Shutter Valve.....again?
 

I'm the proud owner of a 04 RX8 with 125,600 miles. I’m very good with scheduled maintenance. At 109,000 miles (1 year 3 months ago), the dealership replaced the shutter valve. When the shutter valve was replaced, they did a decarb of the engine.

This weekend and 16,000 miles later, the engine light came on again with code P2010: Intake Manifold Runner Control Circuit High Bank 1 (aka. Shutter valve crap-out). The dealership has two options.

Option 1. Replacing the shutter valve again but they couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't see the issue again. This would be $613. Ouch.

Option 2. Replace the intake manifold which would guarantee I wouldn't ever have the issue again. Unfortunately, we are looking at $2300. By the way, I can’t afford that.

Side Notes:
I had an engine light come on about 3 weeks ago. It was code P0446 EVAP system vent control circuit problem ON 2 EVAP system. I have had that happen before and got a new gas cap at 100,000 miles and was fine since. So I redid the gas cap, reset the code and assumed everything was okay. This could just be coincidence. But I’m wondering if it is related.
I run mid-grade gas. The owner’s manual said that was okay.

I was thinking of telling the dealer to kiss it and just trying to clean things up with Sea Foam and trying a few of the DIY’s tips on this site. The fact that I have had this happen twice so close together has me worried. After reading this site, I realize I drive like my grandma. I probably need to redline it a bit more often.

To my question…..could this be the start of something more sinister that just a sticky shutter valve? Does anyone think that the SeaFoam and DIY tricks would be a bad idea? Why can replacing the intake manifold guarantee this will never happen again?

Not sure how they concluded it was the SSV... since P2010 isn't in our service manual.
Though its between P2008 and P2017 which both deal with the APV.
I would say the APV is whats giving you this code.

Nope (see above)

Its not a bad idea to SeaFoam and could help out some (if the APV barrels themselves are stuck).
I've cycled the APVs manually by applying 12VDC to the motor (with it still installed) and listening to the valves cycle within.

I wouldn't say never again... but likely to last longer than the engine ;)
By replacing the LIM (lower intake manifold) you're also replacing the VDI, SSV, and APV.
It allows the dealer to not do their job of troubleshooting and just be done with you.

Coincidence... not related.

I wanted to follow up on my previous post. Jon316G, I think you were correct in your thought it may be the apv instead of the shutter valve. Well, all I did was (okay, actually my boyfriend did all the work) put a can of Seafoam in the gas and drove the crap out of it. He ramped up the RPMs several times. We were going to do a decarb of the engine ourselves but we never got around to it. 700 miles later and the engine light has still not come on. It runs much better now also. I guess it just needed a good cleaning. Thanks for your help.

so all you did was put seafoam in the gas tank and run it? i have the P2010 error too...
and jon if i take the intake manifold off and test the apv and it fail what do i do then?

Seafoam in the gas tank is not what helped here... it was the driving style.
When they "drove the crap out of it" they were cycling the APV and freeing it that way.

Engine needs to be removed to get the LIM out (not going to discuss how to remove it without pulling the engine because of the difficulty).
I cycle the APV by hooking 12VDC to the APV motor (while its still installed).
Its audible enough to tell if its working.
Or you can remove the APV motor and turn the white gear to see if its stuck.

Very improtant with Rotaries! - Drive it like you stole it! :P

This is Barbie. What Jon is saying makes great since. I drive my RX8 like my grandmother drove her station wagon. Since the above incident, I let my boyfriend drive it at least once a week like a crazy man. I have never seen that code again and it's been 5 months.
Now, this is something you probably want Jon to verify. When I say 'like a crazy man', I mean he will rev it up to redline before he switches gears. Then he shifts quickly. The reason I tell you this may be silly. But I didn't know. Temporarily, before he corrected me, I thought driving it for miles at redline was a good thing.

Driving for long periods at redline is a good thing. I will sometimes do 15-20 laps at intervals between 7k-10k at the track, and my car always drives better after this.(It has even been run for 2+ hours with this kind of love) Now I have the gauges to watch temp changes and make sure my cars not over heating and if it starts to I immediately pit the car and cool it down. But daily driving I will hit redline multiple times(10-15+) and my engine temps stay well within reasonable temps.

I am on the original engine(82K)/original transmission/and plugs that were changed at 15K. I now have 67K on the coils/plugs/and wires. My engine passed its compression test 8 months ago so something everything has held up (for now) just fine.