Ok...currently i have around 630 miles on my new 8....I have babied it pretty much since 50 miles, with a few 6 k runs here and there..but NOTHING over that. So, Tonight, I want to take her out, and open her up. Im in Indiana right now, so there are a lot of long straight deserted roads. So the first few runs with DSC on, and she pulls really hard and its really nice to feel the power. So everything is fine right, well after a few more redline runs, I turn around to head back down our road. Now with DSC off, Rev her up and let her rip, did a nice long burnout, right around 8500 holdin steady for a few seconds...Hear the buzzer, SHIFT, take off sideways....revs back up...get past 7k and she bogs down A LOT...stuttering...BAD...ok...WHAT THE??? ENGINE LIGHT STARTS BLINKING...FOR ABOUT 20 seconds...during this time...i totally back off, hardly any acceleration...then CEL stops blinkin....so now im freaking out, and just back into normal acceleration, well now, it feels as if the power is much less than it was...revs dont seem to shoot up as fast....and She feels really hesitant...

DID I BREAK HER???? WHAT THE ???? HELP!!!????

 

you are in limp mode.

Pull a battery cable of, wait about 20 seconds for capacitive memory to clear, re-install cable, and you will be out of limp mode if nothing is physically damaged on the car.

If this doesnt work, a loose plug wire somewhere could cause similar symptoms.

Those are the things you should be hopeing for.

good luck

 

Can someone explain "limp" mode? I had a sorta similar situation tonite while on the highway. I rev'd her up in 2nd to redline (auto here), the car sputtered and the check engine light flashed for about 10secs and then went out. The car did blow some serious black smoke out the back (carbon buildup?) and then it took off like a rocket. Doesn't seem to be in "limp" mode, but to note I was on "E" and the low fuel light was on. Maybe I passed some "crap" in the gas through the engine? Has anyone had this happen? I am going to bring the car down to the dealer for a quick code check, moisture in the rear tail lights, and a sorta "pinging" sound under acceleration. Also gonna try to get my J-Spec key cut and programmed

 

During the burn out the ECU is thinking, "Wait, this can't be owner. My owner treated my like little baby. I'm going to enter Bitch mode for a while!" :D

 

Is there any tricks for the consumer to get the cel codes. In my chrysler minivan, there is a procedure which would make the cel emit some short flashes followed by long flashes. Then you could look this up on a chart and it would tell you the code. Anything like this for mazda products.

 

HAHA..:p Thats what I was thinking for a while....She is a little priss, thats for sure...

Ill have to try the reset tomorrow...hope that works....

 

Pre-1996 Mazda products, yes. But for all the OBD-II cars (1996 and later), all those codes are built into the On-Board Diagnostics system, and you need an OBD code reader that can interface with the car's ECU.

Regards,
Gordon

 

On my '01 Jeep you can turn the ignition on-off-on-off-on and the OBD-II codes will read out on the odometer (P0102 etc.)

It would be very cool if there was a similar trick for the 8...

Simon.

 

Well...I unplugged the battery for about 8 min...I dont know if that was long enough or not...but when i started her back up....the DSC OFF light is flashing constantly...and the Traction Control Light is on constantly....WHAT IS THIS?? Will it go out??
What do I do now??

 

It is in your owners manual about the DSC, but here is the trick.

With the key in the On (but not started position) turn the steering wheel all the way to the left and then all the way to the right and the light should go out. Also you need to reset the driver's window for the auto down feature to work. Use the button and lower the window all the way down and then use the button to push it all the way back up. You should be G2G.

Slavearm

 

Ok..THANKS...slavearm

That worked...

One more thing guys, when I leave the key in the on position, without the car running...all the lights go through their checks obviously.

Well, the CEL light is on steady ( which is normal until your start it up) but after about 10 seconds, without starting it, the CEL starts to blink for about 10 seconds, then goes back to steady.

Any ideas???

Thanks

 

Just a guess here, but maybe that 10-second flashing spell indicates that there's a stored OBDII code in the system that needs to be read?

 

Everything seems to be back to normal i guess...

But driving her tonight on the highway...just felt like she didnt have the power she used to...HMM...

Its going in on monday for some things to be fixed...so we'll see...

 

personally i think this is what you get for driving the **** out of the thing before it really gets a chance to seat everything and go through its natural wear and tear process.....just my 2 cents i'm sure you wont care though.

 

hey man its cool....for one thing...no one really knows an "actual break in period" around here. Its not like I went out and Killed it the first day!!!! I let it do its thing for bout 600 miles... I have 3 rx7's sittin at home...I know a lot about rotaries, and these engines can take a "**** draining beating" and not even blink an eye. I understand it's is just your 2 cents, but dont assume that I didnt try to read up and see about when is enough time for them to break in. Seems to be a lot of different answers floating around here. And it really doesn't matter because she is under warranty...and if something is wrong, it will get fixed...if not. then I will be fine, because this is my daily driver anyway. My BEAST is at home in progress. But thanks man............

