Hey guys! Let me start off by saying that you guys have been a great help to me, thanks to all of you I can know just about everything there is to know about this car. I usually research to find all the answers but I haven't been able to find an answer for my particular problem.

P.S. This is definitely the best forum on the internet. Now let me get to my problem.

I am a proud owner of a 2004 gt mt Velocity Red Rx-8. I bought it in January 2011 when I went to go look at the car at the dealership the first thing I noticed was that it had a CEL light on. I asked the dealer and they said it just needed a tune up and that they would take care of it. I know it was dumb of me to trust them but hey I’m young (19yrs) and I really LOVE this car. The main reason why I bought it so quickly is that it had low mileage (38000) and it was cheap so I could afford it. Anyway my parents were the ones who went to go pick it up they called me and said that the previous owner took out the converters and put a mid-pipe after doing research I understood why. I said it was okay that before the smog test I would install the converters myself. I recently installed them last month, When I was done I was shocked the CEL light was still on. So I went to the dealer and they said the motor mounts need to be replaced and that the coolant reservoir was broken. Do those really cause a CEL light to come on or is it something else? Also they said it would cost close to $1000 is it really that expensive or can I do it myself for less? Sorry for the long kind of pointless post but since I'm new I thought you guys might want to know a little about me.

 

get the code from the CEL. Report back here.

 

you can go to autozone or similar and they will tell you the codes for free

 

As a matter of fact I have it on good authority that the motor mounts can cause a CEL.
While it's not what you might think, aka a "motor mount" cel.

The knock sensor in our car has been known to pick up bad motor mounts as a knock event.

This could impact your emissions test as the knock sensor retards the timing.

A broken coolant reservoir or (more likely the problem) a broken coolant level sensor can cause a coolant warning light, but I've not heard of a CEL.

That all being said ... replacing the catalytic may not get rid of the CEL and may well still require a reset of the ECU to get rid of the CEL, then wait to see if they come back.

edit
Both can be done yourself, just becareful with the Coolant bottle not to snap off the small nipple that attaches to the Radiator ... it's made of plastic and likely very fragile at this stage in it's life.

 

Yeah I was going to go to autozone tomorrow. Thanks wcs that's the info I was looking for. I'll let you guys know the codes tomorrow.

 

As stated be careful with the coolant tank, I broke my small nipple not on the tank but off the radiator. So be very careful or youll dig a deeper hole. Good luck and go get that code pulled and come back with it.

 

Ok guy here are the codes: p0300 and p0335.

 

p0300 is related to your plugs/coils.
p0335 is related to your eccentric shaft sensor.

check those
plug/coils link
ess link

 

Ok I actually changed the coils a few months back, I just ordered spark plugs and I will clean the eccentric shaft sensor. I hope that'll get rid of this annoying CEL. Thanks for everything and I will update you guys over the next couple of days.