I got a CEL this weekend and it hasn't gone off (thinking it's the gas cap). But upon inspecting my intake (AEM CAI) there seems to be oil in it. There was oil in my stock intake also when I took it off and my oil is rarely overfilled. I'm pretty careful about that. As far as my 8 is concerned, it actually runs fine. There is no noticable issues going on with the car. I was wondering about cleaning the MAF and found this thread:
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/maf-location-87018/

Does anybody think this is the cause of my CEL and if so do you think this would solve the problem? Anyone this issue where the car runs fine but have CEL?

 

The last time I had problems with my car, the cat was plugged causing loss of power. When I got it back from the dealer, he had to replace the maf due to oil in the intake. I was told that the exhaust restriction caused the problem.

 

^ Was it a significant loss of power? Mine hasn't lost any to my attention. It's pretty much running like I just drove it off the show room.

Man, I hope it's not the MAF. That would really suck. I still have my stock intake laying around though. I could just put it back on and run it up to the dealer.

 

A friend told me, "They changed the crankcase breather system on the 06's....must have had more problems than they were letting on with the oil in intake thing."

The AEM CAI is no different than the MS CAI.

 

my 05 has been bone dry an I run a bit over on oil, I mean nada, nothing, no signs of it whatsoever, not even with the custom CAI I installed recently

 

One trick is to be very careful when adding oil---you can easily end up with oil in the breather hose.You can avoid this by using a long funnel and pouring the oil slowly.

 

I've also had a K&N panel filter installed since the car was new until installing the CAI

 

Oil in the intake is normal from what I researched on the RX-7's, maybe the knock sensor at the intake is registering the CEL. I think it was on RB site mentioning about the removal of the knock sensor to avoid the CEL.

 

hey thanks abbid. I wonder why I missed that thread while I was searching.

Yeah, but wouldn't I feel a difference in performance or some idle problems or something? I'm getting no kind of hint as to what's wrong with the car. Heck, if the CEL wasn't on, I wouldn't know the difference between my car now and when picked it up brand new.

 

Cleaned my MAF and opened the intake to clean it. Funny thing is, it's bone dry in the intake!!! The filter must have gotten something oily on it from the outside hence I thought there was oil in the intake track like my stocker. Anyway, the CEL is still on and I'm going to take to the dealer.

 

You have to remember that the inside of the intake maybe clean, but the MAF wires are super heated and whatever hits them will basically burn or ash over on the wires. Since, your cel is still on then obviously it must have not been the MAF, but it never hurts to clean it from time to time.