Tried to search for info on it, but couldn't find anything, though I seem to recall mention of it in the past.

I just flooded my 4AT last monday, and after trying on and off for the past three days was finally able to get it to run, albeit reluctantly. And yes, the manual instructions did eventually work. I tried for two consecutive days before resorting to a jump from my G35. It took almost 30 mins of on and off jumpstarting and laying on the starter for long periods of time, but diligence and patience eventually paid off.

After a period of rocky turning over (shuddering and off-balance feeling) it eventually spun as freely as it did pre-flooding.

Is it now suitable to drive the car as normally (though more conscious of cold shutdowns), or do I need to have a dealer check it out, or have an oil change done or anything? So far it seems to start and run as it did before. There's about 1,300 miles on the odo.

TIA

 

I was also without my car for 6 days after flooding it. See Emegency Start Procedure Let Me Down. I didn't try to recharge the battery after it died though. I suspect I could have gotten it started had I done that. I am not really sure that the RX-8 battery is up to the task of the "Emergency Start Procedure." I wish there were a better procedure to follow. For example, I'm wondering if it might be possible to remove the trailing spark plugs and let the chambers dry out ... my thought is that the car could be moved slightly to allow each chamber exposure to the air. Another idea is to purchase a better battery, as some have suggested. See Optima Battery - Red or Yellow?. There is also the possibility that the new "hotter plugs" may help, but Mazda hasn't yet recommended these plugs to alieviate flooding.

Why didn't you just call RSA? I'm just curious.

I don't know if getting the car checked is necessary. My flooding repair listed the fact that they "cleared the codes." They also changed the spark plugs, but they may have done that just because it was easy to do and simplier than cleaning the ones they removed. Some have also suggested that the oil may be contaminated after a bad flood, although my oil was not changed by the dealership. I suspect if your car is running well, you're fine doing nothing, but you might contact the dealership just to see what they have to say. Personally, I'd trust almost anyone who regularly posts in the Tech Forum before I'd trust a dealership's service department, but it would be interesting to see what they have to say. Also, ask them if they would have covered the repair under warranty had you needed it and, if not, how much they would likely have charged you.

One last thought... did you get any oily stuff on the ground behind the car after you were cranking it for a while? I got some sort of liquid on the ground on the left side only and was wondering if perhaps only my left rotor was flooded, explaining the spot on only one side.

Pic of car with "stuff" behind it

Oh yeah... one final, final thought: the ATs are flooding more than the MTs. Bad news for us.

 

I'd get the sparkplugs cleaned and change the oil and filter, but that's just me.

 

laferle.
Definately change your oil, it can't hurt and most likely some (if not alot) of the gas got into the oil.

MEGAREDS,
As far as the stuff behind your car, I think it might be condensation. Althought it looks like alot. The left side theory doesn't pan out, the 8 doesn't have dual exhaust. So right and left doesn't matter.

Did you smell the stuff? If you didn't smell gas then it is probably just water

 

Laferle i am just wondering and don't take this the wrong way but how many good looking cars does one need to be happy? You seem to have 4 pretty good cars in your driveway.

 

Thanks for the information: I will contact the dealer tomorrow for advice on the issue. I didn't notice any strange liquids emanating from the tailpipes but i'll check tomorrow in the garage space.

As to the oil change, what is the consequence to driving on gas-infested oil? Mazda screwed up my free maintenance/$500 offer so I'd like to wait until that all gets ironed out, after which I'd get the oil changed ASAP.

And to f1michel-- No offense taken; to be perfectly honest it's not about buying happiness in nice cars. The G35 is my dad's company lease, the Audi is my mom's daily driver, and the Prelude was my daily driver until we traded it for a Murano in December. And the 8 is a family fun car to enjoy in the summer / weekends. Living in Michigan it's hard to have a sports coupe year round (like during the past three weeks, for example, when the 8 has stayed garaged due to snow/ 5-15 deg. F. temps. ...and thanks for the quasi-compliment

 

The consequence is thiner oil and more wear and tear on your engine. An easy way to check for this is pull the dipstick and look at the oil, put some on you finger and smell it. If it smells like gas change it. Personally I would change it no matter what just to be safe, but thats me.

