swoope

iTrader: (5)

when you are done... and having a good day. pm me your ???

i have lots of info for you...

i have not managed to flood mine.... 48k miles... and yes i run it.... hard very hard...

mazda made mistakes where???? and the 04 with 120k miles we need to know his or her name...

that is impressive... i have managed to get 48k on mine in 2 yr and 3 months...

beers

RedSheDevil

so fury, spell it out for us: what is it that owners are doing that is causing this problem? All finger pointing at Mazda aside...I'm not trying to start a fight, I am wondering wth I can be doing differently to not screw up my car.

MX6_2_RX8

Driving the heck out of the car sounds good but on the other side of the coin, there are reports of Mazda voiding warranties for "abusive" driving and the stock clutch/transmission is known to be a weak link at high RPM shifts. Tiptoeing down the tightrope to keep the car alive isn't the best answer although it may be the only one.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy taking it to redline in a few gears at least once a day. It is the funnest option!

FuryCustoms

well, mx6 Im not saying to redline the car everytime you shift. However, it needs to be wound up quite often while driving. Its a high rpm engine and thats how it is designed to be driven. For example: I went on a test drive with a customer the other day. The way he was driving the car was like he was driving a diesel truck engine. Everytime he shifted, and he floored it several times by the way, he would shift by 2500, 3000 rpm. Now like I told him, you have 6000 more rpm here to play with. If traffic warrants a 3000 rpm shift, then you have no choice but I wouldnt shift sooner. However once you get the chance take it atleast to 4 or 5 k. Also, the only type of driving mazda will void your warranty for is racing, purpose over reving (past 9K more than 1 or 2 times), and they will no longer warranty an engine for lack of oil (the seals on the rear rotor will burn up and loose all compression if you run them will low oil). Now the stock clutches arnt worth a damn so you might as well save up for an aftermarket unit. And the 6 spds have some issues. If you "bang" your gears often while shifting, the dog teeth on the brass syncronizers will easily chew them selves up mainly for second gear. Mazda doesnt seem to have a problem with use repairing them under warranty. Also, FOR THOSE INTERESTED, mazda has updated the design of the shift forks. The old aluminum shift forks were cracking around the casting for the control rod because is was so thin. Well, the new ones are much beefier, exspecially around the control rod end so they should hold up much better.

FuryCustoms

Well, do you have an A/T or a M/T. I also point my finger at mazda because they took all the little querks of the 13brew and made them into major engine threatening issues with the 13brenesis. The biggest problem, is with the fuel map on the stock pcms and the relocation of the exhaust ports. They were forced to go alot richer than the jdm rx-8s in order to get past usdm emission laws. Just look at the port flash for example. This combined with the unburnt fuel being recirculated back with the intake charge makes way for flooding and carbon problems. All of which has been argued about on this site. The rx-7, when they lost compression due to carbon build up all you had to due was pour in some atf through the intake and smoke out the neighbor hood. But that wont solve the problems on the renesis because the carbon forms under and inside of the apex seals. Aside from installing an afc, the only thing you can do is wind it up atleast once a day to clear out all the fuel and do not ever shut it off cold.

RedSheDevil

I have an M/T and gladly wind it up (I've been told I have a tendency to drive like an a$$hat). I also only shut it off cold once when she was new, I dechoked and learned the hard way about the cold shut downs.

The flooding that required a flatbed trip to the dealer was a puzzle ... no cold shut down.

FuryCustoms

did they do anything as to correct the issue? Your profile says that you have an o4 and their are several pcm calibrations that have been released "trying" to correct the issue. Did they put plugs in it? If not, as sad as it seems the only thing we will due when we get an rx-8 no start is put a jump box on it and dechoke it until it cranks, it can be tricky if it is badly flooded. If it wont crank then, we pull the plugs out and spin it over with the fuel cut off for a while, then put the plugs back in and try again. If that dont do it we check the compression and normally at this point there are several peaks with low or no compression. Thats normally when we call tech line and order an engine.

Racer X-8

Oh man, the sorriest thing is that I believe it. Screw the TSB, we'll get this f__ker goin a whole lot easier. Yeah. Spinning a rotary like that, with all of the lubrication washed out of it, then you loose compression - gee, I wonder why? Then you order a new engine to replace the one you just f__ked-up. Good one, hah! I just pitty the Fayettevile RX-8 owners who's engine didn't need replacement after one or two of those... Nothing personal mind you, you just do as you're told...

RedSheDevil

First time I brought her in for hard starts. They replaced starter and plugs. The battery had already been replaced. Second time she was flat-bedded in and they claimed the starter was never replaced (different out of town dealer that I don't like). They said they also replaced starter and plugs. When I asked about the WAY different starter sound (from after the first replacement) the idiot at the second dealership claimed that would be because of a reflash.

