You can try some Racing Beat spark plug wires. Made mine smoother (less lopey?) by a pretty significant margin. My '8 was pretty smooth to start with, but the RB wires made it even smoother.

Bill

 

In my case I have been watching the ambient temp to see if it correllates to a rougher idle. Just happened to think that one day when temps swept from low (smooth idle) to high at lunch (rough) back to somewhere in between that night (somewhere in between).

My car is smooth as glass at amb temp of say 55* F. When I get up to the 75*-80* it has the idle you all are talking about. I have been watching it throughout last fall and winter and noticed this yet again this morning as our temps had dropped down to 55 during my morning commute. At lunch we were right at 70* and I could tell it was coming back a bit.

-T

 

my car lopes and i have "sticky" rpm issues..when coming to a stop my car would idle at like 2K then drop to 1.5K then drop to 1K and then start loping at 800-900rpms..

and ALLLLLLL stock RX8 lope.FACT! cause i said so! :D

 

Ah, you must be a LOPING expert?

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pr0ber

part of the problem is idling at 900 rpms means the rotors are only going at 300rpms. This means low energy storage when combined with a low inertia engine, and add the lean conditions at idle and it makes the engine have to work harder to keep spinning and overcome compression.

Hmmmm...okay, this got me thinking, so to expand...I would think a lightweight flywheel would result in more vibration at idle (less rotational energy to smooth out the misfires). Anyone have a lightweight flywheel? Any noticeable difference using the shifter movement at idle test?

BTW I'm in the misfire camp vs the lope camp Where I really notice it is at the exhaust tips. The exhaust will have this nice smooth putt, putt, purr, purr, and then it will stumble with a pluf sound. At the exhaust end it definitely sounds like a misfire to me. Okay, don't say it, yeah, I know, I need to stop sniffing my exhaust pipes

 

I have a light flywheel. MazdaSpeed. Not the lightest, but lighter. I don't have anything remotely close to loping, sticking, coughing, hickuping, or missing. My car idles at almost a grand. period. I can't percieve ANY motion of the tach at idle. I can't even tell that the gear shift is vibrating unless I touch it. This is true regardless of ambient temperature. I guess I'm one lucky SOB....

 

^^Not so much "lucky" I'd say...

The reason your idle is so smooth is because it is so high. The spec for idle is only 850 RPM which is, IMHO, too low.
Now why your idle is so high is a question I'd like to see addressed.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. The engine could idle faster because of lower rotating mass, but the pcm should be compensating with less throttle and fuel.

 

Oh them Bonanzas. Some of the loudest single engine non radial aircraft out there.

 

Interesting thread, good input. I like MazdaManiac's description. You gotta remember, our engines have to run in a pretty wide RPM range and maybe the sacrifice is most felt at idle.

Sometimes it seems like I hit a "putt" right as I'm trying to evenly, slowly and smoothly let out the clutch to start off, causing me to briefly lug the engine. (Yes, that's my excuse for poor driving technique)

 

4 sure! :D

 

My car lopes. 2004 6MT with M flash I think.

 

Compared to my 13B's, your engines don't lope at all. :D

 

I'll buy that. So lets see if there is a correlation between loping and idle speed. Anyone else care to post their idle RPM and lope status?

-MD

 

Y'all are complaining about your shifter vibrating??? Hell, my entire car vibrates at idle, and I'm really getting tired of it. It's sometimes so bad I'm afraid it's going to loosen all my bolts! It is worse with the A/C on, and it is worse on hot days, but it will periodically shake so bad that my side-view mirror actually shows a vibrating image. Am I the only one with this problem? I'm taking the car back to the dealer for the 35K spark plug and air filter change, and I will be telling the service manager in no uncertain terms that I will not take delivery of the car again until they fix the problem, and they'd better hope I don't get another customer service survey if they can't find the problem and fix it!

 

Reading through the 'loping' thread...I am just glad that it has been highlighted. I have the same thing that has been described. It idles smoothly, then intermittently drops out briefly, not in any kind of pattern. I was worried that it was a 'problem', but as with many things that have been noted in this forum, is it not necessarily 'normal'... but IS with the RX8. I only care that it is not really a problem, just a 'quirk' perhaps. I'll take it.

 

well, I have noticed that it does this when the AC compressor turns on and off, also when the car is cold (higher RPM's at startup) after this if the AC is off it is pretty smoth.

 

Well, that's the power of a forum - that we can establish what normal is with regard to our vehicle. The idle on my car was felt the day of my test drive. My father, who was with me, said that the car idled rough.

What I HAVE noticed now that mine has 18,000 miles on it is that I have developed a miss of sorts in lower speed/lower rpm ranges. At idle if I walk behind the car the exhaust has pronounced pops. If I manuever in a parking lot I seem to no longer be able to smoothly accelerate (easily or quickly) without the car jumping and lurching and the drivetrain clacking. Hear me though, it makes no difference whether it is slight throttle or heavy throttle. I don't know what it is but tht is what it does.