Youknow theres a problem with this whole flooding thing guys. My Rx8 is in a bodyshop right now and I told the manager about the whole 5 minute waiting thing when moving the car a short distance sincethis is the first time he had an Rx8 in his shop and he told mehe doesnt know too much about rotary engines. Well I took a lookat some of the mechanics there and they didnt appear to me as the kindof guys that would reallygive a shit enough to sit there and wait for the temperature gauge to get past cold before turning it off. This process is not a very familiar one tomost mechanics so theresa chance that when I finallyget my car back it willhave been turned off multiple times while still cold from the night before just to move the car out to the lot and back inside for storage. If my Rx8 gets flooded a few days after I get it back is there goingto be any way I can prove that they neglected the short driving procedure and caused it to be flooded? I meanto be honest if I were some average joe mechanic I would be too impatient to sit there for 5 minutes and wait before shutting it off. What do you guys think about this?

If it floods, it's likely to flood on them, not on you a few days later. I don't know how helpful that information is, but there it is. I wouldn't sweat it too much.

I don't think the average joe would take the time to warm up you car unlease you know the guy well, otherwise they won't take the time to warm up your car but don't sweat it a couple time won't kill the car I did it couple of time to my 90 TII and the car has 90K mil on it and still no problem::)

If they flood it, they have to fix it! If it starts when you leave, you should be fine.

What kinda mechanic is this? Why aren't you taking it to Mazda? My Mazda maitenance guy was the one who told me about the starting issue so I'm sure the staff knows.

DeNile he said its at a body shop.. unfortunatly mazda doesnt have a body shop.

My car spent over a week at a body shop getting a new hood, windshield, etc. after being attacked by road debris. I told the guy who did my estimate about the flooding issue and insisted that he allow the car to idle for at least three minutes every time it was started. He looked at me like I was nuts, but when I picked the car up it started fine.

A word of advice -- make sure you take note of your odometer mileage when you drop the car off and again when you pick it up. Don't want those bodyshop boys taking joyrides, y'know.

Did your bodyshop give you any line about having trouble finding your paint code formulas? I had a hard time finding someone who could do the work on my car since the 2004 paint codes weren't available yet.

Body shop guys or mechanics always turn on the car, move it and just shut it off. They don't let it warm up a bit first.
Body shop guys flooded my 7 too.

Dude! I've been there, spend $$$, and law problems with dumb body shops. They will flood it. They will charge you for a battery that they drained (yeah, too dumb to use a charger/booster) and they will not pay for new spark plugs... they might even put the wrong ones on!!

Take it to a body shop that knows rotaries. It might be further but it's worth the trip. Find a close rotary turner and they will know people in the bizz.

Not only will they flood it, they will redline it when they test drive it. Too bad the 8 doesn't have a memory for highest RPM.