Hi, everyone!
I'm a new member coming in from San Antonio... name is Mauro.

I've been a long time lurker of this forum and have generally have always been able to find information regarding minor problems with my 8..... until now. Roughly about a month ago I dropped a quarter in the opening under the drivers seat (The section where the airbag connector wires go under the floor cloth lining to be exact). Anywho I tried for 30 minutes or so to grab it out of there trying to be careful not to be too rough and ended up pushing it further under the lining. Sooooooooo.... I gave up, started my car back up, and the needles on my gauges went all the way to the right. I thought nothing of it. Fast forward a week or so and I began having cranking issues. The crank issue appeared to be intermittent. Sometimes I was able to start my car in two to three seconds, other times it would take multiple cranks, lasting five or six seconds. Now this week, I had no further issues, that is until last night. I got to work, forgot my CAC card, and had to go back home. I had JUST got done driving about five minutes beforehand and when I went to start it up, all I got was click,click,click,click.... as Jeremy Clarkson would say " Rubbish"Alright no big deal I thought, got a jump went home, drove back, all without turning off the car for the batterys sake. So, I Get off in the morning car starts just fine, I head to Autozone, and ol dude said my battery is A OK 100% charged. Now I ask you RX8 Club can help a fellow rotarhead out? I'm out of ideas regarding what could be causing this issue, my next thought would be maybe the alternators going bad or I damaged/disconnected a wire underneath the floor liner. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! BTW Yall have some kickass smileys

 

Decided I should add more info. I have the upgraded starter, and am not recieving any CELs. Spark plugs,coils, and wires were replaced 30,000 miles ago and I just ordered the set from Maz Mart and plan on installing them on Tuesday. Anything else yall need to know come at me bro

 

Don't think the quarter has anything to do with it.
Yes, it's about time for wires/coils/plugs, but the reality is................shouldn't have too much to do with starting issues, but if plugs were really fouled, or bad coil.........then I guess it could. How does it run after started?
You've got a new starter, so...................I'm left with two possibilities.

1.) Bad connections to the battery and/or starter. Make sure all of those are clean and tight. FYI..........sometimes when people clip on the testers or jumper cables, it actually make a better connection and then once removed if you terminals are all crappy, then it resorts back to having bad connections.

2.) Hard starts(especially when warm) are an indication you could be having low compression. Worse case scenario......and don't want to alarm you.

Alternator is only used to power the car after it starts and used to recharge the battery while it's running, so I don't think it's the alternator. If you have access to a meter, then you could check the voltage at the battery(with the car running) and it should be just about 14-14.2 volts. That will almost completely rule out the alternator. But again, it has nothing to do with how the car starts.

Can you determine if this is a warm hard start problem or even when it's cool/cold?

 

Get a compression test done, maybe 9krpmrx8 can help you out!
Are you of italian descent?

 

Thanks for the response Mazsurfer! Hmm..... lets see about those troubleshooting questions. The car itself, once started pulls great! Well, as well as a stock 4 port AT can pull I honestly feel no loss in power compared to when I didn't have the problem. The engine was replaced at about 65,000 miles due to low compression, I'm currently at about 84,000. Before the engine was replaced I would feel the loss in power and I was having trouble starting the car during hot days..... this problem feels a little different. I've had to jump the car twice in the past 2 days and noticed once its jumped I can start it up again with no hesitation for the next 8 hours or so. Whoops almost forgot to mention heat doesn't seem to play a factor as far as I can tell, both times its happened its either been night or early morning ( Temp was about in the 70's I figure) A friend also used what I think was some kind of voltage meter to try to test how many volts I was getting, once it was running. I'm not too sure what device it was exactly, but he plugged it into the port thats used to read CEL/plug in a Acessport it was read at about 13.6 fluctuating to about 13.2 if I remember correctly. Now that u mention it though my connectors do seem kinda dirty I'll get on cleaning asap... Epic post count BTW

 

I wouldn't mind getting help for a compression test. I almost don't feel worthy enough to ask someone like 9K with my rubbish *** post count though. As I said in my first post, I've been a long time lurker...... and that man knows his ****!

 

Check the alternator belt tension after you clean the terminals; your (running) voltage reading should be 14.25 volts as Mazurfer has mentioned.

 

EDZRIDE, u sir have made a lightbulb go off in my head..... my belt has been squeaking, for a good minute.... For whatever reason I noobed out and forgot the alternator could experience issues if the belt is loose A beer for u