04 rx8 randomly dies and hard to start

[(m-edition)]

Yo, whats up. A girl came up to me that i know that has a 6speed 04' rx8. said she has been having some problems with it. said it would randomly die on her. has done it 4 times with her driving it with the past year or so of owning it. said she can be driving normal and bam, she looks down and the car is dead. she said a couple of times the car would vibrate and then die. i told her the plug and what not might be bad. well she had a mazda dealership replace the ignition. plugs and ignition wires. she said it died on her yesterday.. just randomly died. also, she said the car is hard to start. i listened to how it starts. takes awhile and seems like it gets a dry crank. she gets fuel, i hear the pump priming. car doesnt misfire. new ignition. i said either the alternator or starter is weak for her start ups. but idk why the car randomly just dies. can anyone help?

 

[solidtrance]

Does she know if the car's Flash is up to date? (check post #6 in the link in my sig for details)

Check the battery terminals to be sure that they are on tight and free of corrosion.

Could be a stuck shutter valve. This may or may not throw a CEL. Not sure how to check this.

Has she checked for MIL's to see if the engine has any codes?

Could be a dirty MAF sensor, or a vacuum leak. Look for cracked vacuum hoses etc, spray carb cleaner lightly around them and if the idle suddenly changes (jumps up).... you found your leak.

If she takes it back to the dealership they will likely tell her that the OMP needs to be replaced (1200+$$$). Not the problem, but for some reason they seem to do coils, plugs, wires, and then move on to the OMP no matter what the customer complaints is.

Can you take a vid of the starting and post it. 8's seem to take a bit longer to start than other cars. There has also been a battery TSB, and a Starter TSB. Maybe she needs to get these done. There is a link in post #2 of the link in my sig to all the TSB's.

Check the stuff above and let us know what you find.