Hi Everyone,

I need some clearification on correct procedure for short trips. If I turn off my car after a long trip and then restart it again 2 minutes later and then drive it for 1 minute and turn car off again- will this still foul plugs even thought engine is still hot or warm from original trip?

thanks

 

The short trip proceedure is more referring to cold stars. If your engine is fully warmed up, then you shut it down, you need not worry about fouling plugs.

When the car is cold it runs very very rich (much like a choke) and rotaries dont like cold starts. If you shut off the car when cold...there is a chance that unburt fuel will remain in the combustion chamber and fouling pugs.

When your car is fully warm.....1. the ECU isnt calling for a super rich start....and 2.the heat in the combustion chamber evaporated or burned off any residual fuel at shut down..

 

Hi Gyro,

Thanks for your prompt and informative reply.

Harwax

 

Gyro,

Your reply brings up another question. If I do a "cold start" and turn off engine before it warms up and say an hour later when engine is cold again I restart and run engine for a long trip, will that long trip reverse damage (ie:burn off all/some of the possible gas that had remained in chamber due to my initial "cold start"?

Harwax

 

So....to clarify.
Cold start....always let it warm up.


Warm start....try not to make a habit of quik starts and shut downs.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

To answer your other question. Plugs generaly get fouled and cant spark or the dont. If you do the taboo cold start thing....and you have no problem starting...let say an hour later, your plugs most likely never got fouled in the first place.

 

gyro
i like the jesus avatar

 

"Buddy Christ" from a movie. Jeez now that I think of it, I hope people dont think I'm preaching or something. what the heck was the name of that movie....it was a single name title,,,

 

Dogma


One of the best comedies ever made IMHO

 

Word. That and dude wheres my car

 

Hi Gyro,

The RX-8 may actually be quite different than previous rotaries which needed a rich mixture at idle because of the overlap between the side intake and peripheral exhaust ports.

The renesis was designed to run lean at idle and there is a thread in the tech garage that shows the fuel air mixture to be over 22:1 at idle.

Brian

 

Correct, on a warmed engine. Syntrix specified the idle A/F reading was at operating temperature. The A/F would be much richer in cold or "closed loop" program. This vehicle when cold and started in an enclosed space like a garage....REALLY smells rich too.

 

I wish I had seen this thread before I flooded my car driving out of my garage.

 

 

mikeb ........ how do you have so many posts? Did you win the lottery and just sit at home on your computer all night? Or have you just been on this forum that long?

 

Gyro, you're on the money with your asessment.I'm a little surprised that Mazda's engineers hadn't remedied this by now.

 

mikeb is what you call a post ***** :D

All you need to do to rack up your post count is post one-liners on every thread you read, such as like "Yes. I agree" or "Me too" or "ha ha". It was funny when I logged into the forum one day, clicked on the 'View New Posts' link on the top right corner, and see mikeb's name as last poster on almost every thread!

 

i see

 

Hey gang;

I'm new and don't know much about foul plugs...but this thread is very educational

To reiterate what Gyro suggested one needs to warm starts no matter what kinna trip you are taking. Now, what happen if you foul plugs your combustion chamber??
Can any mechanic clean it?

 

The most common scenario has been......

Cold start then quick shut down. A little while later (even the next day in some cases) go to start your new RX8...........nothin.

Crank crank crank crank. your flooded. It can be traced back to when you didnt let your car warm up the night before.

what happens next is the source of some debate as to remedy the problem. Some people call Mazda assist straight way and get a 45 minute response time. Mazda assist has in some cases got the car running and in others they plainly tow the car to the dealer.

How the problem is actually fixed is varied and also dependant on how bad you "fouled" things up.

The owners Manual I believe states to crank the engine with the accelerator fully depressed. Some forum members have tried that with no results. What does seem to work is pulling the fuel pump relay (plainly marked as such) and cranking your engine from there.....let sit for a few ..replace relay....try starting....repeat process. This is all the dealers are really doing also BTW. One your car starts....blowing a smoke screen out the back, let it FULLY warm and drive. Rev it up good as you drive. This will clean your plugs with heat. This should be all you need.

Also if your car starts but doesnt run "perfect" or a CEL (check engine light) comes on. You most likely will need your plugs taken out and mechanically cleaned or replaced. Note that you car uses 'special' plugs. Iridium tipped (expensive).

If your mechanically inclined at all. Try to do it your self....then get Mazda assist involved...that way it wont cost you anything.

 

thanks for the quick lesson Gyro

later

P

 

Quantity has nothing to do with quality.. as you can see in Mikeb's case most of his posts are useless like
I see
oh really
tell me more

blah blah.. etc

so basically he's using up bandwith without a meaningful contribution.

 

ic

 

good

 

he he!

:D

yeah, good...

:o