When I got home from work today, I smelled something strange. I thought that something like a twig or paper might have been touching the exhaust, but when I look under the 8, I saw that the cat was glowing bright red (by the 02 sensor, the only place I could see through the heat shield), is this normal?

Thanks

 

Something might be wrong if it is glowing bright red. I drove mine like mad before I went and swapped my midpipe in. While the cat was hot... it was certainly not glowing.

Slavearm

 

I have the rough idle problem as others are having and my gas mileage is still about 13 mpg. I think maybe my plugs are fouled and maybe there is unburnt gas heating up the cat. I took it to the dealer for the idle and gas mileage problem and got a responce of its the "nature of the beast" in referance to the rotary motor. So I'm not sure what to do.

 

Maybeyou can try to take a pic of the cat when it is bright redand then take the car into the dealer andshow them the pic.

 

or you have a clogged cat. and that will kill your gas mileage.

beers

 

Ask your dealer to check the cat. It may be blocked, they should be able to tell by checking the exhaust emissions and O2 sensor readings.

 

I checked the temp of the cat with my OBD-2 CANScan and it shows about 1190deg. F. with engine running. That seems high, anyone else have numbers to compare?

 

that isnt' abnormal for a rotary engine...teh exhaust gasses in a rotary normaly are around 1600-2000 (if you get on it)...teh rx-8 with it's 13b-msp is supposed to be around 1200-1600 deg. So you are within operating specs there.

 

As others have said, it sounds like your cat is partially plugged. Take a trip to the dealership.

 

If the dealer told you it was normal, go find a REAL dealer.

 

here's my cat temp vs. speed for a 30 second run. As you can see it heats up fast!

 

Here is another plot of cat temp for more normal driving.

You can clearly see unburnt fuel is going into the Converter during acceleration causeing a temperature rise.

 

wouldn't that cause a CEL to go on? Better not park over leaves if that is normal.

 

yeah, holy cow... 1700 is a "little bit" high. you definitely have a case for some serious inspection.

 

I assume this is normal.... I would expect it to trigger a CEL If it is not normal.

It does tend to cool down fast.