Ok-I "curled" up to some good reads on here (at least 30 pages worth) of the flooding issues. The question that I have that the search did not help me on is do you all have a hesitation when you first start up your 8? I noticed that whenever I start my 8, it cranks up every time but not instantly like a piston engine. It acts like it has to wake up. It is brand new and has only 800 miles on it. Is it showing signs of future problems or is this totally normal with rotaries?

 

Mine cranks for a long time on a fairly random basis...if anything, it seems to have the most trouble after I drive to campus for class and come back to it an hour or so later. I've had it take a good 3-4 seconds to start up pretty regularly. I haven't had any flooding yet, but I've only got about 1400 miles so far.

 

Ah-that's sorta good to know that I'm not the only one.

 

When either ice cold or fully warm the car cranks about the same 2-4 seconds then go - more than a typical piston engine, but contistent.

I get a LONG crank (7 to 10 seconds) when the car is half-way cold. My guess is one of two scenarios - the coolant has cooled but the block has not, which either:

a) causes the engine computer to read the coolant as cold, therefore ordering a cold start procedure when it could do with a warm start,and givng it too much gas (related to pre-M flash flood issues?)

OR

b) causes the engine computer to read the block temp as "warm" when the intake and rest of temp is too cold to use the full warm procedure.

Either way, long crank. But ALWAYS starts.

 

THANKS! I'm glad that this forum existed or it would bother me everytime I start it up.

 

Ditto what Stew said - my car cranks for about 2-3 sec every morning, but seems to take longer (5 sec or so) when half cold. I've never had it not start, but my wife did. I think she just wasn't willing to crank it long enough.

I have started doing the rev-to-3000 thing on every shut down to see if that makes a difference, but I haven't done that long enough to see a change. My car is new (VIN 37500 or so) and has 1500 miles.

 

I have one of the first US build dates and I still have to crank it for longer than your typical engine. It always starts though...I just have to be a little more patient. Sometimes it is a little bit embarrassing when I am at the grocery store or something and there are people around who hear this beautiful new sports car work so hard to start for 8 to 10 seconds. BTW, I have 22,500 miles on mine.

I also rev to 3000 right before I turn it off almost every time (unless I have been on a really long drive and I know the engine is plenty warm). In addition, I click the key to the "on" position and let the fuel pump do its job (or at least that is what it sounds like) before I actually attempt to crank it.

 

I've never experienced any of this long cranking- mine fires up within 2-3 seconds everytime... with the exception of a failing battery I just got replaced (when it was below zero last month, the starter was turning so slowly it probably took 4-5 seconds for it to "catch"). My new battery gets my rotary spinning in about 2 seconds of cranking... although the weather has been much nicer (20's-30's).

For you guys with long cranking times, make sure you're doing what aggietiff mentioned above, letting the fuel pump run for a couple of seconds to pressurize the fuel system before cranking- it'll cause less wear and tear on the starter motor.

 

Mine takes about 2-3 seconds to start now maybe because the weather has considerably dropped.

 

ppphew... I thought I was the only one who cringed and worried that the car may not start, every time you go to start it... It seems alot less responsive starting up than piston engines.

In fact, I've noticed that when it gets to a certain point in cranking, a second or two... When you notice it's about to start, I gas it just to make sure it doesnt stall or something. Maybe that's because my other car is a 1969 GTO, and... lol... sometims thats manditory... The gas pedal probably doesnt do anythin except ease my mind in the Rx8 though :P

 

Wow. I'm surprised at the times mentioned here. Maybe it's because my car is always garaged and it doesn't get cold where I live, but my car always starts on the 3rd or 4th crank (or audible cyclic revolution) both usually within one second. There have been a couple occasions when my car took a couple seconds to start, but never more than 2, maybe 3. Again, maybe it's the temps here.

 

That's been my experience (TownDrunk's I mean). No problems whatsoever, and that includes some minus 30F days. But she does have a garage (unheated).

