Need Help, running rich p2097, cant pass smog :(
 

Hello there

My name is Kris and i have recently purchased a 2005 Rx-8, and i truly love this car. She has 80k miles on her and has been giving me a lot of problems most of which i have been able to take care of. First there was a random misfire (thanks to her last owner) then there was the flooding of the engine (um... that one... was my fault..... "sigh") and now i cant pass smog. The smog test is the final step to assume full ownership of the car, here are the results of my latest smog test.

HC ....max mine
15mph 55 511

25mph 39 524

CO ....max mine
15mph 0.50 2.02

25mph 0.48 1.82

as you can see ridiculously over the max.

How do i fix my baby?? (at least start in the right direction)

There is only one code coming up which is (p2097) "running rich"
i feel i should mention that i have replaced the ignition system (plugs, coils, wires)
as well as the Cat. Conv.

now i have looked all over the place for answers, but now i am asking for your help, i have worked so hard to save up for my car and for all the repairs which i have done my self. I love my car and i love working on it, any and all information would be really helpful.

thank you :)

Help

Moving this to Troubleshooting. Not sure why it was posted in DIY, which is a section for instruction sets. This might be why you aren't getting any responses.

Check for vacuum leaks. Vacuum leak means that air is being pulled into the engine that isn't passing the MAF, so the MAF isn't telling the ECU to add enough fuel, showing a lean condition at the rear O2 sensor, telling the ECU to adjust short term fuel trim to add fuel. And it swings all over the place here, and will indeed make your emissions tests come up as having too much CO (from running lean) and too much HC (from running rich).

clean the maf and replace the o2 sensor. actually you should have the dealer or someone else who can perform teh test to verify if its the o2 sensor or not.

where are you? this is with a sniffer correct? from your results it would seem to be.

Does it have a functioning CAT?

Yeah I should move it to trubble shooting sorry aha

I live in California. I will check for vacuumed leaks and replace the o2 sensor, my cat is new only 120 miles on it.

Someone said it might be a vacuum leak

Yes.



I did.


A possibility, but not the only one.

Yes and I was doing research on it and it sounds like what is going on with my car, the rough idle and high hc and co levels

The easiest way to confirm a vacuum leak is to get an ODB2 tool that can read live data and look at the STFT (short term fuel trim) at idle. If you don't have a vacuum leak, you should be sitting at 0%, +/- 1%. If you are oscillating around, or holding steady with ~+5% or more, you have a vacuum leak.

Clean your air filter.

In California, the SELLER is responsible for SMOG not the buyer.