metallic buzzing/rattling at 7000 rpm....
 

please advise;

2005 nordic green; i have 52000 km on it, all mine;

love the sound of the rotary and i know it off by heart; however, since yesterday i am noticing a metallic pitched buzzing/rattling sound (like a mosquito sound amplified) as the engine hits 7000rpm;

as soon as i get a little higher/lower in the rpm range, sound goes away; however, by keeping the rpm range at that level, the sounds will keep coming on/off;

the sound seems to be coming from the passenger side, behind the dash and not from anywhere else; i want to think its a little creaking like we are used to in our rx8's but it sounds a little more metallic than i like;

any thoughts would be appreciated; is there anything behind the passenger dash that would be prone to rattle?;

no advice?;

i have read every thread on rattling and nothing matches what i am hearing;

i have 52k km on it and it starts this rattle out of nowhere; it is not a regular noise;

someone must have had something similar, it is not a loud rattle but loud enuff that you can hear it even when revving to 7k;

it is clearly coming from passenger dash area; sounds the same every time which is why i dont think its a rattle;

it also does it at idle which proves it is related to engine and not road vibrations;

any advice would be appreciated before i goto dealer;

sand in a blender?............very common...may be water pump cavitation....

I have the answer. It bugged the hell out of me until I was able to find it. It has happened twice with the same symptoms and same fix.

Basically, its the bolts that are located behind the midpipe connecting the trans brace. I'll post pics shortly.

https://www.rx8club.com/album.php?albumid=643

Check out the album and ask any questions.

did you have the same symptoms as me?;

how did you find the problem?;

how did you fix it?;

thanks in advance for your help; im going to look at my vehicle asap;

yes, and they progressively got worse as the bolts rattled loose.

you fix it by tightening them up. set your arm torque wrench to "with nuts".

PS: Please post your findings, so that others who search in the future find the solution.

will do; i am jacking the car up this weekend and ill advise asap;

I test drove an 06 last week that did the same thing, this must be a fairly common problem. Please do post if it helps cause i was gonna go look at another 8 instead because of that sound

Yes its a VERY common problem. Factory specs are too weak. After I had my engine and transmission replaced, I had to go back under there and tighten everything back up.

It's easy to do, just a pain in the ass to see all the bolts behind the midpipe.

I hope this is the solution. I've had this for a long time now. I'll try to set up some time this weekend to jack my car up and tighten this stuff up. It is so annoying to have the smooth rotary be disturbed by this metallic rattle.

Also let the forum know of your results. Just so this problem is solved for others as well.

Just so you know, we dont take those bolts out. You can drop the whole PPF with that shield still mounted on it. If anything the extreme heat cycling probably loosens them.

kevin.

Interesting.

Unless I am misinterpreting what you just said. Are you simply removing the whole thing?

The solution for me to was tighten them all back up.

NVM: I've been awake for too long. I just realized when put into context what you just said.

lol n/p, it does look like it needs to be removed when you look at it so I can see why you'd think it'd be removed.

Although there definitely could be techs out there who unbolt it, so maybe i shouldnt generalize such a large group lol.

kevin.

i have the same problem. (1st thing this weekend; jack car up, fix prob.) thanks guys! =D

Hey, can you post another pic somewhere, it wont let me see it for some reason, says i dont have permission... and im not quite sure what bolts were talking about. I can try to find it tomorrow, havent looked at it yet, it may be obvious, idk. But a pic would help. Thanx