Hi everyone. New 8 owner as of last night (1/28/04).

I’ve got a question:

I’m new to the rotary experience. When I stopped by a friend’s place last night to show off my new car, we both smelled this "burning smell." It was VERY noticeable. Is this “normal” in the beginning? My 8 has under 60 miles on it.

I did search on this but most of the threads I found dealt with the car having many more miles (in the thousands).

Thanks!

 

It's most likely the undercoating (cosmoline?) applied at the factory burning off. If it continues, however, you might want to check it out with the dealership. IIRC, it takes a little while for the smell to go away.

 

I just got mine a week and a half ago. The smells on start up and after it warms up have gone down. I have about 500 miles on the car.

 

I had it too but it went away after a couple hundred miles.

enjoy your new car!

 

It goes away after a while, at least it did on my car, but the 8 does seem to be a "smellier" car than most when it comes to oil/gas stink.

 

I get the smell periodically specially if I run hard with it. I just assume it's a rotary smell due to the higher level of oil burning. I like to believe that I smell it mainly due to the fact it just smells differently then piston cars. But I don't really know why it's there.

 

Shipping wax. Really hard to get it all off, especially when most dealers don't care to do the work. Reminds me of ski wax smell.

 

Shipping wax? Where? In the engine bay?

The smell is definitely coming from the engine bay...

 

I had it too but it pretty much is gone now. Every once in a while a still catch a wiff. I have 5,900 miles on it.

 

I had it when i realese the clutch, at the first 200 miles, it was clutch smell but now i am used to the clutch.. maybe way to long since driving a std...lol

 

310Guy,

I too picked my new RX-8 last night and I know exactly what you are smelling since I have it too.

I think it is just lubrication residue burning off the engine, exhast, etc. Most all metal manufacturing processes use lubricants and coolants and trace amounts of these are left on the metal surfaces. They burn off when the engine and exhaust gets hot. I think you will find that the smell will dissapate in a week or so. If not, check with your dealer about it.

 

I had that on my last Mazda and this one in the very beginning.....it will go away.

 

Thanks everyone.

It seems it's not necessarily an issue - at least not in the beginning. Again, I don't even have 60 miles on my RX-8 so I'll give it a week or so and see what happens.

 

Sometimes the exhaust system needs to burn in. Just like everyone said, it is just lubrications, etc. burning off. Nothing to be worried about.

 

I had it and mine went away. Due to my inexperience driving stick I assumed it was misuse of the clutch, but I'm a little buoyed by the fact that others had the smell too. Maybe I wasn't as rough on it as I thought...

In any case it's gone now, stopped at about 500 miles.

 

Well I don't have a manual and I'm smelling it also.

 

They spray the underside of the car with wax just before shipping. It stops the aluminum parts from turning white, and the steel parts from rusting while on the boat. Some dealers clean it off, some do not. My RX-7 had it all over the engine compartment when I got the car 6 years ago. It had baked on and only Zaino 1 took it off. It seems to absorb dirt and the painted surfaces looked terrible. I had a 4Runner that smelled of hot wax for several years whenever I got it hot. My Pathfinder also sometimes smells of hot wax.

Maybe they just want to go skiing .

 

Mine went away at 1000 miles>>>>

 

it's your clutch you noob! lol jk.

-_- sorry

 

I've had my car for 2 months and have driven 6600 miles. My car has an odor that smells like wet paint. It comes and goes.

 

i just got my car yesterday and i know exactly what you're talking about. i initially thought it was my noob manual skills and i was burning the clutch. hopefully its just the coatings that are burning off.

 

Maybe it's my noob auto driving skills... :p :p :p

 

Yep, it's OK and will totally go away in a short time.

 

I am around 400 miles (mostly around town and country, not many expressway). The hot smell is certainly fading now.

 

Like most everyone has said, it goes away. Two months and 3,000 miles into it. At first, it was almost embarrassing. The thing smelled like a hot lawnmower. Around 1000 miles it got to the point of being intermittent. I never notice it now.

Just for rats, a comment about the theory that it's due to the rotary engine consuming oil... God help ya if you're burning enough oil in the engine to account for that smell. It's simply not a plausible explanation. For one thing, combustion takes place inside the engine and exhaust is directed far away from the driver's nose. For another, if the odor were coming from burning engine oil, think how MUCH dang oil it would take to generate that amount of smell. I've consumed half a quart of oil in 3,000 miles. I don't think it's a combustion-related issue at all.