Cranking Issues / White Smoke?
 

Hello guys, I am having problems with my 2004 rx8. For the past week or so I have had issues cranking it, it turns over and it feels like its just about to crank but I have to slightly push the gas pedal to get it to finally crank. It smokes white pretty bad for about 30 seconds to a minute and I have CEL, but after that it idles fine at about 850 rpm.

No loss in power when driving as far as I can tell, and the weird part is as soon as it has cranked once it will not have any more problems cranking again until the car has completely cooled off. When the car is warm is practically cranks right up, sometimes there is a slight delay but I think it is time for new plugs and coils. Could that also fix my cranking issue?

Search bro. Seriously though. It helps. There are so many threads on this.

Best guess: Coolant seal failure. Coolant is draining into the block slowly when the engine is off, accumulating enough to cause trouble starting from cold.

Alternate guess: A fuel injector is leaking fuel into the engine similar to the coolant problem.


White smoke pretty much means coolant though.

I searched * ALOT*. Nobody quite had the same issue as me, the most specific difference being they almost always had hot start issues to go along with it. My car cranks better hot, I was stumped so I finally decided to post. I know a lot of people probably swear up and down they searched, but I ensure you I searched multiple times over a course of 2 days before posting.

That sounds very likely I suppose, is there anyway to test for this? I read something about bubbles in the coolant tank, is that a viable test for this or do I just have to assume? One last question, sorry for so many but from what I have seen on the forum you seem very knowledgeable so I want to get as many questions in as I can, but anyways back to the question. I obviously do not plan on driving it forever like this but if I keep coolant in it will it be okay to drive until I get enough money for a rebuild? Thanks for the help, by the way. Greatly appreciated.

There are 2 main tests for coolant seal failure.
A) an oil test for the presence of coolant
B) a coolant test for the presence of combustion gasses.

If EITHER test is positive, you have a coolant seal failure. If NEITHER test is positive, you still might have a coolant seal failure, it's just going to get a lot harder to prove.


How long you have depends on how big the failure is. From the sounds of it, yours is toward the larger end of the scale. The problem is that coolant is corrosive, and it's going to be eating away at the surfaces of the engine internals. You will have a harder and harder time starting as compression is compromised more and more, on top of the coolant draining in and fouling the plugs. You might have 1,000 miles, you might have 40,000 miles. It's not really something we can estimate. It is pretty much the only failure method that "just not driving it" doesn't stop the damage, as even just sitting there with coolant in the housing will keep eating away at stuff.

Alright, that is very depressing but informative. Thanks again. Also one thing I left out, is that when cranking it since yesterday, it idles VERY rough for the first minute or 2, and may even stall out a couple of times, until suddenly it just starts idling perfect. I am guessing that changes nothing, due to it just pushing the coolant out?

Yes, that is generally correct.

This is 9k's coolant seal failure idle, though his was probably much smaller than yours since he didn't have smoke, only figured it out from an oil test trying to diagnose this idle.


Where the seal failed and by how much can easily change the exact idle symptoms.

Alright, its pretty much verified that my coolant seal is failing then. Just cranked it up and the smoke definitely has a sweet coolant smell to it. I guess rebuild is my only option, thanks for all the info, much appreciated.

Hi guys,

I have the same problem with coolant seals. During cold start, the exhaust spits out a lot of smoke. The engine oil dipstick has yellowish jelly. I guess it is coolant seal failure.

May I ask if the Alumaseal fluid can help to cure this phenomenon temporarily? Running low on cash for an engine rebuild, as I've spend more than 4K on changing my Spark plugs, coils, solenoids, batteries, radiator, fan, tires etc with the Mazda dealership. However, the problem only severes. It's really bad...

Thank you!

I know its frowned upon but I used a bottle of a stop leak that says it will not damage your heater core or anything if used properly, it was a last resort as I was in your shoes and definitely could not afford a rebuild. It fixed practically all of my issues, I crank in 1-2 seconds now and no smoke at all whatsoever and no leaking as far as I can tell. My only issue still is for some reason when I stop and put gas in it it will take a few extra seconds to crank sometimes, but no smoke or flooding. It was Bar's Copper Stop Leak if you're interested in trying it yourself. I mean, if you're in my position you got nothing to lose, right? Been going strong a little over 2 months now.

Mine is taking longer to crank the past few weeks. It has 43000m on the clock. Would new plugs and / coils fix it ?????

What year is your car?

Yes fresh coils/wires/plugs is always nice.

But just as a note the 2003-2005 models had a much slower cranking starter.
And well when compression started getting low or under hot start conditions it can cause this problem

If you have one of these older models you should check to see if you have the old style starter. If you do, upgrade to the new starter. Huge improvement.

That being said, it's not a fix for low compression or poor ignition components.