Half Boost?!....
 

I am only getting 5 to 6 psi of boost! Sometimes I will get full boost when it is the first time I floor it but after the car is warmed up it goes to half. I raced my friend the other night and It was with in the first 5 minutes after I started the car. I beat him by a car length at full boost but he wanted to race a second time right after. The second run I was at half boost and he beat me by 4-5 car lengths!!! I hear a boost leak when accelerating. I'm wondering if this is a common problem and where should be the first place to look? Vacuum hoses? Intercooler hoses? Has any one had this problem before? You would think that if I have a boost leak that I would never be able to get full boost? I don't know if this has anything to do with it but the car is also smoking on start up... this goes away quickly after as long as I drive the car... If I let it sit and idle I won't be able to see the car because it produces so much smoke. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

More boost please
 

My friend had the same prob on his R2. He was missing a bolt to the turbo. Mazdatrix knew it just by listening to the engine. He had it doen at Tri-point though because he couldn't wait the 3 weeks.

If you've had the turbo rebuilt, it is common that the tube with the pills is replaced and you end up with 5lbs of boost.

It could also be vacuum lines but prolly the missing bolt, since they said that was common.

Hope that helped.

Test

You might have a small hairline crack on your y-pipe. When the car heats up the heat expands the rubber, thus giving you a bigger loss of boost at normal to higher temps. Also I'd be very careful of running your car hard with that boost leak. With the leak your turbos will overspin to compensate for the boost. With long exposure to this, you can fry your turbos. Find your leak, and you'll have your power back. When I bought my FD it had a major crack in the y-pipe, when fixed it ran like a brand new car.

eric

Eww...smoke is usually not a good thing, especially when you still have the pre and main cat on the car. Most of us get smoke on startup because we have midpipes and not converters. What color is the smoke? Does it smell like exhaust or something else?

Everything else sounds like an easy to fix boost leak, just like hapa said, as the car gets warmer the leak will expand. But the smoke thing is making me wonder.

But keep your head and don't freak out, I've done that too many times to find out it was just some pathetic little hose that fell off. These cars are enough to give you panic attacks.