Hi,

I couldn't start the RX-8 tonight. Followed the manuals technique for flooded engines but still no success. I called Mazda Assist and someone is coming around in 40 minutes.

The engine turns over but it won't start. I knew rotaries were prone to flooding but I hope this doesn't become a recurring event.

I'll let the forum know what happens. I hope I can get to work tomorrow.

Donald

 

Sorry to hear that donaldc.

Did you by any chance turning off the engine before it got a chance to warmup to normal operating temperature ?

For example, back the car out of the garage and then turning off the engine right after.

 

Car was eventually started by Mazda Assist. My battery was getting quite weak. He had to take the fuse out for the fuel pump before we could get it started. There was quite a bit of smoke after it got going!

Your assessment of the cause was spot on. The previous night I had backed the car out of the garage to do something and then in again. Less than 30 seconds of running. I guess I was too lazy to follow the start up routine of letting the engine run for a while.

I've learnt my lesson.

Donald

 

Yea, Rotary engine tends to be pretty sensitive about that. Thanks for sharing with us. I'm sure people will remember to warmup their engine after reading your story.

 

Man, what a pain in the neck!!

I had read where you must run the car for 5 minutes to warm up, but thought that seemed kind of strange. Now that it has happened to someone....

Well, file this away in my decision to buy one or not.

 

I've never had this problem, and have turned the car on just to move it many times. There must be more to this than just that..

Why was the battery weak? That's sounds more of the issue to me.

 

I feel that the starter motor is so slow anyways, that any less power in the battery will hinter its speed.

As far as warming up, you will notice an extremely quick puff of smoke when you start the car. These cars use oil! Thats what its made to do and why it functions the way it does, hence you need to warm them up to clean the housings out as they do run rich at startup.

 

can't imagine why it did it last night as I have done it countless times before last night without problems.

my battery was weak because I had been trying to start the engine for 30mins before giving up and calling Mazda Assist.

It started ok this morning. Let's see what happens when i go out for lunch.

donald

 

Since it is late here, I will just say that I read another thread that mentioned the flooding problem. They posted a section of the owners manual that said that you needed to warm up the car 5 minutes prior to turning it off. Do a search and post the thread if you can find it.

 

On a related issue, my car refused to start a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't home at the time however the wife assures me she was just starting it in the morning to go for a drive. A visit by Mazda could not start the car despite spark plug cleaning etc. They came out again the second day and replaced all the spark plugs, car then started fine.

From Mazda this was the second car in Melb to require complete spark plug replacement in order to start the car.

Car has been fine since. Am used to similar issues with my previous rotaries but not this bad usually a clean of the plugs would suffice.

Mazda have sent info back OS to try and sort problem. I was suitably unimpressed, as having put up with this in the past (on older engines) I didn't mind however on a brand new Renesis....it was giving me bad flash backs.

Meant to post this earlier however been a little busy, apologies.

 

Wow - An extra 5 minutes behind the wheel just to shift the car = an extra 5 minutes of fun.

I therefore hope you file this tidbit of info into the +ve section

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Very common for injected rotaries to do this.

They run so rich in the cold start program that if you turn them off, the fuel still squirts in for a few seconds afterwards.

First became apparent back in 86 with the series-4 RX-7.

Not sure what an RX-8 manual says but the practical way of fixing it is.......................

When it wont start after a few goes, floor the throttle & crank until it fires, it gets plenty of air in there to attempt a better air fuel ratio.

May blow a bit of smoke but can-&-does work starting the car as long as its not too flooded

For the bad ones, you will have to find the fuse or relay for the fuel pump. Remove it & attempt the same.

For the really bad ones, take the plugs out, disconnect the ignitors so you don't have zapping leads nearby & crank the engine to spit out excess fuel from the rotors. Make sure you clean the plugs too. This will cause a lot of smoke but dont worry, its just fuel mix.

My triple rotor (20B) Cosmo will do this 100% of the time if I start, stop, start, stop while cold & still in cold-start-mode
Am always careful not to turn it off after starting until its come off the "cold start" mode & gone onto fast idle via the wax pellet

 

mine's been flooded for a week ((!)) Mazda Roadside said they can only tow to the dealer (closed today). Where are the plugs- I cant find them since everything is so low and back

 

For the mechanical morons (like myself) how do I tell when the 'cold start up mode' is over ....

 

The car starts with a raucious tone on cold start mode. Stays like that for just under 1-min then changes to a fast idle.

You will hear the pitch of the exhaust change as a result. Its quite obvious for the previous RX's.

If you have a manual RX-8, then a trick I have done a few times is get your mate to tow you along the road in 2nd gear with the ignition ON. The spinning engine eventually spits out the excess fuel & slutters into life.

A simple rope attached to his car usually suffices.

If you live on a hill, even better. Just make sure you have a rescue plan to get back up it in case you don't suceed the 1st time.

 

um, so what does all this unburnt fuel/oil do to the cat?