Guys,
Yes I have done a search and only found one thread with the aweful smell but this was on a fairly new car ~2K miles.

My car has ~ 45K miles and the smell, especially when started in the morning(also when warm but less), is just waaaay toxic. I know the RX8 runs rich... but this is I believe beyond this.!!! I can even stay inside my garage for 10 seconds that the whole garage gets "fumigated" by this smell coming out of the exhaust. It's more of a chemical smell mixed with gasoline.

Of course my car is not even getting 17 MPG and I am on the latest flash... and drive it "easy" always staying below the 3750 RPM on the HWY.

Anybody else has experienced this?
I can't even leave teh windows down that the air will become so toxic!

TIA,
Carlos

 

Come on down to St. Bernard parish, La.. and visit my house!!!! Thats TOXIC..

Sorry couldn't resist! Just got mine, so can't be of much help sorry..

 

not sure. have you tried a different brand of gas or tried gas from a different station to see if that affects the exhaust odor? also, have you looked to see if you have a plastic back melted to your exhaust?

 

Could be a CAT problem or something melted onto your exhaust system.

 

All the recalls have been performed, even the gas tank recall.

It's not a burning smell... it's the car running waaaaaaaay rich that makes this aweful smell.

Of course, waaay RICH = burned cat.

This car hasn't been what I expected!!

Carlos

 

Yes, do have the dealer inspect your catalyst. Most likely is gone... Mine went out around 9k and had to be replaced. I guess your mpg is low because of the catalyst as well.

 

There are issues with the first 8's and the cat's. What happens is that the car runs too rich on start up. Then, it fouls the cat and ruins it. However, it doesn't ruin it so bad (at first) that it doesn't fall within sensor range. Rather it plugs it up. The fix is to replace the cat and reflash the ECU so that it doesn't do it again. Strangely, though, most people get an engine light eventually indicating bad cat. Either way, with 5k left on your warranty I'd have it checked out, push the issue and definitely get a compression check.

 

I just had my 30k sevice at the dealership. They changed the oil in the limited slip differential and it has an awful smell. After 3 visits they rplaced the oil with a lesser smelly oil BUT I still can't ride with the windows down or the car fills with a toxic smell.

It's winter now so window down driving isn't an issue.

Has anyone out there got a solution to this one?

 

The differential is a closed environment so unless they spilled the oil and that's what you're smelling, I suspect it is just the arôme d'Wankel you're smelling (aka, the very rich air-fuel mixture resulting in a good shot of unburned fuel-oil exiting the tailpipe). I notice a hint of that in my RX-8, but in my catless RX-7 it is overpowering.