Mazda Rx8 rotary question

[isee]

A friend owns a 2007 RX8, said his car started smoking from under the bonnet and stalling at idle. Slilghtly decreased performance when keeping it above 2.5k rpm as to not let it stall.

No liquid has been dumped on the ground, the oil level is within normal and of clear colour.
A cold start seems to be fine.

Any ideas? Any tests i can advise him to perform for further diagnosis?

thanks

[isee]

[wolves_wanderer]

Is a hot start still OK?

Has he recently filled the oil? The issue you describe can be from over-filling the oil (easily done as the bottom half of the dipstick is about 2/3 of the total capacity). For some reason best known to Mazda it dumps the excess into the air intake all over the filter and MAF.

I would have a look at the air filter and have a wipe around inside the air intake with a white cloth so you can tell if there is oil in there. If there is then you need to give it a good clean and also look at cleaning the MAF (very carefully). Pop it back together and you should be good to go.

[isee]

Thanks for that. he hasn't topped up oil anytime recently but it is bang on the middle at the moment

[wolves_wanderer]

isee said:

Thanks for that. he hasn't topped up oil anytime recently but it is bang on the middle at the moment

It can take a while to manifest (ie first time you give it a real spanking). If it is still hot starting OK and not throwing any engine fault lights then my next port of call would be the owners club website (www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk) as I'm out of ideas.

The only other [semi] regular thing that goes is coils/cats but you don't usually get smoke under the bonnet AFAIK.

[isee]

Useful advice, thanks!!

[Ali_T]

Could also be a cat collapsing. Though mine didn't get any underbonnet smoking. It certainly started to become difficult to start and lost power very dramatically at higher revs, gradually refusing to rev beyond mid revs.