climacus

If there is a leak in the CAI after the filter....

Gecko69

+1.....good call......footman, did you install the cai or did the dealer??? if the dealer did, they could have had oil all over their hands when they were reinstalling the maf...you never know......its plastic, just use a clean soft towel and wipe it off........it just makes sense that something is limiting the air going into the engine....and the maf is what controls the amountof air entering......try it.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

I will stop by partsource or Canadian Tire and pick up some electrical cleaner or that CRC MAF cleaner stuff if they have it. I'll take a look at the CAI. How often should I clean the CAI intake filter? When I got the car, I also got 2 bottles of filter cleaner. The CAI was installed by the dealer.

Neo

I know it's slightly different for RX-7's, but I've never had that problem occur.
I did notice that my car will not run in temperatures below 7C. I think my intercooler does a very good job of cooling the air. The computer cuts fuel at around 6000rpm.
That's when I knew it was time to put the car away.

You'd be surprised what the MAF sensor goes through. A good cleaning on everything will make a big difference.

Aside from that, I would think it's the CAI that might be causing the trouble at high RPM.
I know other people have said they haven't had the same problems. But have they experienced the same temperatures we've experience here in the last little bit???

Maybe a stuck injector? although you said the car is running richer, right?
That's definiately a trial and error situation. Sucks, but that's all part of the character of the car.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

CAI and MAF problems go hand-in-hand.

The oil gets on the MAF because of the huge air volume our car takes, high velocities and potential to strip the foam of it's oil.

When you get the cleaner, make sure to shoot some up INSIDE the top of the 'tube'. The tiny wires up there are the actual 'maf' sensor.


S

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Canadian Tire nor Partsource has CRC MAF sensor cleaner, and I asked the guy at the partsource about using air intake cleaners and he says it will damage the MAF sensor if I use that. Anyone know where to buy CRC MAF cleaner in GTA?

nate340

sorry to hear you having troubles andrew, my guess it's the CAI causing MAF to get dirty. bad idea to run the CAI in Canadian winters

Footman

iTrader: (2)

BTW, did I say this is my daily driver? and Toronto's winter has been very very brutal this season.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

So does anyone know where to buy CRC MAF cleaner in GTA area?

Renesis_8

The AEM/MS intake is has an oiled filter right? Its probably because of that.
________
AlishaAndJack

Gecko69

no its a dry flo filter....and if it was an oil issue, then the k&N should technically do the same; which it doesn't. footman, did you clean the maf sensor yet??

Footman

iTrader: (2)

No, I didn't yet. I couldn't find CRC MAF cleaner at Canadian Tire nor at Partsource. I'm in Toronto, and I don't know where else I can go to try to get it.

I don't want to use brake cleaner or carb cleaner; just want to be on the safe side and use something properly designed to clean MAF.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

SUCCESS.. I was able to find CRC MAF cleaner. In Canada it's branded as "SensorKleen".

FYI people, I found it at Napa Autoparts store in Scarborough. It is located on Birchmount Rd. south of Eglinton on the west side of the street.

I got the last one they had in stock and more are coming in.

I will post my results of MAF cleaning this evening.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Okay guys, here are the results.

I used CRC MAF cleaner, and cleaned the MAF. I drove her around for 15 minutes to warm her up. Once warmed up I brought her on the highway. Throughout the drive... I was able to maintain 2nd gear at up to 6000rpm or so with no problems around 70km/h..... once I got on the highway... I floored it. Goes to redline in 2nd gear, goes to redline in 3rd gear no problem. This is with the gas pedal all the way down. The exception is that, the CEL light starts to blink, and then goes away each time I do this. I did it several times to redline and downshift, and it goes.

The sputtering starts when I try to hold it at a certain speed above 6500 rpm. For example, if I try to maintain 90 in 2nd gear.. .it sputters.. if I try to maintain 120 km/h in 3rd gear, it sputters lightly.

Cleaning the MAF seemed to have helped a lot. When I got back to my place, I decided to test it in neutral. I revved it to redline, it goes there, but as I go above 6000rpm, the CEL blinks again. If I hold it steady below 6000rpm, it's fine. Above that, if I try to hold it there, you can feel it sputtering. Eventually the CEL blinking stopped and this time, it stayed there.

One important thing to note: There is NO sense of LOSS OF POWER at all. It pulls perfectly fine throughout all of this.

I pulled out my SCANGAUGE II, and now I only have P0300 misfires.

Intake temps are between 0 to 10 deg Celcius. I washed the CAI sock and double checked and it looked clean as well.

So now I have the following done:

1) MAF cleaned
2) Spark plugs replaced

P0300 remains. Ambient temperature is -4 degrees today in Toronto.

