OK. I've been chewing on this one for a bit. My daughter has a 2005 RX8. This winter (-30 for sure)(Manitoba), she drove the car home as usual, and parked. How hot was the engine? What were the revs on shut-down? Don't know, but. She's careful about the shut-downs. Mistakes were made. Attempts, and multiple boosts were made. At -30, this engine will not forgive. I wasn't there, so there's no data.

Anyway. We put in a new battery. Pulled the plugs, and killed the fuel pump.

The engine will not turn. I put a wrench on the end of the shaft, and couldn't make it turn.
Am I missing something, or is this engine destroyed?

 

Did you check the starter?

Rear wheels turn ?

 

I didn't really check the starter, or whether the rear wheels turn. The problem started in December (super cold Manitoba morning) when she flooded the engine. She'd been driving the car the day before with no issues. The starter was working then, and now it still tries to turn the engine. You can see the shaft budge a fraction. Still, maybe it's damaged. The transmission (automatic) was in park, so there shouldn't be a connection to the drive wheels. Unless maybe the transmission blew up, but generally that many things don't go wrong overnight.

Anyway, I'm in over my head. We're getting the car towed to Mazda for a diagnosis. She wants to sell the car, but we've got to get it running. Too bad, she does love that car. When it start.

Thanks for trying, though. When I find what the problem is, I'll be sure to post it.

 

Good news! My daughter got the car towed to the local Mazda dealership using a CAA membership. She explained what we'd already checked, and what was going on. Apparently, the engine needs to be de-carbed, and spark plugs replaced. Total cost quoted $529.12 (Canadian, of course) plus tax. Not bad at all considering i already knew the plugs needed replacing. The last set I bought were pushing $200.00. She'll need a new air filter as well, but that's no big deal. I don't think that's included in the quote. It never even occurred to me that this might be the problem, although it seems obvious now.

 

Lucky it was just flooded. Good stuff.