The Irish Rotary Owners Club

[AdrianG]

Hi all,

Been a while since I have been on here...but still loving me RX8! However, I a having a problem. My battery was knackered and so I needed a new one. I successfully jump started the car a week ago and drove it for a couple of days. This morning when I went out to the car it would not start and so I tried to jump it again.... but this time the dials went a little crazy and when I turned the key it had a very fast tick tick tick sound like an Arc sound from a battery. So, I charged the battery for 8 hours, threw it back in and it started.

Drove to the battery shop, got a new 70 amp battery put in. When I start it with the new battery it starts no problem but then will no hold the idle at all. It just dies on idle. After a bit of a drive it idles slightly better but if I rev it and let it idle it dies again. I can help it not cut out with the throttle and balance the revs again around 1,000... but when I life my foot they hover around 500 RPM sometims and it cuts out then.

So, my question... what's up!?

Thanks a million as always

Adrian

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[O'Renesis]

That sounds like your ECU is still learning. The ECU has reset because of disconnecting the battery and needs to re-learn mixture settings etc. It should correct itself after a few drive cycles. Go for a good run and then see how it goes.

PS. also check the spark plug HT leads are not loose, they are a tight fit on the spark plugs and may need to be pushed home, just a thought.

[AdrianG]

Cheers man. It was the ECU re-learning.. all perfect again now. For your info on here you can reset the ECU manually... found this online:

The RX8 throttle is electronic or 'fly by wire'. As suggested above, changing the battery will mean the ECU has to relearn the throttle settings to run efficiently, which it will do over time. This is more likely were the ECU has adjusted settings for a weak battery and has to learn to 'trust' the new battery's output will be stable. For a battery replacement just driving as you would normally should do it within 100 miles.

There are a couple of ECU reset processes available on the net for Series 1 RX8s. I've copied them below for reference but search for what the letters mean before following them.
There are two reset procedures. Neither will erase your radio presets as the battery stays connected.
One for the NVRAM
1) With the key in the off position, press and hold the odometer reset button and turn the key to on;
Continue to hold the odo button until the odometer reads "TEST" and then release.
2) Turn the key to off and repeat step one.
This will reset the entire PCM except the KAM which contains the sensor profiles amongst other things.

The other for the KAM. You can reset it with the familiar procedure:
1) Turn the key to on
2) Depress the brake pedal rapidly 20 times in a row until the oil pressure gauge sweeps to halfway and back again.

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[O'Renesis]

http://www.rotaryheaven.net/showthread.php?427-PCM-reset-procedure-%28KAM-NVRAM%29

The above link has a bit more detail as regards NVRAM and KAM reset procedure.