Alright so I drove her earlier today, visiting my mom.

It's now about 10:45pm (10 or so hours since I've driven her) and we've had heavy rain. So I pack up my stuff, hop in my car to go home, and what do I find!?

My battery works fine, my car is cranking, but it wont start! Sorry if I'm poor on technical terms, still learning but you know what I mean. It vishes but doesnt VROOM! You know...

anyway, what could be causing this!?


I'm gonna be towing her to the mazda dealer in the morning but the car is parked in a very difficult spot to push out of the back of the garage and then tow and whatnot, would like to get her started and drive to the dealership at the very least. She's not even in a place where I could try a jump (though I don't think that'd matter cause my battery is fine, I'd guess the plugs but...?)

Help!

 

Did you try the de flood starting procedure in the manual??

 

well hah I was unaware of a de-flood procedure in the manual. Let me go grab it right nwo and take a look.

 

Alright back, tried holding accelerator + key for 10 seconds, no luck.
Cranked for 10 seconds (no accelerator) for 10 more seconds, no luck.

Repeated procedure twice.

Still posting here

 

Most likely it's flooded.. if the procedure doesn't work, wait till you get the latest Flash and hopefully it wont happen next time... :P

Happened to me already once.. blah! Mistake with turning the key off too soon.

 

Hmm... do you have the M flash?

Oh whatever, simply get it towed back to the dealer and let mazda handle it. If you don't have the M, they will reflash it for you.

And next time wait a couple seconds before turning the key. But no worry man!

 

Well I've put 16k miles on my car no problem...my mom INSISTED on takin her out today cause she didnt want to take her car out of the garage (YEH RIGHT!)

and now

 

I had the same problem with the cranks but wont start. Unfortunate for me though, my car waited until I had 53000 miles on it to do it. I had it towed to the dealership yesterday afternoon and the tow truck driver said that mine was the 4th RX8 that he had towed in for the same problem that day. I tried the flood procedure in the owners manual before calling it in.

 

NYT-OWL, how much did Mazda charge you for the Tow and the fix to the car?

 

53,000 miles? You may be top mile dog here. Besides the no-start how else is the car holding up?

 

Pull the fuel pump fuse (#22 Look in the manual for the location). And then try the procedure again. This has worked for some members. What were the conditions of why it flooded? Did you shut the engine off cold?

 

I think for the majority of us members, a flood is imminent but most will be covered under warranty. I was M-flashed and flooded a couple weeks ago. Someone moved her and shut my engine off cold. I must admit I now hold my breath when starting her up. It probably won't happen again, but for the people who flooded you know what I mean.
Every flood will cost Mazda, I'm guessing at least $100. I'm sure they are aware that this is still a problem. M-flash helped with some flooding but this isn't the last reflash. Let's hope they come up with something before everyone's warranties expire.

 

yah, i pulled the fuel pump fuse, and then had to jump it while trying to start, because I drained the battery with the cranking/nonstart. If you dont want to deal with a tow truck, do that:-). Make sure your garage door is open, a lot of black smoke will bellow out.

 

Haven't gotten a quote yet on fixing the car. Paid the towing service $65.00, didn't want them to add that to my repair bill because most dealerships add a sercharge of around 25% if they pay for the towing. I'll keep you informed when I hear from them. I wish I would have read on the forum before calling the towing service. I didn't think about pulling the fuel pump fuse. I did check the fuses though before calling it in.

The only other problem that I have had with mine was when the check engine light came on and for that they replaced the ECU. I am assuming that the new ECU would already have the M flash (maybe I shouldn't have assumed).

 

Had mine towed to the dealer two weeks ago. Tried the 10 sec procedures, no go, then called Mazda Service department. Five hours later the car was fixed (ignition plugs replaced, ECU flashed) under warranty and ready to go again.

Lesson learned: If you pay the money for the car, don't hesitate to use the service you're entitled to. Don't surf the web, just call the service department.

 

Ok the dealership called in said cost was $100. The lesson I learned on this is: Towing $65, Dealership $100 for a total of $165.00 vs. reading on the forum on how to start your flooded RX8 (free). I know from now on, I'll consult the guru's here first and save some beer money.

 

hmmmm. I wonder how much longer before Mazda gets an answer on how to stop the flooding issue. You know there is something they could do.

 

why the hell does mazda charge to fix their car?

 

I understand that Slims8 just crossed the warranty line by having 53k miles on his car and got charged for towing and repairing. In his case, the forum is probably the best (since cheapest) solution. In case you're still under waranty, calling the service department probably is the best (since fastest) solution.

At least in my case it was very fast, which is also a side effect of two competing Mazda dealers in the city I live in.

 

This freaking happened to me yesterday. No start. They towed after I called mazda roadside. Plugs replaced. towing for free, work for free. This flooding thing is so freaking annoying.

 

That,s why i,m thinking of getting a mustang or g35,why should anybody pay over $30,000 for a car with all these problems,WHY?

 

They don't just flood on their own... if you always let it warm up, it won't flood. It's not like any car is perfect- but many of us haven't had any problems in over a year of ownership.