First of all I'm new here. I registered some days ago, read a lot of posts to gather enough info on this wonderfull car before I post. Me and my parents are considering buying the 8 but there is the flooding issue that keeps us from doing it. (Ok the low mpg is also an issue but we are ok with it, after all you must sucrifice some money - on gas - to own such a nice car).

Flooding the engine because someone is stupid enough to open/close it in less than 3 mins from cold start is one thing. It's really easy not to flood the engine if you keep this simple thing in mind.

However what if one day I get in the car, turn it on, travel 100 meters and then suddenly due to bad driving I make the car engine turn off. I know these things have only happened when we all learned how to drive, but you can't argue that it can happen from time to time if you are not concentrated or don't know the car's left pedal well enough. In the above scenario ofcourse I would try to immediately turn the engine back on to continue my trip. Would this eliminate the possibility of flooding? Or is there still risk involved?

The above scenarios can be shortly described like this :

Scenario A)
1) The engine is cold
2) I turn on the engine
3) I drive and on the first 100m (that's probably on the first minute) I accidentaly "kill" the engine due to bad left pedal release.
4) I immediately turn on the engine again.

Scenario B)
1) The engine is cold
2) I turn on the engine
3) I turn off the engine before the 3-5 minutes warmup.

Obviously the second scenario is stupid and as I said I will never do such a thing. But the second is quite possible to all of us.

I hope you understand what I'm saying above as my english sucks (I am from Greece :P) and give me a clear answer.

 

there is a way to avoid scenario 1. if you feel that you might stall, or if you're not confident that you won't before the engine is warmed up completely, just turn the engine on, wait about 5 minutes, then start driving it. this way, even if you stall, your engine will already be warm.

 

Warm the car up for a min or two before you take off, problem solved.

 

Dear Wh1t3w0lf,

I committed Scenario A several times the first two days I had the car while getting used to the clutch. No flooding.

 

Thanks for your quick replies guys.

s1mike22 and brothervoodoo : I thought of this too but come on, this means that everytime we have to drive it, we will have to wait 5 minutes for warmup. Me and my parents commit scenario A probably less than 2-3 times per year (it's not like we have a history of such scenarios). It's really rare that such thing would happen to us. But to be on the safe side I imagine we would have to wait those 5 minutes everytime as you said. And to make things worse many times we get in the car in a hurry because we are late and we really don't have time for warmups. (And you know it's a little ridiculous for a 2004 non race/very high performance car to need warmup so that there is no possibility of flooding)

I know you will say things like : "Well a risk of 0.00001% of scenario A happening to u is acceptable so you are exaggerating and or talking bs here". But we are giving $45.000 for this car (that's how much it costs here) and we can't afford risking flooding it. And as I said neither the 5minute warmup EVERYTIME we drive is an option for us.

selmeralto : Your post gave me hope. This is exactly what I was wanting/hoping for the car. Maybe it has to do from the fact that when you immediately turn the engine back on it can't be flooded (the flooding is happening only when you turn off and leave it off for enough minutes to do damage). Can someone confirm (or do the opposite) this?

 

Scenario B is not stupid at all. I move the car out of the way to get another one out ... Its winter... I have to stay in the car 5 minutes?? We are in 2003 AC ! How can an award winning engine flood if you don't warm it up ???

 

I thought that the most wear and tear on the engine occurs when take-off before you properly warm the engine anyway. Since the rotary needs a little more care in the warm-up department, I see it as a win/win situation...

 

I had my RX-8 today in for its first oil change.
One of the guys there told me that they already had had quite a few customers flood theirs.

Their explaination was that it floods if you hit the gas pedal hard so that there's a lot of gas in the engine and then come to a stop (be it stalling or intentional parking).
Then there would be too much gas left in the chamber and the spark plugs would not ignite (if I understood that part right)

I answered that generally, I don't hit the gas hard when I pull into my private driveway (quarter mile long) or in a public parking lot.

I pull my 8 out of the garage all the time without warming it up, e.g. when I want to wash it or if I need to get to the other car.

I never warm it up. I thought I never flooded it because it's not cold enough here (55-65 degrees in the San Francisco Bay Area)
Now that guy told me several people here in this county flooded theirs?

