triangleztrianglez

want to start off by saying i proudly am now an owner of an RX8
2005 with 102k KILOmeters
and upon my first kind of checkup on everything i noticed what looks like either gas, or oil in my intake air filter.. and on the other side what looks like some sort of burnt carbon..
also want to point out that whenever i turn on my AC (heat too) a sort of exhaust smell comes out of the vents (only when its air pulling in from outside) and it smells so strong that im forced to turn it off.
could this be linked to the air filter problem? im gunna assume that since theres a leak, my mass airflow sensor is dirty which could potentially causing a really low and sometimes rough idle (600rpms) that dips down to almost stalling on the odd occasion.

what do you guys think? is it worth buying a new air filter or just going with an aftermarket intake?

Loki

iTrader: (1)

That filter is done even in the 'cleaner' areas. Best to replace regardless. Oil in the intake happens if engine oil is overfilled during an oil change, so you probably just want to check the oil level, drain if necessary, and clean out the intake and MAF (with MAF cleaner only!)

Don't worry about aftermarket intakes, you can spend that money better somewhere else. The stock intake system is extremely well engineered.

triangleztrianglez

awesome thanks for the advice! the oil level is about 3/4 on the dipstick so whatever was once overfilled must have been consumed. just got the car a few weeks ago and feel the previous owner didn't take that good care of it.

do you think replacing it will fix the smell coming from my vents?

also want to point out that the exhaust produces a lot of brighter smoke and black liquid drips out of the exhaust, when around the perimeter of the car it smells like strong fumes. is this normal? ive seen most at dealerships that smelled the same

Loki

iTrader: (1)

When the car is cold it will smell, yes. Droplets could just be moisture, you'll need to be more precise.

For your vents though, the engine intake has nothing to do with the cabin air intake, so as a starting point I'd suggest checking the cabin air filter. It's behind the glovebox, search for a description of the procedure.

A sort of exhaust smell can be ... exhaust or a gas leak or an oil leak or a coolant leak leak cooking on something hot. We can't really help you there without you doing some investigating in situ.

Since you're new to the car, be sure to read the "New and Potential Owners" sticky thread in the New Members forum.