Hi guys,
My friend just bought an RX8, 2005. 5 speed manual. 44k miles.

He's been experiencing problems while idling. The car sounds like its going to stall and from the exhaust there is like a bopping noise like a pocket of air coming through. It idles around 800-1000revs and has no other issues. We have cleaned the air filter and MAF sensor yet the problem still occurs.

Here is a video of the sound..

 

Decent chance it's compression loss or ignition failure. Many other options, but it's the two most common causes if you don't know anything about the history.

See my signature, your friend should read the new owner's thread at a minimum.

 

Thank you for your reply, all we know about the history is in the service book, nothing has been changed according to the service book and its all official Mazda services.

When we cleaned the air filter and the MAF sensor, we did find some oil all in the tubing where the MAF is and in the air filter. We then looked at the oil level using the dipstick and theres this strange yellowy gunk on the stick.

The car is going in for a service soon, would you reccomend telling them about it?

Thank you again.

 

Mazda dealer tech are moderately useless at diagnosis. Chances are they will say the idle issue is the throttle body. If you say 'ignition', the will think 'plugs' rather than plugs, coils, wires that need replacing every 30,000. The dealers don't know this is needed. If they test the coils, they will pass, because the official coil test will pass a failing coil. If you pay them to replace the plugs, wires, coils, expect a bill of $600-$1,100. If you replace them yourself, expect a bill of $190-$210 and an hour of your time.

The dipstick foam is normal, just condensation. Burn it off with some wankle spanking.

Again, covered in the new owners thread, I really recommend reading it.

 

Ha!
Wankle spanking!
I like it, sounds naughty.

 

Hey guys,
thank you very much for your replies, I have read the New Owners guide, very good advice and information on there! thank you!

We have cleaned the air filter and MAF and the same issue occurs (more once its warmed up)
Going to check the Spark Plugs and maybe replace them if there is an issue with them.

Thanks Again!

 

My car is a 2009, but it has sounded like that since day 1. It likes to burble away to itself while idling, and it backfires slightly when I rev and release the gas pedal. As far as I can tell, it's the result of the unusually low idle (for a rotary engine), and/or it's part of the "sporty" image of the car, since old-fashioned muscle cars used to misfire a bit at idle. If there are no other symptoms I wouldn't worry about it.

 

It's also worse if you're catless

 

I have same issue on my 11 sounds like misfire and it burbles and back fires at idle or when on the letting off the gas, have you found the solution, sounds like low compression to me