Is his explanation right? Have I been spared because I only push the gas pedal gently???

 

P.S.:
with my luck I probably start a thread tomorrow: "I too flooded my 8" :-(

 

ptiemann is basically right: flooding occurs when the ingition can't ignite the intake charge because they're fouled with gasoline.

to avoid this, you can wait until the cold-start sequence ends (and it stops running fairly rich), or you can somehow try to get the engine to pump a lot of air through before you shut it off...

shut-off procedure recommended by the manual includes a healthy revving before you cut the ignition, and this might be enough by itself to prevent the engine from fouling the plugs in cold-start mode (in neutral rev it up +5k and turn off the ignition while it's returning in its usual quick way back to idle...).

i haven't tried this, nor can i try this (although i would, 'cause i love you all so much ), but just an idea.

 

I have to agree with selmerato. I hadn't even thought about until now. But, when I test drove the 8 I had started it, took off after about a minute or so(could have been less??) and no sooner did I get about 100 feet and stalled it. I have driven a stick on every car I have ever owned and thought I was quite proficient at it, until that day. Nonetheless, after I had stalled it, it fired right back up again, no problems whatsoever. So, fear not, I don't think it will be an issue. Good luck.

 

It's been cold here. I do a rev to 4k and shut it off on short jaunts (10 mins or less). I also turn the key to ON and wait til the major lights go out before starting (this might be just superstition).

Also, after a hard drive, or big acceleration before parking, I let the engine idle for about 60 seconds before turning it off.

So far so good. I've had about two "scary" starts so far, but I've never had to crank twice yet.

 

i moved my car into the garage after washing, about 10-15 feet and then let it sit for just about 2 days. Would not start afterwards. Dealer said to remove fuel pump fuse and crank for a while and then replace fuse and let it get some gas. It finally worked after a half hour or so. It helped that we had a batery charger on the car during this procedure. After billowing smoke everywhere, everything seems ok. They said that a lot of the cars get flooded when taken off the truck and parked.

It did try to start the first time, reved to about 2 grand and then died. Next time ill be ready to use some throttle to keep it lit.

Eric

 

The solution is easy - buy the AT!

I keep posting the same thing when I see discussions about flooding, but no one has yet to explain to me the big deal.

From the U.S. and Canadian manual, page 7-20:

EMERGENCY STARTING PROCEDURE:

If the engine fails to start, it may be
flooded (excessive fuel in the engine).
Follow this procedure:
1. Depress the accelerator all the way and
hold it there.
2. Turn the ignition switch to the START
position and hold it there—for up to
10 seconds. If the engine starts,
release the key and accelerator
immediately because the engine will
suddenly rev up.
3. If the engine fails to start, crank it
without using the accelerator—for up
to 10 seconds.

As I understand it, one need only spend a few minutes cranking the engine with the accelerator pedal floored; they'll be some smoke when the car starts, but (and please correct me here if I'm wrong), the car will be fine so... go ahead, you can even buy the MT!

 

I stalled the car I test drove twice, but I haven't stalled my car at all in the three weeks that I have had it so far. Once you get used to giving it a little more gas when pulling away you are not likely to stall it (the clutch is very progressive). Just to be on the safe side, for the first week of ownership, I always warmed up the car for a couple of minutes before moving off, but I don't bother doing this any more.

The only way that I think you could really easily stall the car is if you start it up, accidentally select 6th instead of reverse and then try to move off. So I always double check that I am actually in reverse before reversing.

I think the flooding problem is worse in cold weather, so it shouldn't be so bad for you in Athens.

 

This inherit design flaw needs to be fixed. What a horrible experience it must be to stall the car in the middle of traffice and try to unflood it for a few minutes. This is why women coming into buy the car because it's "cute" should think twice about it.

All the solutions aren't solutions to the problem, but methods to avoid the problem. Mazda needs to solve this problem... at least carbon lock hasn't been brought up at all!

All this talk of flooding is bringing back memories of my '81 carbed RX-7. You need to take care of this car and it will take care of you. I've never driven a car as fun, but it's like a hot woman... high maintenance!