 

ok my car threw it's first cel thursday morning. i took it to the dealer first thing after calling them to make sure they had time to work on it. when 3:30 came and went with out any word i called them and they said they had gotten really busy on the Mazda service side so wouldn't be able to get to it until the next day. i got a loaner to get home in (a chevy impala- what a piece of $#@$) and asked them to call me as soon as they new what code had tripped the cel. when 3:30 rolled by on friday with no word i called and they had already finished with the car. no explanation as to why they didn't call, just "oh yeah sorry about that."! so anyway i went and picked up the car and found out the code and the cause.

the code was for a bad evap test. apparently this is what happens- the car does some diagnostics as it shutdown(this was mentioned by another forum member recently,sorry i don't remember who). if as you are shutting down you also run some electric accessory such as rolling the window closed, using your keyfob etc, at the same or really close to the same time it would cause the the diagnostic to try to run the evap test,except it really isn't the time in the diagnostic cycle to run the evap test. so this causes it to code and pop the cell. you don't notice the cell until the next morning when you start the car again. the fix for this is covered in the tsb # 01-24/03 which can be found on finishline performance (thanks finishline!) whic is basically to reflash the PCM.

so perhaps all those folks who couldn't seem to figure out how to tighten their gas caps properly in the beginning were really having this problem. which would explain why it happened to some several times. so there you have it. if you find a cel in the morning take it in and mention this tsb so you can get your reflash!

ps- it may be wishful thinking but i might have a more linear pull above 5krpm. can't be sure yet.

 

Has anyone got any ideas on this one?
I took my RX out earlier today, drove around town for probably 30-40 minutes, and when I got home, I got stuck on the patch of snow and ice on the street in front of the house. I was trying to back it in to the driveway when this happened. I immediately shut off the DSC, and proceeded to "rock" the car, being as careful as possible not to overrev, did let it slip once to 9k, (this was because I was watching my surroundings, not the tach), but backed off immediately. Anyway, the CEL came on. I did manage to get it into the driveway without much more difficulties, (especially with a neighbor helping by giving me a little push). I let it sit in the drive way for about four or five hours, went out to move it into the garage; started it, let it run at idle for roughly 10 minutes or so, backed it in, ran the motor up to 5k...then 5.5k, (the CEL stayed on this whole time), and at 5.5k it started to hesitate like it was missing a plug or something. Any thoughts? I will of course be calling the nearest dealership on Monday morning, but if I can have some kind of clue ahead of time, that would be helpful.
(My apologies for the long post, and starting a new thread, but I couldn't find one that seemed relevant).
-Doc

 

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=16230

 

Hi,

MUST BE a plug problem. Get them out, eventuely clean them and you should be on again.

Patrick
Belgium

 

I agree with Matt, and i say "BS" to Patrick.

I think he triggered an ABS fault.

When you turn off the DSC it does not turn off the ABS system.
If you spin the tires long enough on the car it will generate an ABS fault error.

This, in turn, generates an ECU error, and it creates an ECU event.
This is stored in the ECU, and the ECU puts the car into "limp home" mode.

This is the same problem people have reported when trying to do dyno runs. The ABS system measures the relative difference between the front and rear wheels, and if it detects a big difference for a long interval it generates a fault.
This is to protect you if the DSC or ABS system has failed.

Fortunately you can clear the event from the ECU quite easily:

Open the hood, take off the batter cover ( 2 clips behind the cover) and disconnect the ground cable from the battery. This is the cable closest to the front, which is NOT covered by a plastic cap.

Leave the car for an hour or two.

Reconnect the battery.

Start the car.

Turn the steering wheel all the way to the right.
Turn the wheel all the way to the left.
Centre it.
The ABS light will go off, but the DSC light ( picture of car with wiggly lines) may stay on.

If so, turn off the ignition.
Start the car.
The lights should now be off.

Oh, and reset the ambient temperature to C or F by holding the button for it, and reset the radio station presets.

 

Agreed with canzoomer.

Oh, and the real problem - the OEM high-performance summer tires are entirely useless in winter conditions, as you've found out. If you intend to drive your RX-8 in winter conditions, you have to get proper winter tires, with which the RX-8 does very well. There are plenty of threads discussing these in the Tires and Wheels section, and in the Canada regional section of the forum!

Regards,
Gordon

 

Thanks for the help!!!! I knew the tires were pretty much useless on snow and ice, but just couldn't leave it in the garage much longer... I guess lesson learned. I took it out earlier, (the street is dry right in front of the driveway, now - I knew the kids were good for something, besides making sure that the TV was working... ) Filled up the tank, (just in case), and can happily report that I had no loss of power, but MIL was still on. I will try a reset of the ECU and report back what happens!
I figured the spark plug theory was BS, I haven't been away from rotary engines THAT long!
-Doc
Update: It worked! Exactly like Maurice said it would. Thanks again!

 

UPDATE:
I took my 8 to the nearest dealership, (about 70 miles from home); where the service manager advised that pulling the battery cable probably wasn't a good idea... (more on that in a minute). On my way to the dealership, my CEL came on while I was turning about 6500 RPM, I dropped the RPM's down to around 4500, and it went off, never to appear again while driving either to or from the dealership, (I drove an additional 80 miles before going home).
I spoke to the tech before he did the flash, he assured me he'd check it out completely. Record time, (30 minutes later), he parked my 8, and I talked to him about what he had found. He said there was an error code, although he didn't say which one and it wasn't on the repair ticket. He reminded me of the fact about letting it warm up before moving it, and he mentioned the TPMS may take up to 15 minutes in cold weather to react - provided the tire pressure is correct. He also half-agreed with the service manager about pulling the battery cable, but since my next trip was to the dealership to have the memory flashed, no problem.
And yes, it IS covered under warranty.
-Doc

 

I removed my midpipe for listening pleasure recently (LOUD). The cel was on for the test drive.

I then replaced the midpipe and the light was off, but i figured i'd head to autozone to see if they could pull it.

Their OBDII Scanner wouldn't link with the car for some reason. Any ideas? What should i do about the CEL stored in my computer?

 

Heh heh. Welcome to the world of CAN.
The RX-8 uses the CAN protocol which supercedes and contains OBD-II.
You will need to find someone that has a CAN-capable scanner.
You can pop that particular code out with a little subterfuge:
cause a series of other codes to be thrown. You will eventually fill the buffer and blow that O2 code right out.