Owens

I've had my 8 since July04. No real problems until this morning. I am travelin on the highway in manual mode I go up to about 90 in 3rd then go down to 70, then i hit the pedal again and I have no power and the engine check light starts flashing. My friend was driving behind me at the time and told me a thick white exhaust started coming from my exhaust pipes. Anyway the light went off about 30 sec. later and I was close to work so I just parked. I started her up about 6 hours later and the engine started racin and all this thick white exhaust spewed out of my car for about 30 sec. I started her upagain a while later after the ride home and drove her alittle hard and everythin seemd fine. But still gonna take it in Mon mornin. Only thing I can think of is maby I down shifted to 2nd by mistake causin me to red line and thus engine cut off. But I looked down when i lost power and i was in 3rd gear and i didnt hear any beep although i had the radio on. I have an auto....I know I know....

Additionally I am noticing squeaking from my brakes. I know alot of people are having the same problem so i think ill get them changed when i take it in on Mon. Hopefully my dealership isnt stupid and are aware of the problem and will change them for free.

bxb40

I was doing a search for misfire... My car did exactly what you describe. Not sure about the white smoke, didn't have someone observe. Downshifted in manual mode to second from third going 55mph, accelerated to redline and shifted back in third - power loss, bliking engine light for several seconds, then went away. Car seemed fine afterwards - did not restarted it yet today. Checked for ECU codes - nothing stored or pending. Engine cutoff above redline does not result in engine light blinking - happened many times to me, it simply cuts the gas so you have less power. I'll keep an eye on mine to see if it happens again and I'll keep the scanner in the car to pull the code before shutting the engine off if it happens again (maybe this is why it was not stored today when I checked?).
Very strange indeed... pointless to take it to the dealer as they will not find a code or be able to duplicate. Car has 13000 miles, it is AT and a 06/'04 built.
If you get any info from the dealer, let me know what it is.
Thanks.

Mazda Monkey

make sure your engine oil level is not over the full mark, otherwise oil may be sucked into the intake at high engine rpms.

bxb40

Actually, I noticed today that the raspy sound I used to have for the last 6000 miles (since 6000 miles, which dealer's mechanic said it is normal) is gone after that episode with the power loss and the CEL blinking. Drove 600 miles since, no problems.... So I think my cat was loose or something, and it moved and got stuck when the CEL came... I have power all the way to the redline, if not, I would suspect a meltdown... Very strange - if I only could convice the dealer to measure the pressure drop on the cat next time I visit them....

snap-on

Five nuts and the converter is out of the car.

We did one today with the entire front bed broken in a million little pieces...ok not a million

The car had just set a P0420 and it rattled when the car was @3500-4000 RPMs

Owens

Update

Well no surprise here the dealer didn't find anything wrong; i gues that's a good thing. They said they checked everything even tried to re-create it, but found nothing not even any codes from when it had happened. They did change my front breaks same day with no problem though. Guess I'll just keep an eye out for any more problems in the future, hopefully there wont be any though.

bxb40

I think I found what caused that miss in power and flashig CEL. I was cleaning the engine bay and thought to check on the air filter....
The weirdest thing: it seems that oil shot from inside the engine into it ! I cleaned the MAF sensor a little but I guess that the whole duct is oily... sounds like I should see the dealer that changed the oil few days before that occured. But I did check the level after he did and was at the max sign, not over-filled. So maybe the tech poured oil in the tube coming from the top to the air duct.... Was sitting in the duct until I did some spirited driving....
Did you change oil few days before your car did the same as well?
Maybe you check the air filter as well - if too clean, the dealer changed it Check the MAF sensor as well...