What do you guys think?

P.S. The correct hex key size to remove th RX-8 MAF is 9/64". It took me 3 trips to the mall to figure that out.

HEVNSNT

An excessively lean mixture may cause misfiring. Be careful not to push it too hard. The MAF signal may be inaccurate enough to cause a lean condition.

I don't think it's an ignition problem because there appears to be no issues below 6K, and under no load, the ignition should work the same whether it's above or below 6k. Plugs could be too cold though.

DarkBrew

Excellent post; You're very thorough.
You should pull out the plugs and check the colour (take a picture), check that they're the right parts and check that they were installed in the right locations.

Gecko69

so your air fuel is too rich???? I guess you need to start working your way along trouble shooting. So you aren't getting enough air into the engine.......you cleaned the maf and it helped, and you cleaned the aor filter. did you check the throttle body valve??? could be stuck or not opening fully...ie. could have gummed up oil or dirt making it not open up fully. if that doean't help, you are going to have to have the dealer look at it I think.........but I agree with hevnsnt that it probably isn't an iginition issue...but I personally would check the coils anyways.

Gecko69

sorry I am also going to add this ......not to insult you as you didn't install the cai right??? are the 3 hoses attatched to the 3 prongs on the intial pipe of the cai???? if one of them is not on correctly, you could be pushing air out of there???? just putting it out there...........one of mine popped off under hard driving once and since then I have used hose clamps around each one of them and around the vfad plug......your plug is on the vaccuum port on the throttle body, right??

Footman

iTrader: (2)

No insult taken Gecko69, I'm a noob so any help is appreciated.

I did not install the CAI; the dealer installed it.

What you said is a little bit over my head after I read it. Can you elaborate some more? I couldn't find a DIY on MS CAI or AEM intake here, so I could not reverse the process of installation to understand what you are saying with respect to the vacuum ports or VFAD plugs or the 3 prong plugs?

Darkbrew,

Pulling the plugs is too much for me to do. I live in a condo, and I don't have a jack to work on the bottom of the car. Plus, I don't have most of the proper tools (i.e a socket wrench) to perform these steps. Regardless, I will be dropping off the car tomorrow morning for a full day. The dealer apologized for not solving my issue after 3 visits for CELs and said they will do a full diagnosis and they're giving me a loaner car for a day.

Gecko69

hey footman. SO I am at work other wise I would have e-mailed you the picture on the instrutions. SO I will explain the best I can.

when you look at the CAI in your engine bay( while you are facing in from the front of the car ), the very first section of tubing coming off the throttle body has the MAF port and before that there should be 3 prongs with black tubes attached to them........they all have different functions, but they all should be over the prongs and pushed down to the bottom of the prongs.....if any one of them were off or almost off you could be leaking air out of the port.

Secondly, move to the drivers side of the car and look into the engine bay and at the bottom of the throttle body on the side you can see there is a conection for the vaccuum tube used for the stock intake that was taken off when the stock air assembly was removed. this little prong needs to have a cap/plug over it. this should have been included in your cai kit and installed by the dealer.

take a look at those to see if they are attatched and covered respectively.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

I checked.

The 3 pront black tubes are secured all the way down. They are clamped on with plastic ties already.

I'm not sure which is the throttle body, but to describe what I think I saw.... the first block that the CAI is attached to looks like that throttle body. Standing on the drivers side of the hood and looking at it, at the lower section of it, I see a round opening that has a cap covering it. I wonder if that's what you are talking to. It's capped off and looking around, there are no free-hoses that are dangling with caps on it or looking disconnected.

Gecko69

yeah.....then everything is capped.......its a prong that sticks straight down from the side/bottom of the throttle body ( silver metal that the first peice of the cai attaches to ) it's noticableable....should be covered with a black soft cap. its not a round opening.....its a prong...looks just like what the top hoses are attatched to but smaller.

Gecko69

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...light=cai+pics

here is a pics....the small black tube to the right of the cai with the small white connector( exactly right of the cai and right below strut bar ) leads just up behind the throttle body and connects to a small prong...that is where there should be a cap...

Footman

iTrader: (2)

I looked, I could not find that hose you were talking about.
Here are some pics of my CAI in engine bay.

Gecko69

ok....good pics......in the third pic.......do you see the green and white plastic thing under the throttle body. That is a part of the vaccuum tube that connects to the vaccuum port on the throtle body. It looks like they tucked it under the throttle body.....either pull that tube out from under there and check to see if they put a black cap on the end or if they secured it/tied it down...foloow it and see if they capped it. that same tube should come up to a port just behind the throttle body. as long as they capped it then your ok. if there is no cap...you will need to get one. Not saying this will fix the problem completely, but it should help.