For those worried about Flooding when the 8 stalls when ice cold- good news
 

Hello everyone . . .

I wanted to let you know what happened to me this morning so maybe this would put some minds at ease since the flooding issue has a lot of people worried about an accidental stall when the car is ice cold . . .

I was away for 2 weeks and my new RX8 with 190 miles on it sat in my garage in these freezing temps . . . well this morning, I go and start her up and she came to life, I let it idle for maybe 20 or 30 seconds, then put my car in what I thought was reverse but ended up being either 4th or 6th gear and stalled .. .

I said to myself . . .Oh sh*t, I am in trouble, please start and it did !!!

She started up no problem !!! I immediately looked at my amb temp and it read 31 degree's so it wasn't like my garage was warm or anything and outside it is much colder

I then drive to my office, but made my quick stop ater driving for 15 minutes to pick up some red bull energy drink (it was a long flight yesterday:) ) and again, came back to my car and started right up again.

I hope this helps ease some people's minds on this whole isse, I know I am releived !!!

That's good to hear. This may be a bit off topic, but has anyone had problems with flooding in warmer climates? I live in Miami and I haven't really heard a whole lot about people having flood trouble in warmer climates. I guess I'll keep searching the forum...

That's reassuring. It seems like flooding is alot less likely to happen after a stall, but more when you turn it off cold and leave it for awhile as Mazda indicated.

I agree... I thought my ride was invincible from the cold temps but all it took was one night below 20 degrees. I moved it out of the way of the garage so we could take a bigger car out to dinner. I moved my 8 back to its spot and when I awoke the next morning it did not start! After going thru the manual troubleshooting method it finally started up, i was late for work and will never do a cold shut off AGAIN! Other than that, never had even close to a problem... Can't wait for the spring!

Re: For those worried about Flooding when the 8 stalls when ice cold- good news
 

Since when is 31°F cold?

Try it when it's -5°F or so out (you know, park it outside.) :D

It is all relative - I live in Dallas, so 31F is cold to me :)

if you guys ever flood, and the startup procedure in the manual fails, try pulling out the fuse for the fuel pump (to disengage it), and jump the car as you try starting it. The attempts to start the car probably woudl have drained a lot of the battery. This worked for me. As I was all depressed and ready to call the dealer, i talked to my brother, and he told me to disenage the fuel pump. I didnt believe him, since the manual didnt mention such a thing, but hell it worked. now I owe him.

After discussing this with svc. mgr. it appears that the flooding problem is defenitely temp related. The only case in Southern California that he knew about was when a local guy took his RX-8 to the mountains and got stranded with a flooded engine, had to send a tow truck to retrieve it.

As I said before, I start a cold engine and shut if off after less than a minute at least twice a week and have never had a problem with flooding.

For those non believers in flooding, try letting your car sit for a few days. Then start is and shut it down and see what happens. BTW have a tow truck ready before trying this. The good news is that dealers are putting "hotter" plugs in to fix this. Mine has had no further flooding problems.

Re: Re: For those worried about Flooding when the 8 stalls when ice cold- good news
 

agree...30°F is not "freezing temps" or even "ice cold"...it's cold but when the windchill is below 0°F, 30°F feels almost springlike...

i've flooded my engine twice now, both the same night...the emergency start procedure as stated in the owner's manual worked for me...it was VERY hesitant on starting but you crank it for a good number of seconds straight and it slowly started up, sputtering through the whole thing