DailyDriver2k5

68,000 miles(new plugs +mazsport wires) on my baby and this is the first time i flooded her. Washed the car Sunday afternoon , started her up, backed her out then shut her off, finished washing her , started her up, drove back into the garage and shut her down, but had a gut feeling i should have let her run for 10 minutes before shutting her down.

Today went to get in her and start her up, wouldnst start, kept cranking. Right then and there i knew i flooded my baby.

Long story short, the mazda deflooding technique didn't work, the only method that work was pulling the fuel pump fuse,wait 1 minute, crank her with out your foot being on the gas for 15 sec. Put the fuse back in , and start her up normaly. 1 st attempt she started but cut off, redid the process over , got in started her up normally, but had my foot 1/4 way down on the acclerator. She started and feathered the gas til she was fully operational. Let her stay on for about 10 minutes then took her out for a good long spirited drive.

Total time took about 1 hour because i was trying the Mazda way first , i think i could have shaved a good 30 minutes off if i didn't attempt the Mazda technique of deflooding the RX-8. Thank goodness I didn't foul up my plugs or kill my battery or starter!

I forgot who posted this procedure first, but through searching, I just want to say thanks to the valuable info. Hope this heps whoever needs it.

JRichter

It's good to know that works.

On another subject: what wheels are on your 8 in the sig pic. Are those BBS? They look really good.

CyberPitz

Yeah, reminds me of what I need to do to deflood the RX-7...great to have a kill switch :P

whitebeau

I've thought about doing that. Put a fuel injector kill switch linked to the fuse.

DailyDriver2k5 - I'm assuming you pulled the fuse for the fuel injector? not the fuel pump relay... I did the fuel pump relay, system went wonky and had to unplug the battery to reset.

The ACC->GAS pedal Down-> crank for 10seconds max should electronically do the same thing as disabling the fuel injector... but the safety method of pulling the fuse definitely confirms the same thing

MrWigggles

Pulling the fuse works. My car flooded a week ago. It took me about an hour of pulling the fuse out and putting it back in for the car to start. And when it started boy was it rough and things smelled really bad!!

I now have 95,000 miles on my car and that is the only time it has ever flooded.

However, if I drive a short distance I don't wait ten minutes. I rev it to near redline and turn the car off. As the RPMs spin down that should push any of the residual gas out. When it flooded a week ago, that was one of the few times I drove it a short distance but did not rev it hard before turning it off.

-Mr. Wigggles

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

good method

seriously, only time i could have a chance of flooding is getting ready to wash it. i still run it for 5-10 minutes though.

i believe the current flashes have made it harder to flood the car, but it still can happen.

DOMINION

This is a good trick.
A friend was going to buy a FC RX-7 that was in the paper as not running as is right, He got to the guys house defloods the car, then the guy wants more money. I call that 9mm time

DailyDriver2k5

JRichter: No , those aren't BBS wheels unfourtantely, but the JAZ wheels, a off shoot from the AXIS wheels company. There replicas of the BBS mesh wheel. Thanks for the compliment!

Whitebeau: No, I took out the fuel pump fuse , in our RX-8 manual it specified # 20 or #22 slot hold the only 20 amp fuse in the car i believe. Its a yellow/greenish color fuse in the middle of 4 red 15 amp fuses.

Razz1

glad you fixed it.
Make sure to post when you get 100,000k miles

JRichter

Good enough, I like the look of several BBS mesh wheels but they are very costly and would probably get stolen off my car the first week. Thanks for the info I will check out the other company.

DrewMan

argh i flooded mine yesdterday

ill tryit with the fuse removal

mopiko

hi guys, i am a new lady owner of a 05 rx8.
i think, i too flooded my car.

Was on a highway and it died on me. Had the tow truck towed it back to my house.
My appointment with Mazda is only scheduled next Friday.

I was wondering if i am able to do the deflooding myself?
How hard is it? I have zero knowledge of cars.

I managed to find out how a rx8 fuel pump looks like by doing a google search.

Would anyone care to guide me, which is the fuel pump fuse?

Ive read that Mazda sent out a DVD manual regarding de-flooding the rx8? Is it available on online that i can take a look at?

Please advice.
I have 5days to figure out, if not ive got to send my baby to Mazda..gonna cost me some $$

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

^ There are a number of deflooding threads here.

If you have a manual transmission and can get someone to tow you that's the easiest way to deflood. Tow around 20-30 mph and drop it into 2nd with the ignition on.

You don't need to pull the fuse. Fully depressing the accelerator prior to attempting to start cuts off any add'l fuel. If your battery is strong, or you can hook to an external battery or charger, it will eventually start.

The Mazda CD pretty much states what's just above.

