What was the situation when you last turned off the car before the flood? Had the engine warmed up? Also, are you an AT or MT?

While there have been a few reports of people flooding a late model 2005 (built after 3/2005) or a car with all updates (battery, starter, plugs) it has been pretty rare. However, like any other engine, there are still problems that can cause flooding other than shutting down a cold engine.

 

HVN - did you previously vote above as a "no flood"? Too bad the poll won't reflect your change of status if you did.

 

Commin' straight from the dudesse.

 

MidLife - I was pretty sure it was flooded before having it towed so I voted Yes. But get this, they strongly suggested an oil change when the engine is flooded. They said that gas gets into the oil! Anyone I've told this to looks at me like I'm crazy. But I verified it with another dealership before ok'ing it and they agreed. And because its something they "strongly suggest" rather than mandate, its not covered under the warranty. I guess the gas breaks down the oil much quicker than it would otherwise. Hopefully this won't happen again.

 

Oh yeah! It'll get into the oil and totally grenade the oil's properties, primarily its lubricity. That's a surefire way to torture your engine.

It happens in piston engines too. Fuel injectors are supposed to spray gas in a fine umbrella spray pattern. Some hold back fuel pressure to a certain amount, then spray at any higher pressure - they either are full-on or full-off. Bad injectors dribble gas when the engine is off. They also fail by spraying badly. All this badly introduced gas into the engine has every chance to leak past the seals. In your flooded rotary - same thing. The gas is just laying in the rotory chamber all day/night long. It will eventually get past the seals and into the oil.

I once bought a '70 Porsche 911E. Its injectors were real bad. The oil smelled like gas real bad. The situation was bad enough that I convinced myself to rebuild the engine because of it. That was fun, it was a neat engine to tear-down and put back together with a new set of matched Mahle pistons 'n' jugs and other brand new porsche engine $$$ stuff. Ah, I digress... anyway...

 

Racer, I knew you'd have the lowdown....thanx

 

So, I just experienced the joy of the flooded engine as well. Happened this last weekend. I've had the car almost 2 years and no troubles. She's at the dealership now for the new plugs, battery and starter. They had to overnite my Control Unit to California for reprogramming to 'theoretically' keep it from happening again. While I was watching my baby being unloaded from the the flat-bed tow truck, there was a woman in a red 8 who said she'd been there 3 times for flooded engine troubles.

Dunno, seems like a major design flaw to me to not have some method of blowing the gas out of the rotary housing.

 

I agree, the car should have never been sent to the US as flood-prone as the original configuration was.

Just curious, what is the build date on your 8? Is it a manual or automatic? Did it flood as the result of a short trip?

It sounds like you currently don't have any of the flooding upgrades (PCM level, battery, starter, leading plugs). In which case the work should give you a lot of added protection. I would still avoid shutting it off cold if possible.

 

I have flooded my engine twice now. After the first time, the car had to be put on a flatbed and taken to the dealer. They put in a heftier battery and I believe they replaced the starter and plugs. I thought that meant the problem was fixed. Apparently it wasn't... She's at the dealer again right now. The last I heard from them they said they have sent the PCM off to Mazda and are applying a software update to it. Apparently since the weather has turned here cool recently, they need to make an adjustment in the computer program for that. WHAT????????? My car needs a coat? It made it through the Winter, in fact 2 Winters, without any problem. Whatever. I'm pretty fed up. This is actually the THIRD time I've had it to the dealer on a flatbed and been without it for a better part of a week. I LOVE my Rx8, but I didn't sign up for a tempermental Ferrari. I'm ready to move on.

 

I've got an '04, not sure of the exact build date, I bought it in Sept. '04. It's an automatic. And yes, the flood was the result of a 'very' short trip. My wife and I had just returned from a roadtrip and I pullled it out of the garage so she could pull in. About 15ft worth of driving. I was so tired from the roadtrip that I didn't even think about the start/stop issues. Lesson learned I guess.

 

I don't get this sending the PCM/ECU somewhere. Any Mazda service center can flash it. Anybody know what's up about this? I'm starting to raise the BS flag here...

Steelecowboy, I did that once not thinking, but re-started it so darned immediately when I realized what I was doing, I might had ground the starter pinion gear due to the engine not having come to a complete stop yet, hehehe... tough luck there...

DenaiD, must we ask if you shut her down cold?

msrecant is right that the rotary flooding problem should have been fixed by now. Your animalhouse fraternity types will NEVER "get it" when you tell them that they have to be careful about flooding this engine. That's too bad. The jury is still out however about who's fault it is after trying in so many ways to inform the owner of this. They tell you and tell you, but then, when you shut it down cold and it floods, is it really the car's fault? Is it right to call the car "tempermental"?

