Alano

Ive heard from alot of people that if you turn the car on for a short amount of time, you should either rev it and turn it off, or idle it for about 5-10 minutes. A bunch of sales people and some friends who have rotary said to rev the car before shutting it off to get out all the carbon and combustion or w/e, then today the service manager tells me that its harmful to the car, and that I should idle it rather then revving it...anyone hear anything like this? Sorry, im a rotary newbie

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

I never did.

never had a problem

sure you can idle it till it reach normal temp. but thats just a waste of gas.

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

the idea isn't to remove carbon, it is to burn off excess full so it doesn't flood. search and your question will be answered. if you do rev, keep it b/w 3k and 3.5k for 10-15 seconds and kill the engine.

NoRotorNoMotor

I do warm the engine up before shutting it off ... not so much because I'm scared of the "flooding" problem ... but it's just a good idea w/ any car.

As for the revving thing ... I do think it's important to rev the engine very high at minimum once or twice when you drive it. The rotary engine leves to rev fast .. and does so effortlessly. Beat the livin Sh*t outta the thing ... it'll reward you for it.

But as far as I know the "rev before you shut it off" thing is just to help suck oil into the engine before shutdown. It seems hokey to me ... I just make sure it gets run properly ... and then let it chill a bit .. and shut her off.

Ohh .. I do keep the revs nice and mellow untill the car is warmed up too ... good for both the engine & tranny.

Enjoy!

Alano

Aw. I actually thought it was a pretty cool concept. I guess its just worthless now heh. Yeah CT, thats what I mean, to burn off the excess fuel. Ah well!

mysql101

You guys have it all wrong, rev it to 9200 rpm for 15 minutes to make sure it's fully warmed up.

Remember the gas tank recall? That was done because doing this procedure caused a car fire. Now you're assured that you can warm up your car in complete safety! Hurray!

scsi

i rev it before i shut it off because i had it flood and i didnt realize it till the day before a race. moved it into the garage earlier that week.

now i rev it to 3 or 4 when shutting off the engine cold.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

lol

which dumbass caught a fire ? did I miss something ?

the updated program wont let you rev @ 9K under I think 5 or 15 mph for longer than 5 or 10 seconds Im not sure.

but for OP, dont worry so much.

Alano

I'll try not to, but seeing as this is my first rotary, they kinda scared me with it lol. They made it seem as if the car would explode if I didnt do the reving process...

EnzymaticRacer

no it won't explode... but the engine can definitely flood if it isn't getting up towards normal operating temperature when you shut it off.

I had one of ours flood on my brother and I while we had it up here at school this past feb/march (it's home was over three hours away). In any case, I had to try so hard to get it to start I was worried I was gonna burn the starter out.

Eventually I did finally get it started though. But once it was warmed up, there was still an issue. Anytime I revved it, the engine would get a severe vibration as the RPMs slowed. Slowly after revving the engine 10-15 times, and then doing a few sustained instances of 7,000 RPMs or higher for 15-20 seconds each, it finally worked itself out, luckily with no easily detectable damage to the engine. But boy was it not a fun 30 minutes.

Alano

So basically, can I do the revving just to be safe? Does it do good and no harm? Or can it also do harm if done constantly?

CarAndDriver

I know you're new and all but really you should SEARCH. You seem to be posting a lot of threads lately that rehash.

EnzymaticRacer

If you want, I could try to give our chief mechanic a call tomorrow and see what he thinks, but I would say that the safest thing to do is just let the engine warm up (it really doesn't take very long) and then just shut it off without the rev. Thats what we've always done, except when I was in a rush that one time... and then spent 30 minutes fixing my screw-up. Honestly, I didn't really believe it either until it happened to me.

mysql101

reving it doesn't do anything. I flooded even after following it.

Idling the car for 5 minutes is also dumb. If your car is cold and you need to move it, go drive it a few blocks and come back. The RX-8 is not fuel efficient at idle, so drive it for 2 minutes and you're done.

Alano

OK, thanks guys!

NoTears316

I have never used any voodoo techniques for shutting off my car, and in 4 years I have never flooded.

supergoat

If the temp gauge has not even budged yet, yes I'll rev to 3000rpm for 2sec and shut it off.

If the temp gauge has gotten off it's lazy *** and at least moved a little(or is fully warm), just shut the sucker down.

Gambit

the dvd that mazda sent out said that if you are going to just run it briefly, rev the engine at 3k for about 10 seconds, then cut the key off while it's still @3k

I've always revved it when i shut it off, I'm pretty sure you don't have to, but i've never had a problem, so if it ain't broke...

secret8gent

I always rev it before shutdown, even when warm - 8/10ths for fun 2/10ths for flood protection. Never flooded, I drive my car all year 'round.

dmc27

Yes. I never rev it, but I never shut it off w/o letting it run for at least a few minutes (and longer in winter.)


Agreed. The new to MT stuff excluded, of course.

baseballgenius80

I've had flood issues before. So if I turn it on for only a minute or so, I'll rev it to 4000 rpms then shut it down to burn off the fuel sitting in there to prevent the flooding. Haven't had an issue since doing this.

ChattyRX8

I bought my 8 used from a Honda dealership (go figure). The salesman told me some story about revving up a the rotary to 5k and shutting it off, but I had never heard anything like that before... until I took her to the Mazda dealership for a 30k mile service. The tech that worked on my car advised me to rev it to 5k and shut it down every time. I even hear them do it in the shop when they work on 8's.

dmc27

They should be at the dealer, b/c they are turning them on & off without running them to operating temps. Any time it's on & off quick it should be revved.

New Yorker

I pity the potential RX-8 owner who stumbles across this thread, pondering the purchase of an 8. So much noise and confusing clutter about nothing, erroneously confirming suspicions that the 8 is somehow tricky, tempermental or requires a very different approach to doing even the most basic, no-brainer things, like starting a car. (Ironically, many of those erroneous myths come from this very website, which typically makes things that are simple appear complicated.)

You start up and turn off the engine just like any other car. The ONLY time that's not the case is when you turn off a stone-cold, been-sitting-for-many-hours engine after it's run only a few minutes—a situation that rarely happens (and that, once you know, should never happen). The only situations I can think of where it does are 1) going out, first thing in the morning, just to move the car a few feet in the driveway or out of the garage, or 2) when a valet has to get your car after it's been sitting parked several hours. In those instances yes, you would do the rev-before-shutdown procedure. For real-world driving, you shut it down just like any other car.

And for everyone who thinks the 8 requires very different/unusual/complicated technique or behavior compared to ordinary cars, here's the long list of everything you have to remember:

1. Don't turn off the engine if it hasn't warmed up.
2. Check the oil every other fill-up.

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

'xactly New Yorker.

A valet drive my '8? Never!