I bought a 2004 Rx8 recently and it worked beautifully at first. A couple of weeks later it got colder and the steering would freeze and not move at all whenever I parked it outside on a cold day, and this could be at home or at work which isn't great. The car would turn on fine but I'd only be able to go forward and backward since the steering wheel wouldnt budge. I realized that if i let the car warm up till the temp needle was about half way, I can restart my car and it would unlock the steering. I should have gotten it checked out right away but no time cuz of work. I drove it to work one day and after work the steering prob occured as usual so i let the car heat up. This time even after an hour and the temperature needle was just under half way the car still wouldn't unlock its steering.. I thought maybe it's too cold so i revved it at 3000 rpm, which should be fine, for a while to see if that helped and the engine light came on.. so i stopped and just left the engine car on in neutral for a while since that's my only option left and sooner or later the car started shaking and when i looked at the rpm needle it was below 1 which was unusual. Smoking slowly started filling the inside of the car and i got out and it was coming from under the car so looked under the car to find something glowing cuz of the heat. I took a pic of it with the flash, it doesn't look too hot but in the night it was reallyy hot and i turned off the car and got it towed. What's wrong with the car??

 

That's the catalytic converter what was glowing... must be replaced and it's not cheap. The car being a 2004, you're out of the emissions warranty I'm afraid.

The steering problem is strange. Never heard of such a thing.

 

Lol...If you want to save your engine's life (it may or may not be too late), stop driving your car...Your cat is clogged...That glowing is bad...very, very bad...Don't drive it until you either gut it, or get a new one...Depending on your mileage, you might still be under warranty.
As for your power steering...very common issue...I advise you to do some searching...There are plenty of threads here discussing power steering issues.

 

Well, power steering issues, yes... but complete lock-up so that the steering wheel cannot be turned at all? I don't think that'd be common.

 

I've read it several times here before...Yes, including owners having to restart the car to get their steering back.

 

Hi, I've got an 05 GT, 89K, new engine at 83K etc (that should answer some questions up front)

I'm actually having the same steering problem now, I've noticed when the temps drop below 0, the steering will "freeze" until the engine warms up. I've taken it to the dealership and after an hour of ??????? (meaning i dont know what the hell the "technician" did for an hour aside from break my battery cover) all they could tell me is the EPS Control module was defective (Code B-1342) and that the tech had checked the connections (which is also BS as the cover never came off of the PCM/EPS compartment thing next to the battery cover).

I've also noticed that on the mornings when the steering freezes, the engine idles funny til it warms up, like it'll randomly drop 100-200 RPM and sound like it wants to die for a split second but then it comes back to life. The power steering light has come on three times now, if i turn the car off and back on again the light goes out. That has me thinking it might be a battery issue, but why would the engine crank, and the power steering lock up if that were the case.

I'm starting to think its the power connection to the rack itself, because I've checked, when the steering freezes the Steering wheel can turn about 3 degrees in either direction, the shaft turns, and the thing at the end of the shaft that connects to the rack turns. But that doesn't explain why the rack would unlock after the engine heats up.

I'm going to take the airbox out myself tomorrow afternoon and check the connections underneath it as I've read in lots of the power steering threads that those connections are most likely the cause.

As of right now the two suspects are either the battery's dying on me, or the rack needs replacing, I''m not really sure about the EPS Control module because I have yet to see any actual power steering problems while I'm driving, or loss of power steering at all.

If any of you guys have any thoughts I'd greatly appreciate it, I'm not exactly a car guy, but i did research the RX-8 and its intricacies for about 8 months before I bought mine back in July, I've been studying the Shop manual for steering diagnostic stuff, and I'm capable of doing whatever work needs doing on my car, I just have no experience with this stuff so I need a starting point or at least some ideas, Please Help guys thanks in advance

(and i've been searching the forums for 3 weeks now, I only just came across this thread today after reading through them all one by one)