Deflood with starting fluid?
 

Hey guys, My RX-8 is flooded and out of warranty. Instead of flatbedding it to the stealer, has anyone tried a few squirts of starting fluid down the intake? I know this works with carburated cars, but don't know if it will hurt an EFI car.

Yes, I have tried the standard owner's manual deflooding proceedures.

Thanks!

Don't think that will work, but you can give it a try and let us know. Unfortunately, the starting fluid won't improve combustion chamber compression. You need oil for that. Do the following and it WILL start, unless low engine compression or some other problem is causing the non-start.

Take out the leading plugs, pull the EGI fuse, squirt an ounce or two of oil into each plug hole, crank the engine for 5-10 seconds, replace the fuse, plugs and wires, crank the car with the accel pedal depressed. If it doesn't start, do it again. Once it starts, you will get lots of oil smoke out the exhaust but it will disappear in time once the excess oil burns off.

Deflood it, make sure you have a good battery though

Go48, I pulled the EGI fuse, but the starter will not crank. Put the EGI back in, it cranks. What gives? There is a fuse marked "FUEL" is that the one to pull for the fuel system?

The fastest way to unflood any rotary is to pull start it behind another car. If it doesn't start this way, it probably never will.

Push start it.

I did it once for fun, roll start to be exact. is not that hard to do, and damages to your cat will be close to nothing.

How do you push an RX-8 (or almost any car these days) without damaging the rear bumper?

Ken

Usually you can do it without another car. I've had to push start other cars and can usually get it going enough solo to jump in and pop it into gear. Much easier with a friend's help or a down hill run.

dont push the plastic bumper, push the rear bonnet

yes you will get hand marks there and yes you will need to buy them beer afterwards

Sounds like you pulled the MAIN fuse. Engine should definitely crank with the EGI fuse out.

Trick 1
If the rx8's have the plug for the fuel pump under the dash like the rx7's do you can just pull that and crank it until the fuel burns out(the car will start then die) then plug it back in and it should start. Thats the fastest way to unflooding my rx7. Kicks ass when it is raining b/c you never have to get out of the car.

Trick 2
Take out the trailing plugs and crank the car. It will help get the fuel out.

Trick 3
Push start


Starter fluid is bad because it will eat away at your soft seals. You are much better off using oil.

Nope, it didn't crank after I pulled the EGI fuse. Oh well.

Thanks everyone for you help. I didn't have much time to try other tactics last night so I just waited and had it towed to the stealer this morning. I'm told flooding is not covered until the 5-year powertrain warranty (even though flooding prevents the powertrain from starting) so looks like I'll pay for my mistake; was quoted $95--ouch.

How exactly does push starting the car help, i'm not challenging this method and I know it works, but I just don't know how. :o:

It forces the engine to turn over. I harder method to do it is manually turn the e-shaft and it has the same affect as push starting.

I have a flooded rx8 as well, its an automatic so I cannot push start it. And pull in the EGI fuse will not allow the car to start I am sorry. I as well need to need to figure out what fuse to pull

Stop messing around with fuses. Just hold the gas pedal to the flood, it will cut fuel injection while you crank. Built into the ECU and noted in the owner's manual.

Crank for 5-10 seconds, let the starter rest for the same amount of time. Repeat 10 sets of these and then release the gas pedal and try starting. If it doesn't work after a 2nd set of 10 and there isn't noticeably coughing trying to start then there is a deeper problem you have to solve. Even a badly flooded engine will start coughing after the 2nd set. Make sure you hook up another car via jumper cables to prevent draining the battery and then re-flooding due to a weak battery.

RIWWP, I may be wrong, but does that starting procedure only work if the ECU has the latest Flash ?

No, that has been there from the beginning. My 99 Miata had that same ECU feature (not that it had a flooding problem), so I bet that most Mazdas since at least the late 90s have had it.


It's not directly flood related, it's also compression test related, since you should hold the throttle open for a compression test, regardless of what engine it is. Having it cut fuel just makes the testing a whole lot faster for techs.

oki doki, thank you.

Thank You So much for the useful response. It took about 20 mins of repeating, started coughing after first attempt so I kept at it and BOOM! She started right up. I had to hold throttle down a little though after the release so it would quit coughing and start up. Thanks again.

Hi guys, I need your help here!!

I'm new and know nothing about RX-8, just that my 18 years old son has gone crazy about RX-8. I bought him an 04 and I turned over the key to him 4 months after he felt comfortable to drive manual. I asked that he take the car to MAZDA dealer for an oil change. Instead, he took it to his friends and they changed the oil themselves - using Castrol GTX oil. The car is badly flooded and not only that, one of the compressors is low, engine leak and you can see oil on the floor. It also sucked in the coolant fluid. What do I do? rebuilt the engine? buy a new engine? You'll guru, expertise will be really appreciated. Thanks.

This all happened after they did an oil change ? What makes you think the engine ingested coolant. The oil on the floor maybe from over filling or missing the filler neck when pouring the oil,or at worst case they stripped the sump plug/oil pan bung. Take the keys from him.
Pull the lower spark plugs and wind it over while depressing the gas pedal to the floor , do this several times to de flood, drain the oil again to see whether there is water in the oil. Why do you think it is low on compression.

I drove the car to work from time to time and it ran just fine, no leaking. only after I turned the key over to him. He didn't tell me exactly what has happened, but he showed me the bottle of the GTX. I think the engine ingested the coolant because when I pulled the oil check stick and dripped just like water, and the coolant tank gone empty pretty quickly, I just had it installed by the dealer. I took the car back to MAZDA dealer for another oil change and the tech told me that he received bad compression, so i ended up paying them to do the testing, that's when he told me it was bad. I drove the car back home, parked in the garage, I went back to check ours after, i saw oil on the floor, however, the tech didn't mention anything about engine leaking. I'll try to deflooded it again this evening.

Do you have oil on the floor where the car's oil was changed?

It's from the upside down oil filter. When you remove it oil goes on the engine then the floor.

You need to use allot of Paper towels and rags to prevent this. When the oil was changed at the dealer, they may not have cleaned it up too. So now you have two oil changes where the oil is running down the engine to the floor.

If you have radiator fluid in the oil you can tell pretty easily. Also the car will start to over heat real fast.

If the dealer checked the compression they will have the numbers. If they don't they are BS'ing you.

Get a print out of the compression numbers.

If they did the test, they will have the numbers because they want you to come back for an engine replacement.