clogging up your exhaust. It happens if the coils go bad or if it gets overtemp'd...l

 

edit: im an idiot

 

This is probably ur problem. This car has to be red-lined at least once per day to clear the carbon build up out of the exhaust. Like the other people have said its most likely ur cat. However, when i first bought my rx8 i was experiencing bad power loss and it was the result of my ignition coils. Dealer also replaced my plugs and wires and it ran fine after that..

 

Something like this has happened to me twice now... Long drive then more and more loss of power. The last time, I had to downshift into first gear to get over a hill than I can normally pull over in third with no problems.

The problem is that after the car sits for a while, it's completely back to normal. No CEL, either.

Any of you guys know if the fuel pump cutting out would cause the CEL to light? You'd think it would.

 

Another helpful post by the latest troll Crawl back under your bridge....

 

Why do I suspect you never had one?

 

^ +1 You are a troll! Why are you still here? You don't even have an 8.

Hopefully you will get a new engine, should be covered by warranty. Compression checks perhaps?

 

I had the same problem with mine at about 40,000 miles. I'll almost guarantee you your engine is carboned up to death if you babied the car. I made the same mistake with mine. I got a new engine under warranty and now its at least one redline a day. Guess I had to learn about the quirky rotary the hard way. But I do believe somewhere on this forum there is a post about Mazda actually working on some sort of solution to the carbon buildup problem. I don't remember if it was some sort of fuel additive or what.

 

I should have been more specific when I said I babied the car. I meant that it has been well taken care of ie maintenance, oil levels, etc. It has still been redlined every time it is driven. Of course I cannot speak for the previous owner, I bought it with 30k on the odo. It is going into the shop tomorrow, but I would still like to hear peoples ideas so I can give them some suggestions. I have had problems with this dealer in the past.

 

When you guys say "redlined once a day" are you being literal? I almost always take it for a good run once it's warmed up, but that usually means peaking around 7k rpm. Do you really take it to 8500 every time you drive?

 

Yes, literally red-line the car.. take it to 9k at least once a day every day.. thats what i do..

 

When people say to red-line once a day, they mean every day that the car is actually driven, right?

Sometimes I can't get to drive mine for 5 or 6 days at a stretch. Obviously I'm not going to accumulate carbon when it's just sitting in the garage...

 

Yes

 

Good luck with the repairs. Let us know what the outcome is. BTW....I take my car to 9000 rpm's EVERY day it's driven at least one time. Usually several times though.

 

SOMEBODY will get a new engine. Those are the exact symptoms for the "need new engine' group.

 

It is strange though because when I took the car to the dealer today, the car performed just as it always had. I had noticed before I had my issue that it had almost no low end torque and would bog down easily when accelerating from stop. If I needed to move in a hurry, I would always have to ride the clutch to keep it from bogging down.

I am sure when the dealer drives it today, they will not be able to replicate the problem and will say everything is fine.

 

Righto - Because it only happens after extended freeway usage, as per the engine recall stuff last year.

 

I have had this problem for a couple of weeks. I took it to the dealer and they said they had to run a new compression test. I have been working on film for the past three weeks and needed my car but plan on taking it in sometime this week.

 

heat soak. You have some cooling issues there.