Hi all,

Say, I've got oil showing up in my front air dam. I look inside and it looks like it's spraying ( I guess it could be from the air when I'm driving.)

It's not engine oil, brake fluid or coolant. It has a bit of a tan tint to it and its sticky.

I looked inside, engine compartment is dry, cant see in the air dam where it's coming from.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 

Install a catch can

And search around this is a common issue especially from the 04-05 models

 

Reading comprehension fail :-)

OP, are you sure its oil? Wash it all off and see if it returns.

 

Mmmm
Indeed

Front air dam?

 

Pretty sure its oil...there has been more of it each day the last few days...have a CEL..Will check that out...air dam as in the bottom part of the front bumper...the area where there is a gap for air. Above the tray so to speak that runs the width of the car. Thanks for the ideas so far guys

 

MMmm
I had a rad leak and would drop coolant on that area.

I also over oiled (really over kill) my filter once on my RB Intake and it actually dripped oil down in to that area as well.
The car was sitting for a month or so which allowed this to accumulate.

Yeah I'm not proud of that **** up

 

Stone hit on one of the oil coolers? In Canada (only) there was a recall on the lines that go from the engine to the oil coolers. This was due to corrosion. I had to replace mine at about 50K miles. I got some used ones from southern car part out.
Does your car have an automatic transmission? Could it be from the trans fluid going to the radiator cooler?

 

if it's out of the intake then a catch can is just band-aid for a bad/failing engine, a good engine will not hiccup oil, not even if overfilled by 1 Qt

 

It's from an oil vent line, silly how they connected the oil vent line to the air box which holds the filter but they did, so at high speeds the airflow going past the little hole for the vent line will create a vacuum for lack of better word and draw oil through that line, once little dabs of oil start coming through the hole in the air box the high air speeds inside just mist and spray oil every wear. I used to set my cruise control at 115mph going to work at 3 in the morning with no one on the highway, and I would soak an entire air filter some times. It can also be caused by over filling the oil, or not using a funnel when your pouring oil in allowing oil the enter that line.

I disconnected that air vent line from the intake, plugged the hole, and connected a valve cover air breather filter, and zip tied it to my upper strut tower brace.

 

^^ :facepalm: no, that's just BS spread & re-spread on the forum by people who have no clue

 

Well since the "mod" I’ve put 38,000 clicks and allot of them are race miles, and she’s still pulling strong, just with a dry filter this time around, so I don’t know what to tell you.

 

But he keeps on saying air dam, now that I re-read. and my problem was in the air box that holds the filter, maybe were talking about two different things. Mine was tan and sticky as well.

 

^^:facepalm x2:

 

oil in the intake is from a bad engine, a catch can is just a band-aid for a failing engine

having owned and competed in an RX8 since 2005 I have yet to see a good engine pull even one spec of engine oil into the intake tract, even when it has been overfilled by 1 Qt. This only happens if a rotor seal goes bad and is allowing combustion gasses into the engine sump i.e. bad engine

oil in the air dam could be from several things
1. either a leaking or corroded oil cooler or line
2. a bad engine puking oil into an aftermarket tube intake which is then working it's way out to the filter and dripping out. Even the OE box intake has drain holes on the inlet side in case water etc. gets in

 

Turned out to be radiator coolant. Go figure. Put in a new one.

Thanks all!