water in intake need help
 

i own a 2004 rx8 grand touring in manual transmission mostly stock except for catback exhaust and body kit
last night i drove through a couple inches of water and stalled out now the car wont start(yes i know im an idiot)

symptoms: car sounds like it wants to start but wont. i think im getting compression
battery is still good

what i have tried: hard starting as if it was flooded, drying the intake, took one spark plug out and cranked engine

what else can i do to try to get it to start? best case and worst case scenario? hot fixes? should i flush engine and how? drain oil?
any other help would be appreciated im also learning as i go so again any help will be appreciated i love the shit out of my rx8 and want it back and running asap

is it possible for a wankle engine to hydrolock?

if it was only a couple inches I highly doubt you hydrolocked anything. Most likely shorted some kind of electrical component out with the water.

In his other thread he said it was more like 7-9 inches of water and his car is lowered. I still don't think that is enough to do anything major.

any solutions? everything electrical seems to work im getting compression but im sure the intakes still a little wet

Interesting... last time someone said they got "a little bit" of water it ended up being a total wash -- as in completely flooded.

Assuming you're not telling a similar inverse fish story...

Do you smell gas when you try to crank it? Does it try to "catch" at all? Since you're a manual have you tried push / pull starting it?

Drain your oil into clear(ish) container and look for water separation. That would certainly help indicate the extent of water damage.

Seafoam might help too. It'll separate (hopefully disperse) any water in the chamber. Another trick is spraying carb cleaner into the LIM via the same nipples we use for seafoaming.

If all of the above fail, revisit SugarFree's recommendation.

That's all I got off the top of my head.

yes i smell gas and alot came out when i took out a spark plug (dribbles of water also came out a little)
the night it died (2 nights ago now) some friends helped me push it to try to start no luck
i aslo tried the hard start as if it was flooded
have not drained the oil but i will tomorrow
what do u mean trys to catch im hearing it trying to start and compression noises comming from exhaust but very low
hoping for a christmas miracle

btw thank you everyone for putting some input on this matter i thought it was a lost cause as soon as i hit the water

Hopefully then this is your XMAS miracle.

Go back to the de-flood procedure. It sounds like you might be close.

Hook up a charger to your battery if necessary.

1. Crank for 20 full seconds with the gas pedal to the floor.

2. Wait 2 minutes

3. Crank for 20 full seconds with the gas pedal to the floor.

4. Wait 2 minutes

5. Crank for 20 full seconds giving no gas. If it starts to fire and sputters try to nurse the pedal a little.

Not running? Start the procedure over. It could take 2+ hours of doing this dance. You may also want to spray some carb cleaner in the LIM nipples at some point.

also should add that it would still be easier to just have a buddy pull you around the block with you in 2nd gear the whole time.

whats LIM ? does it hurt my car to crank it like this?
if my spark plugs where still damp would this even work?
thanks shelldude appreciate all the info

Lower intake manifold... Guess you could also spray it directly into the chambers since you pulled the plugs... Just go easy on it.

It'll hurt your starter if you don't let it cool between long cranks... Hense why you should go the pull start route. Your starter definitely has its work cut out for it otherwise.

ok ill try that it the morning ill post results and whatever i can find to fix this so incase someone else runs into this problem thanks for the help again

Best of luck man, hoping the best for you.

hey i uploaded a video of the sounds the engine is making
rx8 water damage - YouTube
any ideas? i need to work fast its going to rain =/

You are going to ruin your starter if you have not already toasted it. You do not want to crank for over 10 seconds and it needs rest and time to cool down, you cranked it for at least 30 seconds there as it was still going when the video cut off.

Have you tried any of the above suggestions yet?

okay so what ive done so far is take the air box out. the filter was a little damp so im drying it and the spark plugs have been removed
rx8 water damage 2 - YouTube
there was a little bit of water shooting out the block but after that it was all gas (im not stepping on the accelerator) im thinking the gas is from me trying to start the car a bunch of times yesterday
my dad aslo broke a sparkplug that i couldnt get out so i have to wait till tomorrow to buy new ones

The last guy that drove through a puddle of water in the parking lot cracked the motor (sudden cool down), fyi.

i was going slow so it didnt splash much and it was about 6-9 inches of water

If you were driving slowly, how did water got into intake.
The stock intake is at much higher position than the motor...

uh, that aint gonna start. Have you verified you've got spark?

yes i have spark the spark plugs however were a bit damp.
like i said im learning as i go so i really dont know exactly what happened but i did find small amounts of water in the intake.

my rx8 LIVES after new spark plugs and oil change+filter and de flood procedure

That's great! Be extra cautious with water puddles from now on :fingersx:

yeah im going to avoid my rx8 in the rain from now on.
cars running fine but i do have a check engine light on so going to get it checked out by a friend with one of those code readers.
thanks everyone for the help love the rx8club community

Flood
 

Omg it took me forever to find this!! I know this thread is old, but the same thing just happened to me about 2 days ago. I was driving home and it was torrential raining. I turned into my neighborhood and the street was flooded. I didn't see it until it was too late and went right into it and my 04' rx8 shut off almost immediately. Everything electrical still works. From the headlights to the cig lighter. The water wasn't too high. It was like an inch or 2 from the bottom of my door, but I hit it hard enough to break my air dam off (i think it was already weak from other things, so the water was just the cherry on top because I don't remember jerking forward when i went in the water). Now the car won't start. The starter can turn the engine, but it wont crank. I thought it was flooded from me trying to restart it (which is still a possibility). But the deflood methods don't work for me. The only one I haven't tried is the push starting (yes its a 6sp). So I was thinking that I might have bad spark plugs now. I will check when I can get a jack and a jackstand (hopefully sunday). Also, would the oil change be necessary?

I should also mention that the front part of my under splash shield was broken from the guy replacing my radiator a few months ago. He didn't put it back on correctly so the middle of the front was kinda drooping, it got caught on a rough bump in the road, ripped off along with the part in between the top of the wheels and the body. glad i wasn't going fast. Kinda ripped the passenger side of my bumper out of place (where the parking light is) too but it's not that noticeable unless you're really up close and see that its not completely flush like the the other side is. The rest of it broke when my uncle used his truck to push my car into my apt parking lot (there is a slight bump to get in it. Kinda like a speed bump because the lot is slightly higher than the street) So i just went ahead and removed the 2 screws that were left holding it to my car and took it off. My poor baby...