 

It makes sense now since you live with your parents. I thought you had those 4 cars for, say, your wife and you !! :-)

 

I think you may be correct. After I gave up on restarting the car I tried to push it into the garage, but couldn't budge it and my shoe grip kept failing on the driveway. The driveway was not icy, but it was slippery in my rubberized boots. I thought I'd get better grip if I put down some salt, which I did. The puddle of moisture behind the car is roughly in the same place as where I was when trying to push the car, so it is possible that the salt caused moisture to condense there. The spot is not there any longer, so it was likely just water.

 

Megareds - Your comment that the ATs are flooding more than the MTs -- what are you basing this on? I did a poll a while back asking about flooding with ATs and seemed to get a very low number of ATs having flooding. Just curious. (And I have an AT.)

BTW, here in the DC area it has been below 20 for over a week and I haven't had any trouble starting the car. It warms up within 5 minutes and I shut it of multiple times (short trips) and it always seems to start right up. Thanks for the info.

 

I received a PM a while back from someone who told me that a Mazda NA service person referenced the flododing problem as an "AT issue" in an email he received. I also note that this thread, which indicated that of the AT owners responding (22), more than one third had flooded their cars. The same poll showed that less than 1 of 8 MT owners (85) had flooded. I know this hardly a scientific poll, but I think it is significant enough to allow a bit of speculation... a bit, anyway. My theory is that it has something to do with the fact that the AT has only 4 air ports (as opposed to 6 in the MT), but I'm almost always wrong when I guess about the tech stuff.

Note that the "flooding issue" is real by any measure... of 238 polled in this thread, approximately 20% have flooded their cars. (That's a lot - it just is.)

BTW, in case anyone missed it, I'm very excited about the prospect of Mazda giving "official word" about covering flooding repairs. (See Flooding Policy Now Official?). I think if they do that, I can stop complaining about Mazda's failure to acknowledge the problem and start working on how best to deal with it, along with anybody else that cares. I love my car. My gripe was really about being treated poorly. Six days without my car, a lost day of work and the prospect of a $250 bill, then a lecture about how the dealership wasn't going to fix it again under the warranty... I was furious.

 

This whole thing about Mazda's service is starting to tick me off. I have to say I have NEVER experienced such sad service in all my years of owning a car. It's almost like you need to "state your case" and HOPE that the warranty will cover repairs!!! WTF?? Must be warranty has a different translation in Japanese... because whenever I have EVER had a problem within the warranty period of my GM cars...its fixed...no questions asked!

 

This type of thing is becoming more and more common, I'm afraid.

Look at the way BMW handled the failures of the S54 engines in E46 M3s. They tried to blame owner overrevs for each and every one of the failures until they started occuring in cars with the SMG transmission which will not allow an overrev to occur. Only then did BMW admit there might be an issue.

That in no way absolves Mazda or provides an excuse for their behavior, but it's not just them.

As far as GM is concerned, they may know what warranty means but that doesn't mean they can fix problems. I had a Chevy repurchased as a lemon and GM's treatment of me during the process so soured me on them that I've stayed far, far away ever since (yeah, I have a 2" high stack of service receipts from the first eight months of ownership and that's somehow "buyer's remorse"...)

 

I have to agree with you on GM. I had so much trouble from day one with a brand new Z 28 IROC, I vowed never to buy another GM. I have had nothing but metric cars for 18 years since. GM totally lost my bussiness. I'll never buy another one. I also have the 2" pile of sevice receipts. Too bad there was'nt a lemon law then. GM customer sevice was not only unhelpfull but totally indifferent and rude when I pushed the issue.