Reminds me of............................

 

Thanks a bunch man, i changed my oil this weekend and drove my car two feet up the driveway after i changed the oil. When i was on my way to school the next day, the engine cranked, but it didnt start. The flooding ive heard all about finally happened to me..i followed this diy, along with some of the other tips people have mentioned. It took me half of a day to do it, but i got it working.
1. I hooked up a battery charger to my car, set on 6 volts.
2. Opened up the fuse box located to the right in the engine bay, and removed the large fuel pump fuse, along with the fuel 20A fuse. (Both of which are labeled on the underside of the cover)
3. I then got in the car, cranked for five seconds with my foot to the floor (this is the code to not inject fuel while cranking while the car is off), then waited for five seconds.
4. I did step number four five times.
5. I waited a minute as to avoid killing the starter motor.
6. I then started the car with my foot to the floor again, the first time i tried it, i heard my engine crank. (The best thing i had heard all day!! lol)

I then repeated this two more times in the day, waiting an hour or so between each try as to avoid killing my battery and the starter motor.

When the car finally started up, there was white smoke everywhere, and i kept the revs at about 4 grand for thirty seconds before taking it for a spin around my neighborhood. Things have worked well since, and i will never ever let this PITA happen again.

Thanks again for the write up. Saved me a few hundred getting my car towed to the mazda dealer, and having to pay for a tow, and the con artists at my dealership to tell me it would cost a grand to fix.

 

Why would you charge a 12V battery on 6V? Might as well have not bothered

 

It was a trickle charger...all i had..i wasnt going to run the battery dead in one go...so i let it charge between each attempt i did.

 

if you insist on doing this method it's better to disable the ignition/fuel pump and remove the spark plugs, dries out the engine MUCH faster. crank the engine in 15 second intervals about 4-5 times or until all the vapor mist stops coming from the engine. you can dry off the plugs at that point but if they look dirty now is the best time to change them.

but still doesn't beat a nice long hill, a few buddies with a push, or a towrope and another car. when these things flood they're a bitch to start.

 

i discoverd my flooded car this morning for the second time since december 27th. and it only sat this time for less than 10 hours. the first i can understand cus that was when i was on vacation for a week and a half. but in that short amount of time, i dont get it. after doing lots of reading this evening on here, im pretty certain i need to replace the ignition system. as for de-flooding, hooked cables to my sis's car, let it sit and get a good charge in it for a few minutes than attempted to start while holding the gas to the floor. it turned over on the 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

I didn't think flooding happened due to the car sitting for periods of time. I thought the primary culprit (in addition to a weak ingnition system) was shutting the car off before it had warmed up. My 05 was just forced to sit outside for 3+ weeks in below freezing temps, but it fired right up when I finally had a chance to dig it out from all the snow.

 

now that i think about it, this may have been what caused it. i started the car cold, backed it out of the garage for a day of house and garage cleaning since it was warm and sunny where it sat for a few hours. then started it up cold, it did start right up, no hesitation and then shut it down. and thats where it sat till the next morning and was flooded. culprit???

 

There's a really simple solution to this...

LS2 coils and the upgraded starter (if your car is pre '07)

I haven't flooded once in years. It used to be a regular problem. A local friend on mine wouldn't listen to my advice and he's spent more on OEM coils now than he would have on the upgrade. He finally ordered a set of BHR upgrades....

 

Had it happen once due to my own stupidity. Squirt about 4 oz of Marvel Mystery oil in the maintenance port of each housing and it will fire right up.

 

Thanks gatorfan. It took me a few extra trys, but this procedure definitely works. Just to clarify, the car will start before the fuel pump is reconnected; just wont run for long. Also, the quick disconnect to the fuel pump is by far the largest wire on the tower.

Thanks for the assist!

 

The " big" wires on the top of the passenger strut tower is not for the fuel pump. It is the air pump. They disconnect it so it doesn't light off the fuel soaked CAT

The easiest deflood is and always will be a quick tow start....works even with severely flooded cars and you don't have to **** with removing the plugs or anything

If you can deflood it using the foot to the floor and crank it method it wasn't very flooded in the first place

 

Thanks for putting this info out there guys! I'm in the middle of trying to fix my wife's flooded rx8. Took the plugs out, turned the motor over about 10 times (4-5sec intervals). Now I'm just waiting to go pick up new plugs, coils, wires. Hopefully after that's all done it'll fire up. Her plugs looked terrible. When turning the motor over I never really got a strong smell of fuel/oil, plugs were dry as a bone, no misting.

 

Straaaaannnnnge...

