I have had a slightly rough idle since I bought this 07 tl type S MT a month ago. I have had the p0300 codes pop up twice on really cold mornings but never come back after I resettled it last. All plugs and coils are good and I have noticed that it looks like a P2R manifold gasket was installed. It is an 1/8" thick white gasket. I suspect this may be leaking and causing my rough idle. It looks like the stock gasket was left on plus the P2R was added. Does this seem right? If I decide to remove it, do I need to get new hardware or will everything tighten down with what's on it? Here is the gasket

 

the best course of action would be to remove the intake manifold and INSPECT spacer for leaks in gasket...or like you suspect...2 gaskets!!
remove intake manifold and inspect what is going on!!!!

as no one can see or tell anything from your pic alone.

 

I am going to inspect it but if I decide to remove the gasket I need to know if the hardware will work without using the P2R gasket. And I wanted peoples opinion on if this is how some people installed them; with the p2n and stock gasket as well.

 

could be the gasket. I had issues when I had mine the first time around. Second gasket seem to be holding up just fine

 

the only way to do it is to INSPECT!
because; gasket could be good!

 

gasket could be upside down. then all you would need to do is flip it!

 

I would imagine you are suppose to only have the P2R or OEM gasket, not both. I would Order a new P2R or OEM gasket, then pull the manifold and install the new gasket then reassemble. The hardware (bolts) should be correct length. If you had the IM Spacer on there with 2 P2R gaskets you need new bolts, but that doesn't seem to be installed.

Cliff-notes:
-Order new gasket (OEM or P2R)
-Removed Intake Manifold
-Remove both OEM and P2R gasket and place in garbage
-Install new gasket (OEM or P2R)
-Reassemble the Intake Manifold back on
-Give her hell

 

i've seen and heard of the p2r gaskets melting or warping, which could be your issue. for that reason i specifically went with the outlaws engineering gasket which is rock solid. BUT they have since gone out of business and it's very hard to find them now.

good, luck report back what you find!

 

Before you take anything off. Get a bottle of carb cleaner, and spray around. If you your idle jumps then that will tell you exactly where that leak is

 

Thanks guys. I will try the carb cleaner. I'll have to pick up a new stock gasket before I take the manifold off. Hopefully she'll smooth out after that. I'll keep ya posted. I'm hoping the previous owner didn't over rev and bend any valves :/ my mind goes to the worst first.

 

I've had my p2r manifold gasket for a couple of months with no issues. I removed the old oem gasket.....i don't see why you would be running both when your buying one to replace the other

 

There was some oil around the inlets but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. It looked like the white plastic gasket did have some disconfiguring. I chipped some of its residue off the manifold or maybe it was carbon. You can see it in the bottom right. I cleaned and installed a new stock gasket. I started it back up and it still has a slight hesitation at idle. I guess next is compress test I suppose.

 

You would get oil in the intake manifold because of of PCV return at the left front side of the manifold but you shouldn't see that seepage around the ports. The gasket wasn't sealing completely. It looks like a lot of seepage by the EGR return port also. How about pulling the battery negative and have the ECU get a relearn of everything and see how everything goes from there.

 

The car does seem to idle better. It doesn't burp and dip as much but it still occasionally burps. It may just be me cause it has innovative motor mounts and I can feel everything. Now off to troubleshoot the popcorn noise in the front driver side wheel when starting and stopping. Almost hear two different kind of pops Just replaced the axles and control arms and both are still there.

 

lower ball joint or tie rod end would be my next guess for popping noise