hey guy i know ill probably be told to just use the search button but I tried and I couldn't find anyone with this exact problem.
I drive a 2004 rx8, as far as i know all the recalls and flashes have been done on it.
I was doing some spirited driving last night, and of course cause I'm a genius my gas light was on. at around the end of second gear the car just cut out, made kind of a grinding sound if i heard correctly, all the lights on the dash came on and it died.
I put around 10 dollars of gas in it but still no start, tried cranking it with the gas depressed and nothing, however I had no way of accessing the internet so i couldn't check the exact deflooding procedure.
So what do you guys think? the car is parked where I left it so I'm gonna drive down and tow it later today if it doesn't start, would there be a possibly that it flooded, because there wasn't any gas in the car. I'm hoping its starved fuel injectors or fuel pump or something and not compression lost from something internal. any help would be appreciated.

 

Sure doesn't sound like a flooding issue to me.

Just try cranking it over ... don't be afraid to let it crank for 30 seconds or more

Running the car out of fuel at high RPM's cannot be a good thing, especially since it's the fuel in the tank that keeps the Gas Pump cool

I don't like the grinding sound you mentioned ... hope that wasn't some sort of knock caused from a lean condition when you ran it dry of fuel

Good luck

and Bump

 

thanks for the reply, ill try cranking it and see what happens. and i just realized i put this thread in the wrong place, my cars a series 1

 

Tired cranking, no start but sounds like its catching. Fuel smell and a little smoke coming out of exhaust

 

Ur fuel pump might have died due to overheat cuz' there was no fuel to cool it.
Especially at high rpm, means it was working really hard....
Always keep at least quarter of gas in the tank between each fill up in the future to be safe.
The grinding sounds u heard might be the plugs sparking without fuel...

 

i hope thats all it is, car is gonna be looked at by my mechanic today, do you guys think theres any possibility that it could be flooded?

 

Possible, but not likely. The 2 most likely issues are either

1) your fuel pump failed due to overheating from the sudden loss of fuel (fuel keeps it lubricated and cool) and it's having trouble getting fuel to the engine (Though at least some is getting through from your description)

or 2) the sudden loss of fuel generated a lean spike in the engine, causing detonation (ignition of the fuel that is there before the spark can ignite it, meaning everything is in the wrong place for combustion) and it damaged one or more seals, resulting in low compression.

There are a few more options out there, including one or more of your plugs was damaged/destroyed and won't spark good enough now and it is flooding from that.


What you did is pretty much a perfect example of "what not to do" with our engines when you are low on gas. Sudden loss of fuel is a common culprit in blowing an engine for the FI guys.

 

Yeah turns out my lazyness to fill up gas most likely ruined the engine, mechanic checked and there's no compression, sparks are fine. Probably not covered under the extended 8 year warranty I'm assuming?

 

Morally, no. The engine is not warrantied to go through what you put it through. Legally, you might squeak it by.

You have a 2004 though, so there is a chance that your warranty is up anyway due to the 8yr mark. A lot of 2004s were first sold in 2003.

 

Yeah seems like it, the guy at the dealership I talked to didn't seem to know what he was talking about. He said it would be 1500 to just run the tests, and that all 2004s were covered till 2012, regardless of the manufacturing date. I remember seeing a TBS off finishline that was supposed to help me out if I ever needed a replacement under warranty, you wouldn't happen to know of it would you?

 

It's not a TSB. Go to MazdaUSA.com and sign up for a free account there, enter the VIN, and you can pull the official warranty information. The dealer guy is assuming that "all 2004s were sold in 2004". It's 8yrs 100,000 miles since date of first purchase. All factory warranties work that way, and this is no different. This didn't replace any existing warranty, it was just an extension to the original one.

Here is the 8club thread on it: https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/8-years-100-000-mi-extended-warranty-147287/
The Mazda Press Release: https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...0&d=1212641863

The dealer also can't "diagnose" it other than a compression test (of if they do, they are talking out their *** or lying), and compression tests are $70-$120, depending on location and dealer. $1,500 would be a basic starting point of tearing down the engine, which they typically do not do. Some dealers are apparently prohibited from doing it, other dealers apparently do anyway?

 

yeah the guy at the dealer was talking out of his *** for sure, he asked one of his buddies there and didnt get an answer, so he just made some stuff up it seems like.
I talked to someone I know who works at a Hyundai dealership, and he told me Id have to show them every single piece of maintance history done on the car, is this true?

 

Yes and no.

In general, it is a responsibility of the owner to provide maintenance records to the dealer during a warranty claim on the engine. Namely, they look for regular oil changes. That being said, not every dealer is the same, and you get the entire range from demanding every single receipt back to the start of the car, to only back as far as you own it, to only back 10-20k miles, to even some dealers not even bothering to ask, because they know the car and know that maintenance records often have little to do with the engine failure in the first place (I've got one of those about 90 minutes from me).


However, this isn't a typical warranty request, namely, you did something that isn't covered under the warranty. 2 days ago, trying to pull start my Miata because it wasn't getting enough of a charge to jump start, I made a stupid mistake and snapped the transmission input shaft. My fault, so I have to handle the responsibility of the repairs myself, either repair it myself or pay out of pocket for someone else to. I frankly suggest you do the same. Lessons are often painful.

 

Good luck getting it sorted. If you can't get it covered under warranty give me a call and I'll take good care of you on a motor.