 

Agreed.

Regarding the upgards, every RX7 owner who has ever posted here about flooding has suggested that there is nothing that can be done about this problem on a fleet-wide scale. Mazda is not going to "fix" this, and I certainly don't think my car is flood proof with the upgrades. At best, I suspect they've given me a fighting chance with the de-flood procedure if it comes to that. I'm wondering what the deflood will cost after the warranty expires...

 

Mine has flooded in the winter due to dad moving car on driveway, and unfortunately it just flooded today and had to be towed. I left something in the house turned the car off after it was on for 30 or so seconds, and then it wouldn't start.

Sucks...

the only major complain i have about the renesis, other than fuel consumption.

Luckily the cars a beauty otherwise i'd boot it.

 

My feeling (before and after the flood) is that if you can't reasonably guarantee a car will start it is a design flaw. There are a few items about a car that are pretty much required for mass production (imho):

starting
driving (straight and turn)
stopping

That's about it. I don't think that is asking too much as ANY crappy econobox these days can give you those.

 

It is the nature of the design for the past 40yrs and well known. 99% of that is chalked up to user’s ignorance. So we can't go blaming everything on Mazda. The world is a give take if you want to drive a rotary deal with it if not get something else.

 

Yeah Red, I bought a Yaris hatchback about a month ago. It's red, just like my 8. I call my 8 my red hot pepper and my Yaris my red bell pepper. And don't you dare call my Yaris a crappy econobox.

It does all three of those things you want a car to do quite well.

It does get the mpg it's advertised at. I'm averaging about 38 mpg with 2,500 already on the odometer.

It even has all 106 horsies, I'm pretty sure. It keeps up with the traffic just fine, it's even kinda naturally punchy coming out of a stoplight.

I never worry about it flooding and leaving me stranded somewhere.

It has lots of interior room and you sit surprisingly high in the saddle.

But, ask me which car I like better, I will answer with zero lag for thought.

 

I'm among the biggest rotary lovers in the world; I've owned several and I own 3 presently, however, it's still inexcusable for them to have brought these to market with this flooding un-resolved. If this is not totally taken care of the market will take care of it and we won't continue to see rotary production too far into the future.

 

It's interesting to me that I've never seen a discussion of this problem in the press -- and I've read every "RX-8" article I've been able to find since 2003. I still think a great many people don't believe the "flooding" problem is real.

I'm afraid that it's the gas prices that are going to kill this car, not the flooding problem.

 

Well said!

 

My dealer has put in the new starter motor fix and has given me the new plug kit too. My car always starts now, the speed of the starter is much higher than before. I believe my problem is fixed now. I had one of the early production models with the weak battery, starter and plugs. They were all replaced and now I am happy with the starting issue. The total lack of power and poor mileage is still an issue. In California with gas at 3.80 per gallon it really hurts. If I keep the revs low and shift short I can squeeze out 17 mpg in mixed driving conditions. Only problem is that little old ladies in Camrays can beat me off the line! oh well!!! I am currently at 50,000 miles and the warrenty is now gone! Wish us all luck!

 

I thought the same thing til my baby was on a flatbed being towed to the dealership. Crossing my fingers for you!

 

I'll second that!

 

Just a little food for thought here... Those of you who arent worried about flooding issues(exspecially the a/t cars), what do you think the most common reason for engine replacement in the rx-8 is? Sticking apex seals due to carbon build up. What causes the carbon? Excess fuel not burnt and cooling on the rotor (most importantly the apex seals). The only way to prevent this is no cold shut offs (flooding more than once or twice probily means its too late), driving the heck out of the car regulary letting it rev up into the rpm band which means no grandma driving. This is very hard for a 4port(a/t) car, thats why we are putting so many engines in them, atleast 1car a week or so. And very importantly, change your plugs with high quality plugs ATLEAST every 30k, sooner in cold weather. AND CHECK YOUR OIL! different problem, but same symptoms. BTW, the bat. starter and plug kits, "no start" kits as we call them, only help start a partially flooded engine due to the needed cranking speed to clear the fuel and start the car. They DONT stop flooding.

 

what is your ? furycustoms..

you seem to be putting all the motors in them. what are you finding???

seems like everything you mentioned has been covered here for quite a while...

what are you looking for?

and feel free to pm me for anything...

beers

 

well, honestly my questions are all retorical because I know most of the answers to them. Im just tired of people who are doing all the wrong things with these cars comming to me and complaining about them. Yeah, mazda made many mistakes, but problems with these cars can be avoided. I just bought a 05, but a guy I work with has a 04 with 120k miles on it. And it has never flooded or failed to start. But I suppose thats because we work on them... sorry, long day...