I just brought my 2004 RX8 in for a recall and during the recall the tech said they needed to put in a new air ventilation kit to prevent condensation in the engine. When I took the car home the check engine light came on and the car died on the highway. I brought it back and he said that I can't have any after market intake with the new ventilation kit. They refuse to take off the new ventilation kit. Am I screwed here? How can Mazda do this and why would they change a part that they know won't work?

 

im sorry i think i missed a part. did you already have an aftermarket intake when they did the ventilation update? also what was the code for the CEL?

 

When was this?!?!

 

Is this the mod to keep the watery stuff off the dipstick? They reroute the crankcase breather I think.

 

which intake to do you have?

 

There is no crankshaft, it's the eccentric shaft breather mod.

 

+1000000000 gazillion infinity times 520,999,999,999,999 octillion

 

I had that recall done along with many other people on this forum who also have aftermarket intakes. I have the MS CAI, I have experienced no issues. Frankly this is the first time I hear of this, personally I think they are screwing you, you need to pull their bullshit flag.

 

I have the REVI and Ram air and they put the vent kit on no problem. I've had it on for 6 months and haven't had any problems at all. They asked me if the CAI was for the RX-8 and I said yeah and I haven't had them say anything else about it.

 

The new TSB changes the oil filler pipe,along with some hose changes.The kit of new parts is N3Y1-13-S80A.(See TSB on Rosenthal site).
If it is installed properly it ill fit with any aftermarket intake which fits the old parts.

 

Is this better then the old over sized straw in the dipstick hole tsb for fixing this problem?

 

^^ it actually works....and there is no problem with the intake.....

 

I can't see how an aftermarket intake wouldn't work with this new ventaliation kit. It should work no matter what intake is on there. Because, even an aftermarket intake is the same basic design as the stock intake- there is no drastic change taking place that would make this vent kit not work.
So that begs the question, what intake do you have and what dealership did you take you 8 to (So I know to stay the **** away from them)

Also, it's complete bullshit that a dealership would intall a part they KNEW wouldn't work (because they obviously saw your aftermarket intake on there in the first place). That's serious grounds for sueing or the calling the BBB.
If the tech claims he didn't know it wouldn't work with an aftermarket intake, then they would have to remove it when you brought it back in. Why would you let them leave your car inoperational? You need to get in their face and make them fix this....

 

+1

 

I have a K&N intake on my RX8. This has been on the car for over two years with no issues. The new ventilation system was installed to "keep the watery stuff" off the dipstick. By installing the new ventilation kit, the tech told me the airflow to the engine was changed. That coupled with the fact that I have an after market intake is what is causing the CEL. I can't understand why they would put on a new ventilation kit causing a CEL and then tell me I need to remove my intake if I want to drive the car.

Thanks for all of the feedback and any other additional information you guys have would be greatly appreciated. The more information I have, the better my chances of getting this guy to fix the actual problem and not remove my intake.

 

Just as a matter of interest I have attached a lousy picture(best I could do) of an oil filler assembly removed from a customer car which indicates how much crap can accumulate due to poor ventilation,lots of water there too.
If you operate in humid cold areas yours could look like this.

 

not condensation in the engine... condensation in the oil dipstick tube

 

What you see in the dipstick tube is not representative of whats flowing through the engine... just pointing this out to calm down the f0rum hysteria that will soon errupt with comments like "i have to have this done... theres a milkshake flowing through my engine... see even mazda agrees"

 

So in other words, if i have no milkshake on my dipstick, then i don't need to run to the dealer and ask for the tsb to be done, correct?

 

^ Correct.

Only if it looks like your dipstick didn't pull out in time do you need to bother with this.

 

Okay, so I overstated the point. Sorry about that. When I pulled off my intake manifold a while back the filler tube that runs under the UIM was loaded wuth this junk. What I was trying to say was that the condensation isn't typically isolated to JUST the dipstick tube. However, those in the warmer climes and those of us in the midwest/northeast during summer months don't have this problem. Either way, I would still prefer to have the retrofit kit.

 

I will remove the upper manifold to check the amount of condensation in there since the retrofit...I had a lot of crap in there when we did the retro...and I'm interested in seeing the difference.

 

Cool. Thx.

 

just as a FYI...

The "white gunk" is actually calcium carbonate (aka chalk) thats in the pH buffer additive package in engine oil. Basically, it stays suspended well in the oil until you get a pretty good amount of water dilution (say >30%) at which point it drops out of the oil in a sticky slime. So in our case, the dipstick and oil filler necks are relatively cool places in the oil resevoir and any moisture from blowby gases that are not sucked out by the current PCV system will condense there. At these local locations you will have oil sloshing and oil vapors interacting with the water and form localized places with high water dilution - and the sticky calcium carbonate falls out and build up. So, the amount of deposits really isn't all that representative of the oil flowing through the engine (which is what counts).