Hey, i have a question for all y'all. My car never seems to stop the "steam effect" from the tail pipes...u know the steam from piston engines while there starting up? And then there looks like nothing is coming out of the pipe? I dont know if it's because a richness of the RX-7 but mine seems to never stop i observed it for about 10 minutes while playin under the hood. Any ideas? the smoke is like a boiling pot of water...and it's pretty cold out as well. Last question when my car warms up. It idles from...500-700 jumpin up and down....vroooom, Vrooom, vroom Vroom, back and forth whats up with that? If you could answer these it would be AWESOME!

Thanks

Evan

 

the idle problem is possibly a vacuum leak... is yours a turbo? if it is check the back of the engine near the firewall right around the throttle, there MIGHT be a loose hose... (just guessing because it happened to me and plugging the hose back solved the idling problem)

if its not turbo, try checking the same area for a loose hose... but i don't know about a n/a

as for the tailpipe problem, i'm not that high up in terms of knowledge to know about this... sorrie

 

anyone? this is Critical

 

One of the by-products of combustion is water. Normally the exhaust system gets hot enough to keep the water as pure steam until it is dumped out at the tail pipe. Pure steam is invisible. What you are experiencing I think is merely the water vapor that is normal there. You are seeing the vapor because the ambient temperature is so cold the exhaust system isn't getting hot enough to keep the water as steam.

As for the possibility of it being coolant, normally anti-freeze being burned will cause a dense cloud of white smoke. Even assuming your possible coolant leak is very small you should still be able to smell the anti-freeze as you stand at the rear of the car.

The up and down idle may be a vacuum leak as was previously mentioned or it may be the TPS needing adjusting.

 

thanks for the reply, it doesn't smell like antifreeze (never smelled it) but it's not densely white, so i think i'm in the clear

 

If it were coolant you'd be losing it and would have mentioned the loss of coolant. Pour a tablespoon of antifreeze on your exaust manifold so you'll know what the smell, smells like in the future. Condensation, I'd say, as to what it is.

 

Do you have an aftermarket air filter on the car? I have a random rough idle problem, and when i wen to take it in, the first thin they looked at was the open air pump hose (the one which attaches into the stock air box) and they plugged it, immediately idle dropped to 1000-750 and refused to rough again. Acts as a vacuum leak if there is not a way of slowing down the air suction into the air pump.

Jeff

 

no, Jeff. It is not an aftermarket air filter. But i will take your advice and check all the vacuums. BTW the car doesnt do it ALL the time...only after it has finished it's high rev while warming, after then...it's ok. One more question. If i have the hook open, and i use the inbay throttle...when i rev it, i hear a hiiis hisss hisss is this a vacuum just suckin in air....not from the engine? or is it just normal and i am over reacting?!

Thanks

-Evan

 

ive found (from my experience) that hissing comes from places where air is 'squeezing' against solids to pass through. An example of this is an air filter, when air is passing through it causes a hissing noise. Since you dont have an aftermarket filter, it shouldnt be 'too' loud. To find a leak in the intake, warm up the car to op. temps and spray a WD40 equivalent where a suspected leak would be, if the engine accelerates a tiny bit then theres a good chance that thats where a leak is.

 

can't it be WD40?

 

haha yes i just didnt wanna get flamed for only saying wd40 would work

 

lol, good stuff