Mazurfer

Huey................if it died on her while it was running, it wasn't because of flooding right?
It might be flooded now, but she's got other issues!

Mopiko..............what year is your car and how many miles? Last time coils or plugs were changed?

If it is a manual, try the pull start method, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't work.
We need more info about your car!!!! Hopefully it's not that CAT.

tjbourgoyne

Good to know thanks. I wonder what the % of floods are of moving in the driveway after a wash. I'm at 103K and have done it twice. Luckily it never flooded.

mopiko

Just before it happen, i took my car for a change of 4 new tyres. Which when i was driving away from tyre mart, it started jerking ha..then i pull it off the road and switched off the engine. I could not start it back.

My car is a 05 model and has done 34k miles. Coils&plugs were last changed June 2009.

Im sorry what is CAT hehe


oH! i tried starting the car last night, after 2 days sitting in my garage. It started! oh well, for only 10 seconds n it died again.

Mazurfer

Well, first off I would think you coils and plugs should be okay then.
The CAT is the catalytic converter and it's a possibility in this case, but I doubt that as well. I assume that you've not flooded this car in the past too many times?............meaning I assume it behaved well up until these two most recent times.....which were not flooding!

Okay, so now the possibility might be the fuel pump. This really doesn't fit because of the dieing today after ten seconds when you tried it. For the sake of argument.....how much gas is in it now?

This is very important, do you or did you have a CEL(check engine light) when it stalled on the road or when you started it today?

Do you know if the guys that did the tire change happened to disconnect the battery for some reason or did someone else right before this occurred? If so, it might take a few drive cycles to relearn the fuel trims and will be okay.

Question.........if it stalled on the road after the tire store, how did you get it started to make it home to your garage?
Is your car and auto or manual?

Did you have any other work done at the tire store.....even if it was filling up the washer fluid????? Again, we need to make sure the guys at the tire store didn't disconnect the battery, as it would tell us something.

Here's what I would do at this point:

You need to make sure that the plug wires are on tight at both ends. They should click just a little when they are on right. The one on the front plug does tend to come off sometimes.

Turn the key to "ON", but don't try to start the car.
Pump the brake pedal really quickly about 15 times until you see the oil gauge needle sweep to the right and back to the left.
Turn the car off.
If you don't see the gauge sweep, then start over and do it until you get it to do it. You might have to press the peddle faster.
Once it does..............turn the key off.................wait about 20 seconds or so and then proceed below.

Try starting it for real now, and if it does start, try not to let it stall out and see if you do have a check engine light on.
If so, you need to get that code read and let us know what it is. If you can get it to an Autozone or somewhere, they usually will read it for free.

mopiko

Half a tank of gas still in it.

Apparently it did not have any CEL.

I saw the guys changed my tires the whole process. They just did the norm. No other works were done, at least my eyes saw.

WHen it stalled last week, i had a tow truck towed it back to my home garage. Yes it is a manual.

I will try your suggested method.


I tried the removal fuse method below.

-Removed 20amp fuse
-Crank it for 5-6seconds without foot on accelerate pedal. IT STARTED!
-BUT for less than 5 seconds it died down.
-Re-insert the fuse.
-Crank for 10 seconds without foot on pedal. It started on random tries, n sounds like it wants to start but wont.
-I re-did the process 2-3 times? Removing n replacing the fuse..

No LuCk

mopiko

i gave up!
I had a guy fren come over to help me out with the flooding issue.
He owns a rx8 and has de-flooded his 8 before.
Unfortunately he tried an afternoon to help me out without success.

We removed the spark plug, it still looks new..only a lil carbon buildup on its tip.
He reckon that it might be the ignition coil.

Nevertheless, i had my 8 towed to Mazda service centre an hour ago.
We will see what mazda has to say.

Alexb

iTrader: (1)

For those of you who move your car for like 30 seconds just rev to 3K, take your foot all the way off the gas, and shut it off before 2.3K(ish).

Never failed me once.

fyrstormer

I thought the easiest way to deflood was to floor the gas and crank the starter?

Huey52

iTrader: (2)

It is, as flooring the gas pedal prior to starting actually cuts off any add'l fuel flow. But if that doesn't work (weak battery or whatever) then pull/push starting is easiest and almost foolproof for a manual transmission '8.

alfy28

hmm did you check out this thread? https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-deflooding-average-joe-plumber-182410/

mopiko

Just received a call from Mazda service centre.
We have the problem of my car!!

Not sure whether to laugh or cry. They told me that the fuel meter is faulty!!
Apparently my car ran out of GAS!!.
The gas meter shown is still half tank full
The car chocked & died on me while driving it.

They quoted me roughly 600USD to have that repaired *ouch*

Uncivilizedracer

Wish i knew that 2 months ago