remote starter? -- flooding prevention
 

i've spent the last few hours reading up as much as possible about flooding problems people have had with their RX-8s and yes i am fairly concerned. I've been thinking about purchasing the car in the next few months and i'm trying to educate the crap out of myself before i spend 30k only to get some unpleasant surprises hundreds of miles from home!!

When i was reading through the "flooding explained" thread (one of the Stickys), one of the members mentionned a "remote starter" as a possible solution. My boss was telling me of a "turbo timer" he uses that allows for his car to stay idle for however many minutes he wants it to after removing the key. He doesn't have an RX-8 though, he has an older Eclipse.

Since all i want to do is prevent engine flooding, will a turbo timer do? Will it completely eliminate the chances of engine flooding (or at least almost completely eliminate the risk)? how long should it be set for?

also, what is a PCM upgrade/update? I've read about "L" and "M" versions but i'm not sure what they mean? I'm guessing they're like bug fixes for computers but how is that done in an RX-8?

thanks in advance,

Raji

This has been discussed a few times. From all the thousands of posts that I've read I'd say to not worry about it. Some people have even tried to flood the 8 after the new flash, and couldn't. As far as the turbo timer goes... it's been discussed to death. People disagree to whether it's useful for the 8 or not. Having gotten the new flash, I wouldn't even sweat it. They have pretty much resolved the flooding issue. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

sorry about that. Wasn't aware that this question had already been discussed and answered. Could you (or anyone else) direct me to the link showing that the problem has been at least drastically improved?

if the flooding problem really has been solved then GREAT! If i don't need a turbo timer in there, even better. I didn't like the idea of having to buy any extra accessories for the car anyway.

but i'm still unsure about "flashing" the car and PCMs? Could someone briefly explain it to me? I don't need a detailed explanation, just a very basic description of what it is.

thanks

Raji

Basically the car is run by the PCM [Powertrain Control Module] or ECU [Electronic Control Unit]. But what ever name you call it, it's a processor that houses all the data for running the car. All the sensors hook to it, and it tells your car (engine, lights, traction control) what to do in return. It is able to be updated by a "flash". This essentially updates the software to do new and improved things. In the case of the "M Flash" and "L flash" it corrects a few things. Nothing is official, but people have been reporting better gas milage, smoother shifts, and easier starts. I'll look for the link now...

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=23658

Try starting there.

The flooding issue has not been resolved. I have followed the various threads for 9 months now and have not had a problem until this past weekend. The car hadn't been driven all day and my brother-in-law suggested that he pull it into the garage for the night. I never really thought about it and handed him the keys. The next morning after breakfast we got ready to leave and the car would not start. It was only then that it dawned on me that he had turned it on, revved it up, pulled it 15 feet into the garage and immediately turned it off - something I never do, I always let it run for a minute or so to reduce the chance of a problem.

Several attempts to start it using the classic methods failed. We ended up using the hill outside his home and "popping" the clutch to get it going. After a cloud of smoke the car was fine and I have had no problem since. I had the "L" flash at the last oil change so that clearly did not fix the potential for flooding in these particular conditions.

But don't let that prevent you from the joy of this car! It's easy to prevent the problem - as long as you remember to tell your friends.

You're right - it is the M flash that has the revised cold start calculations for the fuel injection that has eliminated any cold stop flooding concerns. All the details are posted in the M flash discussion threads.

To Raji - read up on the M flash, as I mentioned it eliminates the cold stop flooding issue. Also - just don't turn off the car within 2 or 3 minutes of starting it from stone cold, and you'd never experience the problem anyway! (Owned RX-8 for 9 months before I got M flash, never once had a flooding incident).

Regards,
Gordon

When you start the car, notice that it revs up to about 2500 RPM. With the "M" flash, this is delayed about 3 sec. when it is cold. The theory is, flooding was caused by the PCM trying to rev. up the cold motor too soon (before it was actually running), thus flooding it. Once it's warm the rev. up goes almost immediately.

Hmm, is this a Mazda "Rev it up" event? ;)

ok phew... i finally figured it all out thanks to all of your patience and help! Thanks a lot!

turns out i read the entire M flash revision thread when i first got to this website, but didn't get what the hell everybody was talking about. All that info went flying right out of my brain by the time i'd started reading the flooding problems sticky thread right below the M revision thread... so i didn't realize i'd just read that it had been fixed in the M revision!!

from what snap-on was saying about tests that had been performed after the M revision, the flooding problem was gone!! WOOHOOO!!

now i know that i'm not supposed to turn the car on and turn it right back off again, but do i understand this correctly? even if i turn off the engine cold it won't flood anymore right?

it's really good to know all this. I'll be visiting this forum a lot from now on.

Well, not quite gone. The cause for the majority of floods was the idle speed up. You can still flood the car even with the "M" flash, you just have to try real hard. Just warm the car up before shutting it off. Doing this, I've never flooded my RX-7 (knocking on wood!!!).

cool that helped. Thanks!

the salespeople weren't quite as knowledgeable as i'd hoped they would be... this forum was far better. Makes sense though. You guys want to help, they want to sell. :)

thanks again everyone!

raji