dafiro03

Thanks it worked!!

Nd4SpdSe

Took out the plugs, cleaned them and tried deflodding with the throttle to the floor but not much luck...


Followed your trick andit started to show results on the first go, the 3rd attempt she stayed running! Thanks

Car was stored for 8 months, so she didn't like waking up I guess.

alfy28

Sweet glad this thread and the others who offer other tips has helped many.

Rx8manRich

About how long does it normally take to deflood your car... i think mine is flooded real bad it stalled out on a road (Damn spider scared the SH@t out of me and i dropped the clutch at a red light in 1st) and i was anxiously trying to get out of traffic so i cranked it (in 5-7 sec intervals) for about a hour straight. I later found out that this probably made it like 100x worse. She's never flooded on me before, and the most thats happened is like 1 minute of cranking when I teach my fiance how to drive it, (she stall..).

I let it sit over night on the side of the road and went back later that night to try again. After about 30 minutes of cranking she still sounds like she doesn't want to kick at all, but i can feel air pumping out of the exhaust when its being cranked. (also i had it attached to my honda by jumper cables to avoid battery loss.) I went back anxiously this morning because i do not trust leaving my car in this area, to try and get it started again (hoping some of the fuel evapd) This time i tried the method above (minus removing the spark plugs.) Still no avail, i cranked for about 1 hour and she still does not want to kick over at all.
spark plugs are basically brand new, less than 3000 miles on them. coils and wires are a little bit older..

how long does it normally take worth of cranking to deflood a very badly flooded car, and more or less im starting to worry.

Thank you.

WreakLoosE

Hay guys... I just handled his issue.. this past weekend..well Last Friday I found out my car was flooded.. I just got my Subaru back from the shop So i was driving that around for a few days.. But before I did that i simply moved my RX8 from the street to my drive way and shut it down.. I didnt warm it up or anything and so on Friday a few days later I tried to start it up and NOPE!! I was denied.. So then I got to reading SOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo many Best de-flood method post blah blah blah. All are good in their own however, when an engine is flooded the main thing is getting all the gas out of the engine and back to a point where ignition can take place.. At first I tried the recommended Mazda method, I tried the tow/push method, I tried the flush with the windshield washer method, no fuel pump fuse. Nothing worked other than what seemed to be common sense.. GET THE DAM EXCESS GAS OUT OF THE ENGINE!. So from that point. I figured two things.. My spark plugs are soaked and wasn't going to light anything. So I took them out.. they seemed to be good but wet.. I cracked one checking it but it was time to replace them any how.. And Second thing..In trying to get my car started my battery was drained I got a new one at Autozone. The Duralast is actually a decent battery Has good cranking amps and that was something I needed for this issue. Before putting the new spark plugs in I gave the car a few cranks and I got some gas/windshield washer fluid out of the spark plug holes.. I put in the new spark plugs and got cranking.. I Put the fuel pump fuse back in and held the gas petal all the way down.. Got cranking I could hear it want to start to fire slightly nothing much for a while.. I kept alternating between Holding the gas petal to the floor and cranking the engine just holding the clutch petal. After about 5-10 mins. when I held the gas petal to the floor (fuel cut command for the RX8 by the way) the car wanted to start a little better.. I then tried again with no gas petal press and the VHROOOOOOM!!! got it... Success!!!! I sat there with a feeling of triumph as all the white smoke coming from my exhaust blew through my hair as a single tear ran down my cheek. All in all its gonna take some time of cranking and switching from cutting fuel and cranking with fuel. One thing I would recommend is having A BATTERY CHARGER OR ANOTHER CAR WITH JUMPER CABLES so your battery doesn't drain.. Oh yea one thing.. disconnecting the air pump will help a lot with battery life.. Hope this helps and GOOD LUCK on the De FLOOD

FYI... I was also happy that i was actually able to get the NGK IL Spark plugs from Autozone for 80 bux for all four, well 2 RE7C-T and 2 RE9B-T I wanted to go with the RE6C-T but they did not have them. The Mazda dealer wanted something like 150 for all four.. 58 something each. I was like oh hell naw.. But you can get them for 60 bux but I was in a bind..

MIBagentQ

All that depress pedal all the way and crank nonsense, forget it.

Follow mazda's TSB, get er done.

monchie

Okay...thanks for the advice.

tonik

it works fine with my 8..maybe ur doing it wrong.

wazup_shorty

Best solution is to depress the gaz pedal to cut the injection, crank to vent the cylinder, and then crank normaly, worked everytime

sbelyo

I flooded my 04 auto the day after hurricane Sandy swept through my neighborhood. I've owned rotaries on and off for a few years now and was well aware of how they flood. Well, after operating on 3 hours of sleep in two days I made a stupid mistake. Started car to check gas level then shut it off after 10 seconds (insert you idiot here). Car sat for two days, temp dropped into the 30's. Wife's car's blower motor stopped working so she asked to use the 8. The temp killed the battery and was real weak when she tried to start it. So, insert sleep deprived mistake number two. After operating on 9 hours of sleep after 4 days I jump in the car and crank it until battery is dead. I then realized I just flooded the crap out of it.

