AMG

Well, tried to start her up again today, no go unfortunately. Tried the pump fuse trick, didn't work. The check engine light is on. when the problem occured the smell of petrol certainly was strong. Will get Mazda Assist to take it to the dealership on Tuesday. Monday is too busy to organize anything. Mazda Australia will certainly get a few words from me. The way I see it, if this is a known unsolveable problem then They should have someone available 24/7 to sort it out. Imagine if it were over The Thursday before Easter, you'll be waiting till Tuesday to get it sorted and will get it back Tues night or Wed. For a $66K car with barely 3000km's on the clock to be off the road for almost one week is totally unacceptable.

What if this were to occur in the middle of the outback!

Mazda Australia better have answers!

sco

Bummer AMG. Maybe it's not just flooding if you're getting a CEL. Good luck on Tuesday.

In the middle of the outback.... you're stuffed unless you fix it yourself or have big $$$... there is a distance limit on the "free" roadside assist.

takahashi

Very true and is a concern for everyone of us. I can't believe that there is some lazy *** in Australia this day and age. When I came across from Hong Kong long time ago, everyone is in Tropical Island's time. No hurry on any matter. Apparently not nowadays and no one can survive without hard work.

Mazda Australia attitude is not acceptable.

Write to them and threaten to go to the media if not improve their standard. I would say. It is not the car of the year if no back up when things are wrong! and who don't know about flooding a rotary!?

AMG

fair call sco, but if it is a known inherent problem then MA may get in hot water if the issue is pressed. Answers are definitely needed.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

If you got bad fuel (like I did) and got a MIL, it might be for "Misfire on #x Rotor".

I'm interested to see where this one goes. If you had a scan tool, you could plug it in and get the status code for the MIL.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Gomez

Over 100 different faults bring on the MIL/CEL.....Fuel system too rich is but one of them....

AMG

I'll just reach into my dental tool bag..................LOL!

Will report back Tues night/Wed morning once I find out what the problem is. Will also report MA's response.

Gomez

Actually, a misfire is the only problem that will cause the MIL/CEL to flash.....according to my info if a misfire occurs the MIL will be lit, or will flash.....there you go, file that under "U"!.

Gomez.

jeffneil

Greetings All,

Sorry to hear of flooding - it happened to ours in late December 2003 when the car had just over 1000 kms on it.

It is the auto and I started it then put it in reverse to back out of our garage and it died half way out the door.

It looked like it was going to stay there and I called my service guy and he got me to remove the fuses and crank it over then put them back in and this worked - after a while...

I took it in to them shortly after that and they put in new spark plugs of a different one to the originals and it has never done it again and now has over 10,000km on it.

BTW - McGrath Sutherland on Friday had SIX 8s in stock - blue auto, manuals of Red, Black(2), Silver & Grey - so what are you all waiting for - go get them now !!!!

Regards
Jeffneil

rx8 - smooth!

I have read a lot of posts on this issue on the o/s section of the forum. Rotary God - who seems to know what he is talking about reckons trundling the car down a hill and then bring up the clutch should do the trick.
I guess the only problem with this approach is that if it doesn't work your car will be stuck at the bottom of a hill not outside your garage where it started.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Hills! Whimps. I push started my first car (a manual V8) on the flat one time by myself. Hehehe.

Cheers,
Hymee.

daz1300

ok, to any of u who may have a few minutes, please excuse my mechanical lack of education.... but what exactly is flooding...?

i guess a brief answer should be sufficient ??

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Basically when the combustion chamber gets a gut full of fuel. And the sparkplug gets wet from it. It is fart oo rich to be a combustible mixture.

Cheers,
Hymee.

Philby08

Hi all, this is my first entry on the forum after watching from the side periodically for sometime.

After seeing this topic it seemed the appropriate time to become active, because irronically my car was towed back to the dealership this morning also supposedly with the "flooding" issue. However it is not under the normal quick start-up situation. I have been in the US for the last week, returned to the car turning over but not starting, tried all the usual methods to no avail. Last usage of the car was at least an hour trip, so no short run period. The car has not been reflashed although the dealership says they will be doing so today and was originally delivered in November and has just over 10,000 kms on the clock.

So I will be interested to hear the reason stated when I get it back.

Cheers.

AMG

Ok, got the car back. It was pure flooding and a slightly weak battery from all the effort I was giving it.

As yet no reply from Mazda Australia to the email I sent them

takahashi

Oh good news... good the car is running again

Gomez

AMG, did they change the plugs?? A guy in the States is selling used plugs removed at the dealers from flooded cars by the bucketfull! $40 for 100 plugs I think, on ebay! Just clean and re-use he says....they're about $100 new retail I think???

Gomez.

sco

If they're $100 retail here we should organise a group buy from the US. IIRC they're about US$36 there.

Wozza

So what they do ? replace plugs?

do I need to carry a trusty rattle gun, plugs and compressed air
supply in my kit ? :D

reminds me of the old days ,
I had half the car in the boot just in case .
I must admit these threads and the US ones are starting to
breed some paranoia ,every time it cranks a bit longer ,
I think " here we go ......."

Must be a fix or works around , Ive never looked at the plugs
before can the old "take out and heat up on the stove "work with them or ... dont yell... aero start I have no experience with
rotas but in my Piston days , I done a lot of weird things to start stubborn motors!!:D

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Just don't stall her!

Cheers,
Hymee.

AMG

Ok, heres the deal. They asked a lot of questions as to how why where, bit of an interogation. They told me they fed MA all details. Their response to check that it had the latest flash which it did. (the latest flash is supposed to stop the stall flooding restart problem). They removed the plugs and went through the dechoking procedure to get the fuel out. I asked them if the plugs were fouled, they just said they were very wet.

One possible solution they suggested would be to change to hotter plugs. Not a good idea IMHO.

I'm a bit irritated that MA hasn't got back to my email of concern.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

And rightly so!

Cheers,
Hymee.

Lock & Load

AMG

Hotter plugs i believe are only usefull if you are constantly driving short distances and not giving your ride a good burst .

I REDLINE MINE EVERY CHANCE I GET OFTEN A FEW TIMES PER DRIVE .( BUT DONT GET CAUGHT )

So get out there and give it some stick , and dont stall it .

cheers
michael

rpm_pwr

Not true. Hotter plugs are less prone to fouling. This can happen during the normal (rich) warm-up phase and also in heavy traffic. They do present a greater risk of detonation though, but hey if your engine is under warranty...

I have always used (colder) semi-race plugs for both street and circuit driving. This year I'm going to go with seperate plugs for street and track.

sco

It is possible to redline your car without breaking the law. But only in first gear :p