Nice answer there Mike...

 

I've never seen a group of car owners, of any type of other car, worry so much about warranty issues. RX-8 owners by far take the cake in terms of not having a clue what to do. Spark plugs are easy to change. Don't let the dealer see them. It's simple.

 

I'll let you argue that point with Slims8, abbid and others of their ilk. I make this point because it would be an easy thing for Mazda to drop the warranty if your car flooded while you had RX-7 plugs in it. Wrong plugs, possible detonation issues, cat warranty gone because of the flood.....not a very long bow to draw.

If you are suggesting the owner replaces the plugs every time he takes the car to the dealer, I put it to you that this is an impractical solution.

 

On that sparkplugs.com link...the NGK are the ones we would use the day we need them right, not the Denso? Just want to be sure...

 

Kim, The TSB is now (1/06) the 2nd part of the deflooding recall. I can confirm the original comment of the back-order status, but I can also turn that into good news.
My dealer here in Northern California just received the "backordered "plugs (in the past hour) and placed them in my car which has been in their shop all this week. They also replaced the starter & battery which was affected by this deflooding problem which I believe may also be listed as TSB's/recalls on the web at http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm
I hope you get your repairs (FREE) now!
youngkat@pacbell.net

 

.

 

Not everyone takes their cars in to the dealer at the drop of a hat. Last visit for mine was April 04.

 

I also believe the original spark plugs were RE7A-L. About a year ago Mazda switched to the redesigned RE7C-L. This is what the "Car cranks no start" TSB calls for. I think they are still installing the RE7C-L today. A set of 4 plugs (2 RE7C-L and 2 RE9B-T) are $80 street price.

I have not seen any hard information on any further redesigned plugs.

Regardless, I don't think it can be said that the plug design causes flooding, only that it contributes to the problem (along with a weak battery and starter, rich cold start mixture, etc).

 

Did the RX-7 flood?

 

From a lot of the posts I have read from FD (3rd generation RX-7) owners, flooding was a normal part of life. Like the RX-8, there were also those who never flooded.

Not having owned an FD I can't say first hand. I never had a flooding problem with my RX-2 or 1st gen RX-7.

 

I'm in the never flooded !

 

My 81 RX7 flooded once. I could not get it started, so I started removing spark plugs to see if it was flooded. Yep it was damp inside. I just took all the plugs out and cranked the engine a few time. All sorts of crap came out the spark plug holes. After cleaning up the mess, I put the cleanedup plugs back in then tried to start the engine. It took a bit but eventually it cought. The exhaust was unbelievable...a cloud of white that burned the eyes.

I also used to have a problem if I turned on the ignition, so that the fuel pump started running but didn't start the engine. (I was listening to the radio). If I sat there for 15min or so the top of the engine would flood. I could look down the carborator intake and see the gas pooling. Just took off the air cleaner and let it air out for a few minutes. Eventually it would start with my now familiar white cloud of noxious gases.