Deepsi

Joined the ranks of the flooded to my great displeasure!. Backed her out of garage on saturday; gave her a wash and polish; put her back in the garage.

Tried to start her on Tuesday - guess what NO LUCK!

Called out the European assistance who had the following tips:

1) Never switch off when cold (great for security!)

2) Rev engine to 4000 revs and count to 5 before switching off

Any other useful tips?

msrecant

In the US, Mazda released a product support video with the following specific instructions to be used if a short trip cannot be avoided:

1. Let the engine idle until it has reached normal operating temperature or for 5 minutes.

2. Raise the RPM to only 3000 RPM for 10 seconds
(at 3500 RPM you engage the secondary ports and more fuel enters the system)

3. Let the engine return to idle

4. Turn off engine

Rx-8Lover

wow..after having read all the threads i am really having second thoughts about getting the 8. what really sucks is that after having done all my research and trying to find the right car for me, i really fell in love w/the 8. now i'm hearing about all these "flooding" problems and i'm concerned. my question to all you "flooded" victims is how much $$$$ is it to get the spark plugs cleared out or removed everytime you car floods and you need service?? Let's suppose it's $50. if this happens 2x a week, we're talking about $400 a month..meaning that you will be paying double your payments in acutality. i really love the car and still would like to purchase it, but i need some kind of assurance that it's worth buying. any advice or opinons would be greatly appreciated.

msrecant

To my knowledge, Mazda has been very good about covering "flooding" issues under warranty up to and including replacing plugs, batteries and starters. It is a much bigger problem for automatics that manuals. If you follow the rules (up to date on flashes, don't shut it off cold) people seem to manage to avoid flooding entirely. It certainly is not a weekly occurance.

Remember this thread is focused on the "down side". For a counterpoint check out:

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/am-i-lucky-my-8-normal-57102/

bowlhead

Mazda picks up the tab for everything for this problem while under warranty......but what happens after the expiration could be a financial burden.

msrecant

Yup, you got 4 years or 50K miles to work with Mazda to figure out how to reliably avoid flooding based on your driving habits. If you haven't solved the problem by then, then you probably need to switch to another car.

Rx-8Lover

i definately agree with you bowlhead. that is why i think i'm just gonna go w/the lease instead of financing. i really wanted to keep the car b/c i think it's gonna hold it's value down the road and i don't think Mazda will come out w/a better sports car then th 8 down the road. i think i'm gonna be paranoid when i get the 8...god damn flooding!!

aruffell

I left for a 4 week long vacation to Rome, Italy and when I came back the battery of my 2004 RX-8 was dead. I tried to start the engine with it hooked up to another battery but it would not start, so I called a Mazda Assistance and they sent a tow-truck to tow me to a dealer initially not even wanting to jump-start it but then they agreed it made sense to try. The tow truck driver jump started me but the car did not start.

On Monday the dealer fixed my RX-8 under warranty... they replaced two spark plugs, and updated my PCM to N flash at a cost of close to 240$ that was covered by warranty... phew!

I guess the issue was caused by trying to start the car with a dead battery.... next time I will disconnect it prior to my departure.

Anyway Mazda stood behind their product and fixed it all for free - I am grateful.

Go48

I suggest you keep a trickle charger connected to the battery when it is going to sit idle for a few weeks. No need to remove the battery. Just make sure the charger is the type referred to as a maintenance charger.

mzdoggmann

So the engine flooded??

aruffell

It sure did. In fact they also replaced two of the spark plugs. I remember reading that to correct flooding you would have to replace the spark plugs and do several other things.

tRiX8

i'm joining the club this morning, flooded it. i tried what the manual says, but didn't work. I had no time this morning, I was getting late for work. I'll try it again later this afternoon

SHOWOFF

Yesterday my car flooded for the 1st time ever. I had driven it the day before for several miles. Got in it yesterday to go to breakfast with the wife and it cranked and sputtered for a sec then died. I tried cranking again and the car would not start.

I could smell fuel in the exhaust so I knew having a "fly by wire" setup for the throttle that if you hold the accelerator to the floor the PCM will not deliver any fuel. After a few tries she finally cranked over and ran like total **** for about 30 sec. Smoked heavily too.

I never thought this would happen to me since I follow the Mazda procedures to the T when it comes to starting and running the car. It kinda cought me off guard.