 

My 8 will start normally 99% of the time, but every once and a while I'll start it and it will crank like it's going to start, but won't until I let off the key. The thing is it only happens when the car is warm. I asked the dealer about it the last time I was in for an oil change and they couldn't find a problem.

 

Do you guys in Canada get stronger batteries (more CCA) than the US market? I had to get mine upgraded to the new "cold weather" version - it did ok last winter when it way below zero, but still struggled if it was not garaged (like at work for 8 hours in -15F). This winter the struggling was progressing too close to not starting, so I told my dealer about the TSB for the new stronger battery... much better.

 

The Canadian batteries are 490 CCA vs. 300+ for the U.S.

 

That makes sense... although I think they should have given the northern US climate the same battery. The new cold weather spec battery is supposed to be ~660CCA if I remember what SnapOn told me... but the Mazda/Interstate battery the dealer just put in for me is 875CCA. I don't know if they ordered the wrong one, but I'm not complaining :D

 

If they installed the replacement battery which is supposed to be the Interstate MTP-35, the CCA is 640, the CA is 800. There's cranking amps and then there's cold cranking amps. Go the the Interstate web site (URL below) and check it out.

http://www.ibsa.com

 

This is what they gave me- the MTP-65 with a Mazda branded label on it:
http://www.ibsa.com/estore/view_prod...MP99N2W9D&js=1

I don't know why, especially since I gave them the TSB with the part# on it. The funny (or sad) thing is the first time I went in a couple weeks ago, they put the wrong replacement battery in- it was huge, filling the battery carrier box completely to the point of bowing out the sides. I told them 'hell no- these things need to breathe, hence the ventilation for cooling'. That's when I gave them the TSB. Maybe Mazda was out of the 640CCA and are filling the orders with this stronger one...?

 

Holy cow ! The MTP-65 is 47lbs and 12 x 7-1/2 x 7-1/2 ...... I would not want that in my RX-8. How does it fit in your car? I'd love to see a picture. I don't think a 12" long battery is going to fit in the stock battery box.

 

Good question - that doesn't seem right. I'll take a look at it again when I get home. I swore it said something -65, and 875 CCA on top... but those dimensions seem to big for what I have.

 

While you're looking at it, please write down the model #, CCA, CA, etc and post please ......... a pic would be nice too if possible.

So just she fire right up now ........ comments on the new battery's performance ?

 

Will do.

I've only had this one in for two days, and it's been unseasonably warm around here, but yeah- she fires right up. When I picked her up I've never heard the starter motor spin so fast. Besides that, nothing much to note. I do notice that the voltage reading with this one has been in the mid 14's while driving (my radar detector has this cool feature), where as the last battery was usually in the low 13's while driving.

The real test will be the next time we dip below zero again... there was no way my last battery was going to make it through another cold spell.

 

My digicam's batteries aren't charged right now, but here's the numbers I wrote down... On the top of the Mazda label, it says:

Group 65 / CCA 875 / RC 165

I was wrong earlier about the part number- I remembered the 65 part, but it's "Group", not "MTP" that precede it. I'm assuming that RC is reserve capacity (usually measured in minutes).

The Mazda PN is 0000-80-0065-WB

The battery body says Interstate Mega-tron Plus stamped onto it... but nothing iindicating their PN. Maybe this is an OEM-only part? It's nowhere near the size of the one I linked to earlier- this one is 9"x7" on top, and about 8" high. Looks about the same size as the OEM if I remember correctly.

 

That is really screwy. That battery cannot be a group 65 battery and only be 9"x7". I would guess that the labels got mixed up somewhere along the way. In any case, a 12"-long battery defintely will not fit in the box. It almost certainly is a group 35 battery, and an Interstate to boot, most likely the MTP-35.

Anyway, not to worry. It fits in the box and if it's an Interstate MTP it is considerably stronger than the OEM-US battery.
.

 

That would make more sense... in surfing around, I haven't seen any Interstate MTP 875CCA battery with that footprint. Perhaps they didn't screw up after all and it is a mislabled 640CCA... it does spin the starter considerably faster than my original one ever did.