Okay, I'll try to break this down into parts.

Basically I was driving in 3rd gear at about 6-7000rpm when I heard a noise. Looked in my mirror and saw a cloud of smoke behind me. I then began to smell something which I can't describe (it was bad) and from then on the temperature at my feet (under the steering wheel) was very warm.
I then drive home and parked.

About 2 hours later I got back in my car and turned to key to start the engine. The car started INSTANTLY. It usually starts after no more than 1-2 seconds of cranking, but this was absolutely instant. Then the exhausts started puffing white smoke for about 1 minute (smoke looked just like te smoke from when I had been driving earlier). So all seemed fine.

I then drive about 20 minutes to a petrol station to fill up. after getting back in the car, I turned the key and it wouldn't start on the first attempt. Almost failed on the second but eventually fired up.


I have owned the car for 5 months and have only ever had to try a second attempt a starting the car one time other than tonight.


Anybody have any idea what caused the white smoke at high rpm in third gear? And when my car started puffing smoke for about 1 minute after I started it up again before getting petrol, was that it sort of cleaning itself out, similar to when you deflood the 8?

Sorry for the massive story, just wanted to be as detailed as possible.

Thanks in advance!

 

Anyone?

 

Im not an expert, and there's many other people on here im sure will chime in when they see this.
Have you noticed any loss in performance?
The smell you mentioned... Is it a sweet smell? Or a Rotten egg smell? or...?
A sweet smell and smoke would lead me to believe coolant, perhaps a seal went bad and you're burning it off in the engine (would be real bad real soon)
A rotten egg smell may be you're cat burning up, which is easy to check with a little "know how"

I'm also kinda thinking it may have something to do with fuel delivery as well...

I know this wasn't much help, but just my thoughts...
Try looking for more symptoms and provide us with mileage, any recent repairs, anything else you can think of.

 

Thanks for the reply mate. Car currently has 62000 miles on original engine. Upgrades (if this matters) are a cat back exhaust and a K&N air filter. Haven't noticed any power loss and compression was tested last August and came out with very good values, especially considering its an 04 RX8.

Over the past 2 days the car has been running as normal, with no signs of smoke or power loss whatsoever. So it seems like all is back to normal. Was all of the stuff mentioned in my first post just temporary? Or has damage been done?

Thanks again

 

The smell wasn't exaclty sweet, but it wasn't that bad to be honest. Just noticeable.