Whenever I am driving and turn on my a/c I see a smokey substance coming from the air vents. It does not smell like smoke and I thought it was my imagination until my wife noticed it. Has anyone else noticed this, it's very faint, could it just be the freon? While I am asking questions, is it normal for the oil temp to be a little past halfway on the gauge?

 

It's water vapor, the same thing you see on passenger aircraft at times.

The oil pressure gauge is really just an idiot light made to look like a gauge. From what I've read, everyone's gauge shows just above halfway. It doesn't make any difference as long as there is some pressure there.

 

you might also be riding the clutch. It is very sensitive and does not like getting reved out in 1st

 

What you're seeing is condensation, caused by the rapid cooling of the humid outside air. Nothing to be concerned about.

As for the gauge, well, there is no oil temp gauge. The water temperature gauge on the left should sit somewhere around half-scale once everything is up to normal operating temperature; mine sits a little below half. Meanwhile, the oil pressure gauge on the right is not a true analog gauge at all, but is basically an idiot light. If you have any oil pressure at all, it will sit rock solid a little over half-scale, and if it ever moves from that position it will be to fall to zero - at which time you'd better pull over and shut off the engine immediately.

 

Why would mazda make a gauge that doesnt move and tell the actual pressure?

 

Because when they put a real, functional OPG in the early Miatas, they got a lot of service calls and complaints from people who were concerned that the needle kept moving all the time. So later Miatas, and now the RX-8 also, get a dumbed-down "idiot gauge" thanks to a bunch of idiots.

 

im sure that it has to be somewhat responsive to change (ie fuel gauge) but are u saying it doesnt move at all?

 

I remember reading something in the manual that addresses the "smoky substance" specifically. It states what eccles already pointed out which makes this post redundant and useless.

 

Well, it wasn't just Miata owners, it's pretty much like that across the board nowadays.

And it wasn't so much that the gauge moved, it's just that when the car is at a stop and idling, when people are more apt to check their gauges, it shows reeeally low. That's where it's supposed to be, but when you first see it, you do question it.

Think about it, with the way that some of the owners on this board react to certain things with the car, there would be alot of complaining/concerns about that too.

---jps

 

they shoulda just made an "idiot gauge"
where its a functioning gauge, but it has a marked off area for normal functioning so you dont have to worry

that way, when a moron looks at it, they see "ok, still fine"

when someone who knows what they are doing looks at it, they are like *an educated observation on oil pressure*
________
Weed Bubblers

 

I believe its humidity. I was also told that if you're running the AC, you should turn it off and blow out all of the cold air from the AC system prior to shutting down your car as it can form mildew in the AC system - which in turn smells like hell. happened in my Saturn (really bad) and again in my Explorer.

 

Here's the same idiot gauge problem and a solve for the miata.

This could be nice little opportunity for the aftermarket to come up with kit to replace the idiot gauge. I nominate Moss motors to do the job. <grins>. I'll take an HKS unit as well... While they are at it redo the speedo so it's an analog looking dial... Ooo and a tach that points out hints to what engine speed for what gear... Okay okay, I'll stop being designer and go back to being a code monkey.

 

i wonder if anyone has swapped the "idiot gauge" yet? My father's old suburban has a working oil pressure gauge....I dont want this "dumb" drone gauge in my car. Maybe there is an electronic way to do it....

 

FWIW, Daimler-Chrysler did the same thing with model year 2003 Jeeps. For example, the Wrangler has had a real functional oil gauge since the TJ was introduced in 1997, but for 2003 they moved to an "idiot gauge." Why? Service departments had to spend too much time explaining how the things worked and the fact that after driving at high speed on very hot days it was perfectly normal for it to almost read 0 (and that it was normal for it to read much higher than normal on cold days...)

So to save money and service department time, it's an "idiot gauge" now.

I've no idea how the gauges work on the 8, but at least on the Wrangler there's no way to get a functional gauge by putting in a 2002 sender as all gauges merely read what the ECU tells them to and it's the ECU programming that was changed for 2003...

 

Y'know, it hadn't occurred to me that the sender unit and gauge may actually be analog, but the ECU is converting the analog signal into a simple go-nogo indication. If that is the case, then there's hope yet that we may be able to return the gauge to proper analog functionality with an ECU flash. Here's hoping that this is the case and someone comes up with a patch.