Hi all,

My 2005 RX8 has started to get the white slime on the dipstick which makes checking the oil level very difficult.
Any suggestions??

 

What kind of oil are you running? Sounds like maybe Pennzoil (paraffin or wax based.)

You need to be careful, if that is a waxy build-up, it's most likely coating everything inside your engine as well. If you change over to synthetic, it can flush all of that build-up off of the engine parts and it travels down into the filter. This can clog the filter and starve the engine of oil resulting in severe engine damage. This exact scenario happened to a friend of mine in a 302 V8 equipped 240Z Widebody he built (it's how the stock engine got destroyed that made him go V8 swap)

 

I am using the oil recommended by Mazda 5w 20
The white stuffon the dipstick is well known about by rx8 owners, just makes reading the oil level a real pain

 

Are you using the recommended brand as well? Different brands of oil meet 5W20 requirements while having different chemical make-up. If you're using what the factory recommends, ignore my comments above, what you were describing sounded exactly like what my friend observed.

 

This is no big deal in the RX-8. The foaming occurs outside the motor, and occurs because of oil fumes condensing when it's very cold outside. The foam doesn't get into the motor, but the danger as you've noticed is that it's damn difficult to check the oil.

I experienced it just this morning, myself, and occurred last winter as well. I went to Mazda, and they told me it's a known problem with a known solution, but it would cost me about 500 dollars to fix it -- but there's no danger to the motor.

In other cars, this is a scary issue -- but not here.

 

I had an 05 rx8 and around that time frame I'm pretty sure a revised dipstick by mazda came out check with a dealernear you.