Hey guys, recently bought my First 8. Unfortunately the previous owner didn't take care of the car as well as I'd hoped. It's got a new motor with about 3k miles on it, but he has been driving it with the blinking CEL on. It only seems to happen on the freeway after several minutes, and the car seems to be running fine. The Code also doesn't seem to store it self on the computer, and the mechanics say they can't help because they can't find the code.

He tried to tell me that it was the TPMS sensors being activated by the aftermarket rims >_>

My question is this. Is the car drive able to work and back? Am I just damaging the new engine?I need two more days or about 40 miles total to get me to the weekend when I can finally take some things apart and test out some things.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post!

 

1st: You need to read through the misfire solutions, thread is linked in my signature below this post.

2nd: You need to fix it before you keep driving on it. Misfires can and will destroy the cat in very very short order. It literally could be as short as ~50 miles. It may be longer, but since you don't know how long the owner had already been neglecting the engine health, you really can't afford to roll the dice. Misfires roll into a clogged cat which rolls into O2 sensor failure, engine damage, and eventually a car fire. Yes, it happens, no, I'm not exaggerating.


PS: It's not a long post unless you have found the 20,000 character limit

 

If i were you, i will be bringing that to service as soon as possible, you don't want to damage the reman engine do you?

 

I have! 3 different times at this point, Just gotta get the free time to actually going about and doing them.

I had a Mazda Tech inspect the car for me before I bought and he said something along the lines of the CAT having a value of 5.9 or something along that order. My plan was to take it off and ram the it hollow this weekend for a temporary solution /:

Thanks for your help!

 

The most recent RX-8 fire from a clogged cat, in case you might not have believed me: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tro...e-help-244839/


Don't destroy a good cat. IF you gut a cat out, make sure it's a blown cat already. Otherwise you are destroying a part that costs $1,300 new to basically end up with something you can get for $100. If the cat is intact and working, at least either save it or sell it, and get a proper midpipe.

 

Hell no!

 

I certainly plan on checking it first, no sense in throwing away money.

When you say blown do you mean mostly plugged up? as in I won't be able to see much light through it?

 

It's not that easy.

There are certainly some easy signs, for example if it's cracked, chunked, etc... But it's possible for there to be a clog without any breakup, and it's possible for a clean cat to not get light through (after all, there is a bend, and a resonator at the other end) of the pipe. Take some straight on shots of the cat element if you aren't sure and post them up. We can usually help you make a judgement call.

 

I'll be taking pictures as soon as I can then.

I recall the Mazda Tech also mentioning that my intake valve solenoid was tripping a code as well. Could that be the cause of the CEL? Is there an easy way to test it?

 

Any OBD2 code reader will be able to give you what codes are sitting behind the CEL. There is a rather large list of possible codes.