I washed my car on thanksgiving and pulled it into the garage and waxed it. I let it idle for about 30 seconds in the garage, but aparently not enough. I went out on Saturday and it lit for about a second then died. We were given instructions to remove the fuel pump fuse and try to crank it over for a while. After about 10 minutes of replacing and removing the fuse, the car finally started and filled the garage with smoke.

It seems to run ok. Should i still take it in to have them look at the plugs and oil and such? I would hate to be backing out of my apartment and accidentally grab 6th instead of reverse and kill it and not be able to go to work.

Well my dad did like my car untill this happened, now he just thinks its another jap POS.

The service manager has had many cars flood when they are backed off the truck, but he had not heard of any bad gas mileage issues that i also mentioned. Im getting 17mpg on 95% highway.

Eric

If she's running smooth I would guess that the plugs are ok. What I would worry about is fuel dilution of the oil. I'd probably give it an oil change. Consider it "penance" :)

Dont worry, its not just the RX-8 that has this problem.

You can sopend £££/$$$ on a Jaguar XJS and it'll do the same, it happens (and they have to remove the fuel pump fuse ).

Happened to my 2002 Protege about a week ago...

Before shutting it off, rev it to 3-4 k and turn off the ignition. This will shut off the injectors, and the engine will coast down to 0 clearing out any fuel. It works!

Do everything you can to avoid flooding. It's so hard to recover from flooding. One help in recovering from flooding is to put a tablespoon or so of 2 stroke oil into the intake (easiest place is the brake booster hose connetion on the intake). This will increase the compession/pumping action to clean out the housings of fuel. It improves the sealing (apex and side seals). Bonus, it's good for the engine (once in a while).

Maybe Mazda should have made an "anti flood device". ... whoops, car flooded? Pop hood, push button and blamo! Spark plugs unseat themselves, fuel is spent, a little ATF/solution squirted into the chambers and it fires in a blazing glory of smoke.

Welcome to the world of the rotary. Know how NOT to flood it and it probably will only happen once a year or so.