This thread got it going again.... Thanks. After power came back on I got full night's sleep I then pulled the battery and charged it. Put it back in the car. Pulled the plugs. When I took the bottom plug from the front housing fuel poured out. At least 2.5 Tbsp. All plugs were soaked. I put in an old set that I had because I knew they were dry and followed the steps in the thread. You'll need the second car for sure. It started after several tries. If you smell fuel, you're half way there. When you see and smell combustion you're three quarters there, don't give up. It will start in the next few tries. There no way this will work without anther car, the battery will drain at the halfway mark without it.

My father in law was just amazed that I would go through so much trouble. Once it started he was shaking his head in disbelief. The neighborhood filled with smoke and the kids ran for cover. The good plugs are clean and drying in the basement right now. I'll install them tomorrow after I make a gas run. This gas line **** is like the Carter administration! Luckily I got power early this morning around midnight but many are still without. Looks like it's back to work Monday...

Darkning

For those of you wondering... You don't need to taper off the accel pedal as it feels like its going to start. Once the engine goes into "running" mode the pedal goes from cutting the fuel to supplying it. At that point your revs will be way up there and you can release or modulate your throttle as needed to keep it running until it clears up.

I re-flooded my car twice yesterday trying to let off the gas pedal when I thought it was going to start and it puttered back out. Holding the pedal down until I knew for a fact it was running at 5/6k rpm did the trick.

JugglerMike

Many thanks to all involved in this post. I must have REALLY flooded the crap out of my RX8. Even after changing the plugs, it still took about 6 cycles of cutting the fuel pump, cleaning out the gas, re-trying with gas, very slowly it started to pop, then rumble, then come up to speed only to kill. Finally got it to start, kept the revs up at 7k for a couple of minutes, then took it out on the road. The good news is that once she warmed up, the new plugs made her purr like a kitten. Probably one of the reasons for the flooding in the first place. Lesson learned - NEVER do a cold shut down.

Also this method took patience, but it worked. Having a jump from a running vehicle was a must! AND it is much better to do this outdoors. I was in a garage and sucked up a load of carbon monoxide before this was over.

Again - Great post - thanks for sharing!

Wolfe

iTrader: (1)

worked! took like 40 minutes, but I got the hang of it. 5 sec on 5 sec off for a min, take min break repeat 5 sec on 5 sec off. then fuse back in and start it up. It was just figuring out how long to crank it with fuse in. Thanks!

Harrigan

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the DIY worked great. Just one question someone might be able to answer for me. Before doing this I didn't have a check engine light on and after doing this and it starting up a check engine light came on. Anybody might know why this happened? Don't feel like taking it to Mazda and having them diagnose it. Thanks for your help!

Mazurfer

^...............then take it to Autozone, Aamco, Pep-Boys, or any other place that can read the code and report back on what it was.
Guessing it may come up with P0301, but you should go have it read.
Probably have a coil or plug going bad.

How many miles on this car and when was the last time it was serviced?

Harrigan

iTrader: (1)

^........ Well the thing is I have the insurance off of it for the winter right now so cant really take it anywhere. And it has just under 120,000 km which is around 74,000 miles I believe. I had all the spark plugs ignition coils and ignition wire replaced at arond 100,000 km so they shouldnt be going bad yet. Im thinking it could be the o2 sensor from all the fuel that was being burned off but could be wrong. If the light doesn't clear by the spring time when I take it out then I will have it inspected.

Mazurfer

You can disconnect the battery for about 10-15 minutes....................that will clear the code.
Then fire it up and see if it comes back. But...............since you had to deflood, you to have to do it again.

Harrigan

iTrader: (1)

Okay ill give that a try thanks! Why would I need to de flood it again though if I just disconnect the battery?

Mazurfer

If it flooded once and it was due to weak ignition component(s), then it's likely to occur again on start-up at some point..............that's all.

Karack

normally i would hate to say this but i agree with Rotary god, these engines fuel wash very easily and are extremely difficult to dry out. you can easily burn up a battery/starter or spend hours on a severely flooded engine trying to get it going again where a pull for a hundred yards or so is much quicker and less stressful.

i never had to resort to pull starting rotary powered cars until the 8 was introduced. still can get them running with the starting system but you are probably going to take years of life from your starter if it is severely flooded.

amdevito0321

Thanks for the post. I had a flooding problem , and, after following your steps, I was up and running.

Harrigan

iTrader: (1)

Car starts up normally now and I finally got a hold of a code reader. Code read p0301 which is a misfire. Does that mean my ignition coils are toast now? Even though I just had them replaced last year?

Mazurfer

Could be plugs, wires, or coils.
Yes, it possible it could be a coil, but how long since the others were changed? Especially the plugs since you had a flooding issue.

andrewsleon25

Glad you threw that up there. I was at my old mans house for new years and let it sit for a few days, decided to moved it to do an oil change and for some reason,(days of drinking, brain retarded I guess) shut it off. The moment I shut it off I was screwed. Went ahead with the oil change and started to crank and nothing. Tried all defloods here and this is the only one that worked even after a plug change.

andrewsleon25

After pulling the plugs, mine was also so flooded it shot a glob of gas at me standing 10 ft from it before it started making huge clouds of gas mist. ( note to newbies who try this) Make sure all forms of ignition are not present. Aspirated gas is HIGHLY flammable.