My Car Flooded.
 

... well atleast I think it did. I've been gone for a week on springbreak. I went to start it when I got home and it kept turning over, but it would never start. I try the de-choking procedure or whatever you call it. I pushed in the clutch and then turned the ignition while tapping the gas. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes to get it started. My neighbor said a bunch of black smoke came out the tailpipes. The engine sounded really bad at first too. I let it sit there running for about 15 minutes and then I drove it. I hope everything is okay.

You need to go drive it really hard to burn out any build up on the plugs. I learned the hard way and had to buy a new set of plugs :(

That's not the procedure, you managed to start it while giving it even more gas....

^ Exactly what I was thinking. Tapping the gas?

hmm. Well the manual thing says

1. Depress and hold the accelerator pedal to the floor and cran the engine for 7-8 seconds.
(This will clean out any unburned fuel from the combustion chamber)
2. Release the ignition switch
3. Release the accelerator pedal and start the enine. If the engine starts while performing Step 1, the engine will rev up. Immediately realese the ignition key and remove your foot from the accelerator pedal.

Everytime I had the gas pressed in, it would semi-start and I'd remove my foot. It would cut off quickly though.

This is exactly why I'm not owning another Rotary Car. Would someone give me call when they figure it out?

i read somewher that pressing hte gas pedel FULLY down tells the ECU it''s dechoking so it won't spray anymore fuel into the chambers.... and jsut press... turn the ignition for like no more than 7secs? then release the ignition... this will turn the rotors w/o anymore fuel going in...

I would suggest driving it real hard to clean the Engine and build up on the plugs. Oh with the Flooding procedure, I believe they updated the older one with a new set of procedures. Do you have any of the Flashes?

stay up to date with the flashes and you shouldn't have a problem...there are a ton of people on here and a very small percentage have had flooding problems

That's about right. What didn't sound correct is when jaisin mentioned that he was "tapping the gas"...


The following is taken from HERE.
DE-CHOKING PROCEDURE WHEN ENGINE CRANKS BUT DOES NOT START
If the engine does not start, try the following procedure to start the engine using the de-choke mode. Failure to do so may aggravate the no start condition.

1. Depress and hold the accelerator pedal to the floor and crank the engine for 7-8 seconds. (This will clean out any unburned fuel from the combustion chamber)

2. Release the ignition key to stop cranking.

3. Release the accelerator pedal and start the engine. If the engine starts while performing Step 1, the engine will rev up. Immediately release the ignition key to stop cranking and remove your foot from the accelerator pedal.

• Do not keep holding the ignition switch in the START position over 10 seconds if the engine does not start. This may result in a weakened or dead battery.
• Avoid racing the engine or sudden take off right after starting the engine.
• If the engine still fails to start following the De-choking procedure, have your vehicle inspected by your Mazda Dealer.

you do realise that you can flood [b]any[b] fuel injected engine, right? my dad moved our 97 sentra econo box to wash it today, after he finished washing it and tried to move it, he discovered that it had flooded.

so, if you aren't going to buy another rotary to avoid flooding, well then, good luck with your equally-prone-to-flooding piston engine.

While you can flood any engine I never really heard anyone (throughout my life) complain about flooding an engine until I came to this website. I agree, that the flooding issue is over blown...but I think the rotary engine seems to be a little more prone to flooding...if ever so slightly.

Again...I agree that the flooding issue is overblown, until it happens to me of course...LOL

How did you translate those instructions into "tapping the gas"? I guess the only thing worse than not reading the owners manual is to actually read it and fail to follow the extremely simple instructions.

Bill

Cool. More available for the rest of us.

No?

lots of people with late 90s A4s complained about flooding when those first came out. i wonder if the jettas from the same time had problems too...

Because pushing it to the floor wasn't working so I tried halfway.

flooding i believe is now a rare issue or only an issue for those who abuse their cars

yea we'll find out, just moved my car into the garage from 45 degree weather and i am on the L flash which is pretty old. So if it starts tomorrow...it's all good

Due to an injury, I wasn't able to drive for 5 weeks last winter. After sitting idle in the garage the car started right up on the first try. Also, have never had a problem w/ flooding. I agree that the flooding "problem" has been a little overblown.

Flooded
 

My 8 has flooded 3 seperate times and Im pissed at Mazda not my car. I lost a deal and an appointment. Mazda did not care. But after I called the corp # the dealership put oin a new starter for me. I works great now. But if it stalls I getting my money back or a new one!! :D

After flooding it, typically are there any long term problems like a loss of engine power? Or once you get it fixed is everything usually fine?

everything is fine now.

The idea of pressing the gas pedal to the floor is to clear out the gas. If it worked with you pushing it half way, it probably wasn't flooded. If it was flooded you would have just made it worse by pushing it in halfway. Unless you managed to clean out all the gas, and then put some in, but it wasn't too much to prevent it from starting and ... I've confused myself so I'll now shut up! :o

Out of curiosity, is pop-starting a rotary easier, as easy as, or harder than a piston engine?

The issue there is every time you lifted your foot off the gas it would take the ECU out of "flood clear" mode and would squirt in gas, reflooding the car. It's a small wonder you ever got it started.

The procedure if you flood it is put your foot to the floor and leave it there. If the engine begins firing (and most of the time, it will), keep your foot down and the engine will clear it's throat so to speak and will start - and you can tell when the ECU goes from "flood clear" back to regular mode because the engine will start to rev high - at that point, that's when you lift. Not just when it begins to fire.

The big blast of black smoke was just unburned gas coming out of the tail pipe. Not to worry there. Although I'd get the oil changed if I were you.

Stew