4, 000 rpms and kind of sluggish + Smoke
 

I got a 04 left over with 200 miles on it all has been well until today, The car was hesitating around 4, 000 rpms and kind of sluggish. I noticed it was blowing some smoke. I thought bad gas because the car only has 900 miles on it. I stopped to check the oil, it was half a quart low, and found black tar like substance in and coming out of the tail pipes. I took out the air filter and there was oil all over the intake and the airfilter was soaked in oil. I called roadside. any ideas what it is. :(

The black stuff on the tailpipes is incompletely burned fuel-oil mixture that we all have to one degree or another, so that's probably not related to your hesitation problem.

The oil in the air filter could be evidence of a previous, crude attempt to recover the car from a flood--probably at the port--by squirting oil into the intake to increase engine compression for the starting attempt.

My guess, and it is just that, would be that the car may have flooded at one time in it's history and your cat converter is failing as a delayed result of the flood. That might account for the hesitation and possibly the smoke as well. Best to take it into a dealer to have it checked out.

It gets picked up Monday morning.

Yep, could be the CAT collapsing. We had a car in the PNW do that recentley... Have them pull the plugs also to see how they look.

It's not squirrel o'clock is it? Remember the guy who had smoke coming out his exhaust and found a squirrel had hoarded corn in his muffler??!!! He even posted corn pics...... :)

Yeah, I remember that one. Now there's a troubleshooting nightmare. Talk about low-tech problems. :D

ok they are telling me the oil go sucked through the breather some how.
:confused: They think I over filled the oil but I did not.

I have a very early build date 2004 with only 1900 miles. I noticed some serious hesitation at about the 4k mark as well. Not sure whether or not it was smoking or not (I lean toward not smoking though) and also had the soot on the tailpipes. I took it to the dealer yesterday for the "N" flash on the ECU. I have heard some say that there is more power and thought that it was a Snake Oil pitch, but I'll be damned if it doesn't feel stronger. In addition, the hesitation at 4k is all but gone and it feels smoother all along the RPM range. I read also that others with the "N" flash noticed less soot on the tailpipes.

As for the oil on the filter...that's a bear. Since the RX is not turbo charged and has no intercooler, I wouldn't imagine that a light coating could do much harm, but I would at least ask the dealer to clean the intake tract.

Simply tell them that with 900 miles, if it was overfilled, it was them.

I got the car back and it seems fine, they cleaned everything, ruan great for a day , know it is idleing rough. I will keep everyone posted

What defines "rough idle" for you? In other words, is it lumpy like a v8 with a nice cam, or do you just notice more vibration than say a cylinder car. The rotary is not the smoothest idling engine that I've come across. I've had 3 rotaries and they all idle about the same with some vibration that can be mostly felt through the tranny and heard (and seen in the tach). If it's vibrating your body, there might be something a little off.

Do you know if they cleaned the MAF Sensor? Easy DIY process. This sensor can become coated with oil, causing large voltage fluctuations that can lead to a poor idle quality. Just a quick thought.

with rotory idle why dont they make the idle speed a little higher say 900rpms That would take car of it
olddragger