I am at R flash, new plugs, new starter, newish battery. I need to take her in for the constant brake squeal again (the dealer told me if it is still happening in 6 mos, that they would replace the rotors). I love this car, but sheesh, I've never had serious issues like this with a car before.

I don't know what I will do once the warranty runs out....

Any advice on the flood? Or the brakes, for that matter?

CERAMICSEAL

My guess would be one of two things with your flooding: Either the battery you have is no good (Not fully charged) or you have less than optimal compression. How many miles are presently on yours?

RedSheDevil

24K

CERAMICSEAL

Yikes! I hope it's lack of cranking speed. Are you doing relatively short trip driving by chance? For your sake I'm hoping that you have dirty or slack battery terminals.

RedSheDevil

Is there a way for me to check the terminals so I can go in there and not let them push me around (even tho my local dealer is really quite good to me).

CERAMICSEAL

Your mileage is so low that your motor should be quite strong. You and everyone else should try to meet the top rotary tech at your dealer and develop a relationship with them (A healthy type relationship that is). Get them to test your present battery and to do a compression test. As they are performing that they can observe your plug condition. You shouldn't be having multiple floods.

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

Although I've been religous about performing the 3k rev for 10 seconds prior to [cold engine] shutdown, I forgot to after washing my car this weekend. No problem starting up the next morning. I do have the new starter and sparkplugs. Just FYI (although I'll still do the 3k thing).

anbjornk

For the first time ever my car was slowstarted.. It wouldnt start until approximately 10 "starter rotations"... This is also the first time I have parked my car uphill......

mcsetech

So basically if you park on the street and need to move it to the other side to avoid pay a parking fine due to time changes, you take a chance that your car may not start. Not user friendly....

msrecant

There are a variety of factors that go into it (updates, battery condition, ambient temp, phase of the moon, etc) but in general, yes, if you start the car and move it a short distance for ANY reason you should follow the Mazda "short trip" procedure in your manual/QuickTips otherwise you risk a flood.

- Let engine warm up to operating temp or for 5 minutes
- rev to 3K RPM and hold fo 10 seconds
- let engine return to idle
- turn off car

blake H

is the flooding more prominent in the mt or at?

ddub

It's more prominent in people that don't know what they're doing.

ddub

Never done that once. Today for example I turned it on, back it out of the garage, turned it off, realized it needed to move over (washing it), turned it back on and backed up and centered the car, turned it off, washed the car, turned it on, moved it back into the garage, turned it off. Then an hour later I started it up and drove off. No hard start, no issue at all.

I have a smaller battery than stock that is LESS powerful, I have the normal "old" style starter and plugs, and zero updates. I have never once flooded the car, and have even tried.

What are you people doing? Seriously... This should be a healthy perfectly running rotary, and yet you still find ways to flood it?

msrecant

Check out the 1200+ posts in https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=17498 . IMHO it is not the people, it is the car. Many 2nd and 3rd generation RX-7 owners are also very familiar with flooding and view the rotary as needing a little extra attention, including not shutting it off cold.

However, there are some people (like you) who do short trips all the time and never flood. Others forget and turn the engine off cold just once and it floods. There seem to be a number of variables related to flooding including the individual characteristics of a given car.

I believe that pre-2006 ATs (4 port engine) are more prone to flooding, but any RX-8 can flood (see the thread referenced above). The latest updates (battery, starter and leading plugs) dramatically reduced the chance of not being able to recover from a flood, but there are still a veryl few instances where that didn't protect the owner.

ddub

A little wrong there. Many FB/FC/FD guys are familiar with flooding AFTER they've put significant miles and/or wear on the car. IE low compression or have not treated it properly. A new, good compression rotary should not flood. I had a 2nd gen rx7 (FC) for 3 years, and have been reading rx7club during that time also. The general consensus on flooding is the engine isn't in the best of shape or they're doing something stupid.

msrecant

As I recall, the posts I have read on this forum, from FB/FC/FD owners talking about flooding, were not qualified to indicate that flooding was only associated with poor engine condition. However, this is second hand info coming through me and I do not have direct experience with flooding RX-7s.

You can go to the above referenced thread and make your own judgement.

ddub

You believe what rx8 owners have to say about rx7's? Most the stuff posted on here about rx7's is stereotypical crap from people (most of the time) that have never owned one.

RX7's do not have flooding issues unless they have been mistreated, not maintained properly, or have high mile and low compression engines.

And why are you linking the the same thread we're posting in now? Do you think I'm stupid? Yes I've read this, and I've watched the Mazda information DVD about flooding and I still think something else is going wrong here.