Hey all,

recently I've been noticing something weird with my 8. Today (on 2 occasions) after I drove around and left the car at idle (to park) there seems to be some kind of poping noise from under the front hood. I also feel vibrations for each pop noise. This doesn't occur when I first start the engine, only after a bit of a drive around. Also this popping doesn't occur when i rev the car. My car is bare stock so I don't think mods are a factor. My car is a 05 MT. Any speculations?

 

I bet it's your exhaust. Backfire is common.

 

Supposed to be normal on wankels, mine has never done it, but a friend's FC will do it regularly, it's also accompanied in that car by a burst of smoke when he starts to decelerate.

 

mazsport coils will probably fix it, unburned fuel in the exaust.

 

It could be knocking from low grade fuel. It could be from fouled spark plugs that need to be replaced. It could be from a plug wire having fallen off. Could be bad coils or wires. Those are the easy answers. There are a few mechanical things in the intake that can do this too.

How many miles? What grade fuel? When was the last time that you replaced the spark plugs ... all four, not just leading?

 

Well as for fuel, I'm running on premium so that's 91 octane. Car has 38,000 km on it so makes it around 23-24k miles. Wire and plugs should still be from factory.

 

normal "popping" from a rotary engine will not happen at idle. you said it DOESNT happen when you rev it, so that's not the explaination.

Spark plugs or fuel problem seem more likely....although not particularly obvious.

1) See if it goes away after your next gas fill-up
2) Can you try to localize the sound to a specific area of the engine, or specific mechanical part?

 

probably the AC kicking on and off the e-fans :P

 

a cut off hose and a plastic cup will do wonder.