 

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the info available on the site. Cleaned the MAF sensor, replaced the coils, plugs, wires, and charged the battery. Cranked up on the first try. Running great! Great DIY info here! Thanks again!

 

Just did this this am. Worked like a charm. I spent $500 on this twice before. Didn't even need plugs nor touch them. Only touched the fuel fuse and disconnect the air. Thanks.

 

thank you for the post. as a note. once you get it to fire up, resist the urge to pedal down to "burn through" the gas and oil... you will restall, and then be starting over.

 

Hi all

I just had this issue for the first time- however when I first read this thread I only read the first few posts!! I didn't get down to the post where someone said to tow it for best results. I think there is almost NO way the first method would have worked for me (starter motor approach- I tried for ages!) where as the second approach (tow start) will work every time for a manual transmission.

Can I recommend that the first thread is altered to suggest a tow start as a fool proof method?

I had a huge plume of smoke out the back! Crazy amount.
No way cranking on the starter motor could sort that out.

Cheers

 

the worse the engine is flooded the more it will smoke once it starts. if the engine fails to start after spending no more than 10 minutes of off/on cranking i will pull start a car. it's just much simpler than possibly cooking a $300 starter and waiting on the battery to charge between attempts.

on the automatics there's little choice, they have to be coaxed by sacrificing the starter.

 

Thank you thank you!!!!

I parked my '11 R3 outside for longer than I realized. Of course it was a cold night too. I pulled up the driveway and shut her down without warming up. I couldn't drive her for 3 weeks. Of course I could not start when the weather warmed up.

I forgot to keep the air pump unplugged for the first two rounds -- meaning, I plugged everything back, then tried to start. the engine started and ran for 3 seconds, then died again. I finally realized that you plug the air pump back in AFTER she starts. I followed the steps, but also depressed the gas pedal all the way as well to start, worked like a charm.

some people spoke of taking out the spark plugs -- I didn't realize that the spark plugs are really hard to get at! I only have 9000 miles on the ODO and didn't want to take the effort ...

 

I read the first and last pages of this only so i'm not sure if someone has covered this already but I had to deflood a badly flooded auto with quite a slow starter motor (even with battery hooked up to another running car) this weekend .

After much dicking around I finally figured out what i needed to do :

*With spark plugs out foot to floor and someone watching the spark plug holes . I kept cycling the starter (10 second intervals) until the watcher said there was no more mist coming out of the holes . I then kept going for another 3-4 cycles to be sure .
*I then wiped out the spark plug holes to dry them before screwing in the (dried out) spark plugs

After two hours of frustration ............. it started instantly after i did the above .

 

This method works, it's a little trying at times since you may have to run through the steps multiple times.

I flooded my 8 when I had a low/dying battery. Replaced the battery, then had to deal with the flooded engine.

I tried many attempts of holding the pedal to the floor and turning it for about 5-8 seconds, then trying to start it with the pedal down and then let up as its cranking, sometimes this would almost start the engine and its easy to want to keep trying it this way (as I did). But I eventually gave up that method and followed the OP's method.

1)I pulled the 20 amp fuse for the fuel pump. I then disconnected the air pump, the connection to the left of it near the strut bar.

2)Cranked it a good 5 seconds each time, for a total of maybe 8 times.

3)I'm in cold weather so I let it sit for a good half hour to an hour. Recharge the battery with trickle charger.

3)Put the 20amp fuse back in (but leave air pump disconnected)

4) crank normal without holding gas pedal down at all.

The first time I ran through this it started and I tried to rev it up to 3k + to keep it going, but it immediately died. I then ran through all the steps from the begining.
The next time around it fired up perfectly on step 4.

5) Let it run a few minutes, untill most of the exhaust smoke was done.

6) connected air pump connection back up.

I wasn't able to drive it around but I left it running a good 15 minutes.

Fired it up the next day normally.

 

Just to add from my recent experience if you cant / don't want to tow start and you have the plugs out to dry / clean then squirt some oil in the two lower spark plug holes to reseal the apex seals. ( Rotate the engine manually using the alternator nut and socket to spread the oil over the entire rotor faces). This process increases the compression and makes the restart far more likely.

 

I followed OP's post to a tee and thank-you so much.

The first four iterations I got no feedback that anything was improving. bout to give up at this point, bought sparkplugs, jack, etc.

The 5-10th iterations I started to hear something a little different. Audible signs got more and more positive, but sometimes would be the same between iterations. And it finally started!

was so excited i forgot to release the keys from the starting postion for awhile -- but it seems fine.

I was disheartened but just kept doing it and in the end I did not need any extra parts.

 

great stufff...process worked like a charm for me...thanks Alfy28