Oil inside Intake Box!
 

need a little help....

About 2 days ago i filled up my oil...later that night I started my car up to watch a movie. The minute I start reversing out the driveway the car idles like never before, very rough, so much the car itself is vibrating. I drive it to the theatre's parking lot and when I parked I reved it a little and so much smoke came out of the exhaust it worried me. I look inside the intake box and I see a little bit of oil on the filter, take out the filter and see that theres a puddle of oil on the bottom of the intake box. Well I cleaned as much oil off the filter and intake box to drive back home, car still feels the same. By this time its about 2 in the morning so I waited till the next day to clean it. So the next day I take the intake box apart,clean the MAF sensor and that "accordian tube" attached to the MAF. I notice that theres a lot of oil in the crevices of the "accordian tube, so I clean as much of it as I could. Put everything back and started the car, felt a little better,less vibration, but theres still that vibration with the shift knob everytime I'm about to shift. Wondering what you guys suggest I do. Thinking about opening and cleaning eveything again in case some more spilled, taking it to the dealership but worried they'll try and pull some BS and charge me for something I just did. I know that the only way oil gets into the intake box is filling too fast, overfilling, and something about the pcv valve?

I did search and found this...found out that dealership cleaned o2 sensor..although I dont know how to do that myself, havent searched that yet.
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...&highlight=pcv

1)anything else I should be worried about that could be affected?
2)any suggestions?...Im thinking about just taking it to the dealer.

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

P.S sorry for the long story

You overfilled your oil and got oil blow back. If this happened then I can deduct that your car is either an 04 or 05. If you want to prevent this from happening then get an oil catch can.

As for cleaning the MAF sensor, go over to the DIY section of the forum, you'll find out how in there.

yeah I know I overfilled the oil.. that was my mistake.
but the car is an 07, and I did clean the MAF sensor already, helped alot, but the vibration is still there like I stated above.

I still have the filter with some oil dried up on it in there..and I do have an extra filter but worried it might spill on the new one.
Could the filter with some dried up oil cause the vibration. Havent seen any more oil spill out but what I should do is turn the filter around and see if more oil is spilling. (Just thought of that while typing) Its pretty late here in NY so Ima have to try that in the morning.

Thanks for the quick response though. Helped me think a little more.
Jeff

Your PCV is the main purpose for your oil getting inside your intake box. The main reason for your Emission, for the PCV value, is to prevent Blow by gas, it will re-route HC (Hydrocarbons) back into your engine to be reburned, reducing Emission and SMOG! But sometimes oil will flow into that direction too.

What I did was install an little filter in-between the line to catch the oil and just keep the HC flowing backing into the intake. You can see later down the road the filter start to get wet and black, due to the filter catching the oil and just letting HC/Air pass.

Very common for Turbo's and Supercharger's to install these units too. Keeps from dirty oil going back into the engine.

Yep, I made the mistake of overfilling my oil at one point myself. Get a catch can so it never happens again!

Were you experiencing the same problems and if so what did u do to fix it?

I appreciate all the info and suggestions on buying the catch can (looking into that now) but what Im looking for is suggestions on what to do next. Sorry I must sound like an annoying person asking for so much. lol

If you want a kick ass DIY on the MAF sensor cleaning PM me please!!!

I didn't have any vibration issues but I did have some problems with the motor knocking and at one point I seriously thought I blew my motor!

If you did overfill your oil, the short term solution would be to perform an oil change. Drain the oil along with the excess and then fill to the proper level.

What I experienced was a loss of power, as well as some nasty sounds of detonation followed by a HUGE cloud of smoke. It looked like something out of Spy Hunter. Later with the car parked on an incline (nose pointed down) I found a bunch of oil (approx 1/8 of a quart) sitting in the intake tray as it had leaked out of my K&N filter. It was enough oil that at WOT driving up the mountain (was on a mountain run) that the oil leaked into the intake manifold and then got sucked into the motor. It was enough that the motor choked on it.

If you're still having problems, drain the oil and do a change. A catch can is good insurance. I was surprised I didn't oil lock my motor with all the excess oil + the OMP + premix.

Thankfully a compression test performed later showed no issues.

The vibration issue(s) could be due to a few things.
1. Spark plugs are bad.
2. Motor mounts are bad.
3. Coils are bad.
-Gil

He said that his MAF got dirty. That might be the problem, if the map can't read the airflow correctly, the throttle plate and fuel mixture will be off. This is most likely the cause for your vibrations or weird idle issues.

Oh absolutly, I'd take the whole intake out...spray it out with brake cleaner and also use electrical contact cleaner (MAF safe) to clean the MAF. It's probably coated with oil.

Well heres my plan incase anyone is interested...

Im going to turn the filter around and start the car to see if any more oil is spilling, then if there is spillage Ill clean it up, clean the MAF sensor again, replace oiled filter with new filter and start car. If this doesnt work then the cars going to the dealership.

If anyone else got any better ideas let me know.

Thanks,
Jeff

OR you can save the trouble of doing it yourself, bring it straight to the dealership and hope that warranty will cover everything. :)

Forgot to add one thing not sure if it changes anything but...

That next day I drove to the dealership but unfortunately they werent able to take my car so when I was driving back on the highway...when I shifted from 3rd to 4th alot of smoke came out the exhaust, enough to blind the driver behind me for a sec or two...so I had to shift at low revs.

Is this a sign of something worse then a oil overfill.

It might be.... what color was the smoke?

white

Could be residual oil in the intake or if REALLY white, could be an internal coolant seal problem. Is your coolant level way down?

last time I checked no...that was 2 days ago.

Smoke might be due to one of two things,
1. Carb build up but that should be black, so thats a no lol

2. If it was white smoke it might be that your CAT is dead :( and you will need a new one. This will make your Engine run rough and your Exhaust under your car glow pink!
Dont let them talk you into buying one for $300.+ tell them there was a TSB on this sometime back and the should service it complementary ;)

-Gil

Update--

So I got the car back from the dealership and everything was covered...one problem though...the car is still running a little rough. And when my friend was behind me he said he only saw some white smoke when I was entering the highway.

Basically all they did was unclog the pcv valve.

Well, looks like Im going to have to go back. But before I do Im gonna check and clean the MAF, check the intake filter and look at the CAT to see if its pink.

OH btw. My check engine light was blinking for about 10 secs while on the highway, after I shifted from 4th to 5th at about 5k rpm.
Anyone know what that might be?

Make sure you clean the throttle body as well, especially right around the bottom. I've been having a slightly rough idle for a while when my AC is on. The dealer has diagnosed it as cracked engine mounts and I'm bringing it in Friday to get them replaced. In the meantime, I cleaned my throttle body and noticed some slight improvement in my idle.

Just a thought - Good luck.

Could be a random misfire caused by a faulty coil, plug, etc., but that RPM seems a bit low for that. Have the dealer or an auto parts store with a CAN-bus compatible ODBII reader pull the error code(s).