I'd like to have the latest PCM update done to help avoid this again but don't want to make the car run like ***. Any suggestions?

czr

iTrader: (3)

Go to the dealer and tell them what happened. There are TSBs out and the dealer has a new starter, upgraded plugs, battery, and N-flash. They came out after I flooded mine so I only was able to get the plugs. Got N-flashed last week and it is the best flash yet.

MyRxBad

iTrader: (1)

You do know that you can eject the whole changer by holding the eject button down for about 2secs until it beeps and it'll spit them all one after the other.
Same goes for the load feature.

Nubo

Do you have the original battery? Keep in mind that deep-discharging a regular car battery will reduce its capacity and longevity; making floods more likely in the future. Add to that the fact that the stock battery, until recently, was rather under-capacitized for the needs of the RX-8.

Mazda offers a newer higher-capacity battery as a replacement. Or you might consider the aftermarket.

In my opinion, a good replacement is the Optima yellow-top battery (model D35). It not only has way more cranking amps and higher amp-hour rating than the stock battery; it's designed for deep-discharge and also holds its voltage better when partially discharged. That gives you better cranking when it really counts -- like the 2nd or 3rd try at deflooding your RX-8. Also, it can be deeply drained with negligeable permanent impact to the battery's performance. Plus it is non-spillable and maintenance-free. In my opinion, this battery should be OEM for the RX-8.

Check out the DIY section for various Optima installations.

TCReedy1

Go to the following link and you`ll find the Mazda tech bulletin about flooding. Very informative..

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...ins_index.html

Good luck with this - mine just did it last nite and its getting towed to the dealers this morning.

Tom

TCReedy1

Wow - just read all the previous postings about this flooding problem. There is so much waffle and bluff. Bottom line is that if you stall your car which has modern computerized engine management, it should not flood when you try to restart it.

Its probably an idiosyncracy of the rotary engine..and its probably here to live.

What upsets me is that I got new plugs on warranty but Mazda made me buy 50% of a new battery....when the existing item was only 18 mnths old. Their excuse - it wasn`t capable of holding its specified charge. Knowing that to be the case, then its basically buggered is is not? When a component of the car is buggered within the warranty period, surely it should be covered under waranty. Are Mazda telling us that batteries are wear-out replacement items then? Thats a new one....unique to the world automotive industry.

Tom

msrecant

Batteries are a wear-out replacement item, usually on a graduated scale. Check the Mazda (or any other manufacturer) warranty book.

Buffalo66

All this time spent planning to buy the RX-8, and now I finally get around to reading this nearly 1000 post thread and I might not buy one. 1/3 of people have flooding issues and most of them have had the car on average what about a year?

I live somewhere where we would be switching cars around alot (small driveway). I use to think this was only a problem with start, stop, and start right away again, but now it seems to be a problem with even just a start and stop. Even if you don't start it up again until the next day, there still seems to be the potential of flooding it becauase you only ran it for a minute.

It seems the "Flash" TSB people have mentioned hasn't fixed things. At least that's my impression

zoom44

actually the start it move it in the driveway and shut it off again is the most likely to lead to a flood. the flash has mostly fixed things but it is still likely to happen if the procedure to rev it etc isnt followed.

Buffalo66

So if I move it in the drive way, running it for 1 minute and then just rev it up to 4000 or so first before shutting it off I'll probably be OK? I live in western Oregon where in the winter it usually only gets down into the 30s at night (sometimes 20s) by the way if that means anything.

I'm considering buying a new 2004 from a dealer this weekend, so I should just make sure he's done all the TSBs first, including giving me a better battery and the most up to date flash?

msrecant

Both the Mazda TSB and the "Product Update" still say you should let the engine warm up, before turning it off, to avoid flooding.

The exact "Product Update" video procedure for short trips is:

1. Warm engine to operating temperature or for 5 minutes.
2. Raise RPM to 3000 for 10 seconds
3. Return the engine to idle
4. Turn off the engine

I live in Virginia where winters are usually mid-high 30s with some 20s and have had no problems, but I always make sure the engine is warmed up before turning off.

The "must have" service for the RX-8 are the two recalls (MT transmission damper and passenger airbag wiring) and to have the N PCM flash installed. Everything else is pretty much only needed if your particular car has that specific problem.

zoom44

i live in Tigard Oregon and yes you should be fine

okstatepike

I just signed on a slightly used '04 yesterday. I live about a mile from work and it will be my daily commuter, is this a recipe for trouble?

From what I understand I either need to make sure the car has ran for 5 min. or rev to 3k for 10 sec., is that right?

Thanks in advance.