Does anyone have a picture underneath a 2005 RX8? Looks like I could be missing a support bar cover the catalytic converter

 

Google image search: site:rx8club.com underbody
https://www.google.com/search?q=site...ed=0CAcQ_AUoAg

2nd pic:

 

That is an 09+ but yeah basically the same.

 

I have an 07 with no support bar and the heat shield looks burnt through + loose. with the winter coming should i take that off incase a chunk of ice decides to rip it off with that $150 o2 sensor?

 

Why not just fix or replace whats needed if your going to be under there, then you'll have no worries.

 

Mine looks exactly like that pic, except that my cat is a deep red color. Probably not a good thing.

 

You've got cat failure my friend. Get that taken care of ASAP, your killing your motor.

 

Your cat or the resonator after it?

 

All of it. I know it's a problem and will take it in for evaluation after the holidays. Never any codes and very few misfires according to Torque. I bought it with only 10K miles on it and never knew it had a problem until it recently picked up power. It has 27K miles now. Weird.

 

Not that weird, you probably had a clogged cat until you melted a big hole in the middle, freeing up that power. The discoloration is probably a combination of excessive heat and oxidation through the past few thousand miles.

 

Could be. I pulled the front of the cat down a few months ago, and it looked perfect. How does an RX-8 cat typically fail? Does the front catalyst stay clean, while the rear catalyst clogs? How does one inspect the rear catalyst with the resonator in the way? Bore scope? Anyway, I also had the stealership inspect it, and they told me it was normal and charged me $120 for their trouble.

What caused me to suspect it might be bad was stronger than normal odor, a hissing sound under the hood that sounded more like a slight exhaust leak than a vacuum leak, and a putting sound in the exhaust that occurs about every 10 seconds.

No one has ever been able to find the "leak." The putting sound is supposedly normal according to what I have read on this board. The cat is supposedly OK.

What really remains unexplained is where a whole lot of extra power came from the last time I had the car on the track.

Since I am thinking of selling the car, I will take it to a different dealer for another cat inspection and compression test to see if I can find out what is really going on with the car. I'll do this after the holidays since my 8 is not my daily driver and mostly just sits in the garage.

 

If its glowing red its failing somewhere. Either gut it, get a midpipe, or get a new cat. Or just leave it and let the next person deal with it (however they see fit)

 

I called another stealership today, and their service guy told me they test cats by doing a sniff test. If it passes, it is a "good" cat and will not be replaced under warranty. They want $115 for the pleasure of testing it. When asked about a clogged cat that can pass a sniff test and also destroy a rotary engine, he had nothing to say.

I can't feel good about passing a cat problem on to another owner, so I'll have to figure something out.

Of course, all decisions hinge on how much I like the MSM, which should arrive tomorrow. The 8 could end up with a BHR midpipe and be thrust right back into service.

 

Just to complete my hijacking of this thread, I pulled my cat and inspected it tonight. An ultra bright flashlight was shoved up its butt, and I rolled the cat around so I could see the light from every angle through the honeycomb. I found absolutely no evidence of any clogging. It is a nice shade of red on the outside, though. This is a good cat.

 

To me that looks like the cat is mostly clogged.

 

It's just the picture size and distortion from the cell phone camera lens. There are no signs of foreign matter at all. Here are a couple of huge shots from slightly different angles.

[Regardless, my next purchase will be a BHR midpipe to remove cat failure from the equation in the future.]