First time engine flooder here...
I thought you guys were just unlucky, but it happened to me. I just called the tow truck...what should I expect now? Being that the car is under warranty, should I expect the dealer to lay out any costs on me or is this covered?

What's the dealer going to do to the car?

 

They should follow this.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...4-05-1448b.pdf

 

Are they going to charge me for that procedure since the flooding was my fault?

 

Nope. If they try to do that, talk to the general manager of the dealership and then report it to Mazda North America. Flooding is a known "problem" with the RX-8. Of course, you can avoid it for the most part by your driving practices, but apparently it can happen sometimes anyway.

At a minimum, the dealer will likely remove the excess fuel from the chambers and replace the spark plugs, restart the car and check it out. You might want to mention a hard starting issue so that they will replace the OEM battery as well. The OEM battery is not always up to the task of recovering from a no-start situation as mentioned in the owners manual.

 

I have never flooded but the first time is usually on Mazda, after that is up to dealership but most will “ de-flood” a car a 2nd or 3rd time. I would drop by the dealership with about 2-dozen doughnuts or send them some Pizza.
Depending how handy you are this D.I.Y might be just what you need for piece of mind.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-deflooding-under-5-mins-55517/

 

First time for everything. My 8 never flooded until yesterday morning. I always warm it up after moving it but I was in a rush the other day and I have the lastest ECM updates and shut it off cold Saturday night. Sunday morning it just would not start.

After almost running my battery and repeating the de-flooding steps a few times I hooked my battery up to my truck but did not crank it up. I had enough juice to trying it another time or two and she started right up.

Smoked liked a banshee for about five minutes but I'm actually glad it happened because I know she'll start w/o towing to the dealer if it EVER happens again, which I doubt. Actually, I had my mobile phone and was five minutes away from calling Mazda Roadside Asst.

Anyway, lesson learned: this car WILL flood if it is not shut down properly.

LOVE MY 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

All fixed. On the work order...I saw spark plug listed twice and battery. So I'm assuming they changed both the battery and spark plug. Took them 3 hours, but they put on the sheet that it took an hour and a half.
Thanks all.

 

I've never flooded.....but out of curiosity...and to prevent my first flood, what is the correct way to shut down?

 

Let idle for 5 seconds before moving. Idle until the temperature needle goes to the middle of guage and/or run for 5 minutes. Rev to 3000 RPM for 10 seconds and shut down. This should clear any excess fuel in the engine to prevent flooding. This procedure should be in your glove box as well.

 

The 3000 rpm bit only apply if you have flooded the engine and managed to restart it.
I have the procedure in front of me and it says 4000 rpm Hold and switch off.
Untill It has been proved different I'll stick too idle shut downs, As I don't think this procedure is ment for everyday shutdowns.

 

See attached.

 

wow, that's pretty wild! Thanks for that info!