Body shop flooding worries
 

I've owned my RX-8 for a whopping two weeks and now get to send it off to the body shop for a week as it was backed into. Luckily the damage wasn't severe and it's nothing I have to pay for to fix, but given we still have weather in the 30's (with lows in the teens) I am worried that the body shop is going to flood the car and foul out my less than a week old plugs. The body shop I'm using is by far one of the best in the business in this area, but they have openly said they haven't worked on many RX-8's (if any) so they are NOT aware of their issues. Some say flooding is completely gone, others disagree. Outside of printing out one of the signs in this thread - https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-trouble-shooting-95/handing-over-keys-fear-engine-flooding-80305/ - does anyone have any suggestions? I have a hard time thinking a body shop will end up taking responsibility if the car runs, but the plugs are screwed. I do not have the upgraded starter nor would I be able to get one installed in time for my car to make a trip to the body shop. The battery is a few months old but the plugs and coils are brand new as of last week.

Thanks in advance!

Tell them....... to let the car warm up to temp......

Make sure you tell them just incase. Better safe then sorry.

Yeah, print out either one of these and stick on the dash............and make sure they read it!
You already found one of these.

Haha, I like this. I'll probably print them out for myself.

I would be more concerned by the body shop carboy taking the 8 out for a good workout during lunch. :D:

They've worked on far-nicer cars than an RX-8 so I'm not concerned about that at all.

Tell them nicely...and also mention if they flood it it will cost about $300 for the dealer to deflood it....that tends to make them be much more careful ;)

There was a post here a while back from a guy who works in a body shop where they had flooded an RX-8. He said that when they realized what happened, they put it in the paint booth, turned on the heat and let it cook for a while. It started.

No idea how real and/or repeatable this was, but it did have a certain charm.

Ken

i printed 2 of those signs, a half page and a full page and had it laminated. put the full page on the dash and taped the half page on the console cover. i was sure they wouldn't miss it and glad i was right. they actually thought the signs were theirs. they asked me where i got it because they said they need one since there's another 8 going into the shop. emailed them a copy of it :lol:

Most important...............

Put it on the Reciept. "Car must be warmed before turning off. All flooding charges will be paid by the body shop."

After they sign it, you get your copy.

Verbal doesn't work.

But will the body shop sign it?

Should have charged them $10.00 :wiggle:
Well, I guess it might be better off to stay on their good side if it's a good shop.

well, i figured it'd be a great service to fellow 8 owners. hopefully one less thread of "shop flooded my car" or "help, my car won't start!" :)

Good idea to put signs all over the car and adding "please." :)

Of course if they don't sign it they don't get the business.

Get real.... you bring the car in running condition and you expect it to be the same when you pick it up.

When I had mine in last summer I spoke to the owner at drop off and also taped a big sign to the dash. When I came to pick it up the guy had it warming in the lot and couldn't wait to tell me that he was the only one that had been allowed to move it. Of course, when we dropped off my wife's car last month I overheard him and my wife joking about how anal I had been.

My bigger concern is always valet parking or lots where you have to leave your keys. I can't see ever leaving the RX in the hands of one of those knuckle draggers and expecting them to warm it before shuffling cars. I either avoid them or take a different car. But then again I've been told that I can be anal when it comes to the RX-8 . . .

It's not very often that a delay is good news to me, but the body shop called and said they can't get my car in until next week now. It was going to be today but they couldn't get the parts in time. Why is that good news? There's a UPS package arriving for me today that has an upgraded starter inside of it. I'm going to have it installed tomorrow so at least it will have the better starter when I drop it off. That puts some of my worries at ease although I'm still going to tape the flooding images to the dash just in case.

Wow, really wish I had those when I dropped my car off. Tell whoever you talk to to warm it up and make sure they tell anyone that has access to the keys.

Signs might help but the bottom line is people just don't care about other peoples stuff anymore. So if it happens then deal with it then. No sense in worrying unless it happens.

As has been noted above, I don't rely on the signs themselves.
I make sure we have a real simple discussion about the whole thing before I give them my keys, including the ramifications should they flood it!

When I dropped the car off I had printed out the piece of paper that shows the temperature gauge, then I printed off another (that I made myself) that had instructions on how to turn the car off if it wasn't warmed up. I taped one on the steering wheel and another over the radio.

When I picked the car up the owner of the shop came out and said they followed them exactly like instructed. I told him I didn't want him thinking I meant anything bad by them, but rather was just trying to save everyone some headache. He said he appreciated the heads up as they had never done one of these cars before. He said they took pictures of both of them and any time they get an RX-8 in the future they will be taping both of them up (just like I did) to prevent any troubles from happening.

No problems, the paint looks good (although I'll have to wait until it's sunny to see if it matches perfectly since VR is such a metallic color), and I've got my car back. Sweet!

Butt then he won't be pre- maturely bald at 35.

Life won't be fun. So please worry!