truemagellen

Mazda Roadside just picked you up????? My guy was awesome...he unflooded the engine...powered up the battery while he was at it...took 20mins...I'm guessing I was VERY lucky though

IZoomZoomI

Yea i prefer my roaring super beast or something j/k. I was only kidding I could really care less what anyone calls their 8's. Trust me, i heard worst descriptions b4 that I will care not to say...


The rotary is not a POS btw, stuff like this comes with the territory. I be the devils advocate and say like jason mentioned, if you taken proper precautions this probably would not have happened. I don't think he was saying you abused your car.

slllygrl10

They sent a tow truck the actual roadside assistant was no where to be found and besides I had to get the mp3 installed so all good.

foxman

What was the ambient temperature, just out of curiousity, when it happened?

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

it's been pretty warm the past few days here in DC area :o

unless it happened over christmas break :D

slllygrl10

50's

slllygrl10

The car was parked in the garage from Dec 25 to Jan 2nd and last monday that's when I got it towed.

easymmkayrx8

Wow. Just because it floods doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the car. No worries, flooding isn't too uncommon in the world of rotaries, but is also easily avoidable. Taking the necessary precautions(letting the car warm up before shutting it off) will make it pretty tough to flood the car.

Kel Rx8

u silly rabbit

alphapenguin

actually a week ago, my dad's towncar flooded. It wouldnt start, and I thought the battery was dead, so i tried to jump it. Still nothing. Then I realized, crap its probably flooded. so I just pressed the gas pedal a few times before starting, a voila. Engine started, with black smoke spewing out. It's a '01 TownCar. (tiger woods supposedly drove it during the memorial tournament).

slllygrl10

I dont know anymore. Someone said to not step on the gas pedal. So WHATEVER!

Gambit

^^I read the exact opposite on one of these flood threads

kmkm3

I had my 8 in for routine service, and they told me there was a recall that they had to fix that caused them not to start. They said another customer had their car brought in on a flatbed because it wouldn't start. Should be an easy fix, it only took about 20 minutes on mine.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

got your car back yet ms sllllly??

slllygrl10

Oh yeah last monday when i got it towed i got it an hour or so later then I had my mp3 installed as well.

ZoomZoomH

iTrader: (1)

sweet, took care of the head unit panel too? :D

slllygrl10

yup they replaced it under warranty yay

AdictiveRx

welcome to the fast growing club

JM1FE

OK, let's all chill and understand what we're talking about.

If you 'step on the gas pedal' when starting, meaning that you press the pedal ANYTHING LESS THAN 100% ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR, then you're inviting a flood because you're introducing additional fuel.

If the car is 'flooded' AND you DO HAVE the 'M' version of the engine computer software, then the deflooding/dechokeing procedure is outlined in the owner's manual. That procedure is to press the pedal ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR while cranking. The computer (on cars with the 'M' flash or later) senses the combination of 'cranking' and 'full accelerator' and disables ALL fuel flow so that the situation gets fixed and not made worse. If you don't have the 'M' flash, this doesn't happen, which is one reason why you should have it.

So...
Engine flooded? Depress pedal all the way to the floor, crank for 10 seconds (to evaporate the excess fuel), stop cranking, release pedal, then crank it to start.

Now, you claim you didn't try the deflooding procedure. Did you have the 'M' flash? Then you could have probably been fixed in less than a minute. No flatbed, no delays, no complaining that the rotary is a POS. If you like the car, keep it. If you don't, get rid of it. In either case, don't blame the *car* for operator error.

InvisibleMonkey

MANUALS CAN't HANDLE TURBOS?!?!?!?

IZoomZoomI

well put

XR8D Handlz

how sad. car looks good tho



sorry, newbie question but what is "flood" -ing -ed?
(besides water floods, i dunno...)...i've read about a couple of these in this section alone.

JM1FE

When the engine temperature is 'cold' (this has nothing to do with cold weather, just whether the engine has been run long enough for the temp gauge to show normal operating temperature), the engine computer makes the fuel mixture a little bit richer until the engine warms up. This is normal with most cars.

The rotary engine, however, is sensitive to being shut down during this 'warm up' period. That is, if you start the (cold) engine and then shut it down before the engine warms up (e.g. you pull it out of the garage to wash it), then the excess gas from the richer mixture may 'flood' the engine. The technical things that happen with this are (1) the spark plugs get saturated with gas and don't fire properly, and (2) the some of the oil film that helps seal the combustion chamber to maintain compression gets 'washed' off, so compression drops.

The cars built before April 2004 had an older version of the engine computer software that made this problem worse. So, Mazda has had a service bulletin (TSB) out for 8 months or so to get every RX-8 upgraded to the 'M' version of the software. Having the M flash not only helps prevent (but not eliminate) flooding, but it gives you the means to recover from it yourself (as I described in my previous post).

It's not a big deal if you just pay attention to what you're doing. If you have to start a cold engine and move the car a short distance, let it idle until it warms up, or drive it around the block, OR rev it to 3000 RPM and while holding it there turn off the switch - that'll flush out the excess gas and seems to be good for most people. When you start a cold engine, let it idle for 1 minute before you drive off and don't mess with the accelerator while it's idling. If you drive the car on short trips like running errands where you're starting, stopping, restarting - not a problem because the engine is still warm. This is pretty much a cold-engine (not cold weather) issue. And for most people, it's a non-issue. You hear about the ones that it happens to, not the majority that it doesn't.

For some perspective, a lot of BMWs built since 1995-ish have (had?) a similar problem that is 100% computer-related. If you start the car, back it out of the garage to wash it and shut it off, then start it again and move it back into the garage, the computers would sense this as a problem and the car would fail to start until towed to the dealer and reset. So it's not like the RX-8 is the only thing in the universe where you have to pay attention to cold start/shutdown situations.

slllygrl10

I do have the M flash. They sent a tow truck with no rotary tech just a driver and this lady. You want them to mess with me car knowing that they havent seen a car like mine and they dont know much about rotary engine. Now how about you try flooding you're car and having a tow guy coming and having to mess with your car. And we will see what you think. Oh pls......

slllygrl10

When I called Mazda assistant they said to NOT I say again to NOT step on the gas pedal. I went online asked around and forum said no and some said yes. Oh trust me I tried to step on the pedal multiple times cuz I wanted to get back home but nope no luck. And if I say my car is a POS or rotary engine are POS then it is a POS. When I say its a POS cuz I said so.