I love my 8 but xmas flooding sux
 

I love my rx8, but to pay this much for a fully loaded car just to have to deal with engine flooding issues in front of your entire family and extended family on Christmas day f*ckin' sucks. Really, it's one thing that the car cranks for minutes before starting when I'm by myself, I can deal with parking lot humiliation, but in front of my family when your car is full of relatives and your car won't start. C'mon. :mad:


Well to help those who live in NY who have this issue. I decided to bother my lawyer on his Christmas day and he told me that in the state of NY, you have to take your car to the dealer 4x for the same issue before you can proceed with Lemon Law. Me not knowing about the whole thing. You can then take the dealer to court and they will set an amount and refund that back to you. Sadly I have taken my car to the dealer close to my job to be fixed for this issue more than 4 times, but that all doesn't mean jack, b/c that was not my original dealer. Lesson learned. Sadly I'll be waiting tomorrow morning for a tow truck to arrive to take my car back to the original dealer all so I can get to work late and have my day inconvenienced to find means of travel without a car.

I'm terribly dissapointed with my investment today :(
And yes, I did make the fatal mistake of moving my car a short distance w/out waiting 10 minutes before shutting it off. But you know what. To pay this much for car, I shouldn't have to worry or deal with this. Maybe if I bought a Kia, but not a Mazda's flagship car. This isn't the first time I'm being towed for flooding. If it happens again, I don't know, maybe I'll rethink the car.

You knew it was going to happen since you didn't shutdown properly. Sure, blame everybody but yourself.

...I still don't understand how there are still people flooding their cars...

what flash do you have. have the battery and starter been updated.

beers

I don't understand why a modern car would have this problem. It's freaking nonsense, I don't care if you start it for 1 second and turn it off, this shouldn't be an issue.

:nopity:

we know how to prevent it...no short trips, end of story, it is part of having a 8. I would ve left the car outside running til it was warm then shut it off. And it will not be a lemon law vehicle Just an FYI.

riiiiiiiite...



Then sell your car, buy a kia, and gtfo


http://aberratus.f2g.net/absurd_img/whining.gif

It is part of owning a 8!Warm up..before shut down... Period. It has been beaten to death on this board to warm up before shut down....

I was drinking from one of those coffee cups that said "Caution Hot" on it and I burned myself. How many times can I burn myself before I can sue them for burning me???

^^ After the first time you can. You did not know it was hot enough to burn you therefore, you are not liable.

Me thinks Swoope is right. It shouldn't take minutes for the car to start. Have you bothered to ask your dealer about the battery, starter, flash issues which have been talked about forever on this board.

This car has some things you have to deal with and if you can't you shouldn't own it, end of story. Good luck wasting money pursuing your lemon law case. Go buy a Hyundai.

I agree with Ike.

I think it's a FLAW for the rx8. I love the rx8, but it is an inconvenience. But of course, most rx8 owners think it's a small price to pay for the other joys the car brings... and I also agree with that. If you're reasonable, and not just blindly in love with the car, you should have SOME compassion with the author of this story.

Rumble,

I think we do have SOME compassion for him. However, go back and re-read his initial post. He knew there was a good chance of his car flooding by shutting it off cold. Yes, this probably shouldn't happen to most cars out there, but we all know with the 8 if u shut it down cold, u open yourself up to the possibility of flooding.

Yes I am sorry it happened to him on christmas, but it sounds like he has bigger issues if it takes forever to start anyway.

Add me to the "My car flooded on xmas" group too.

Talk about a STUPID car.

I moved it YESTERDAY (its 80 degrees here) to get my motorcycle out... pulled it back in... went and fed my parents pets.

Today, I had to go back to feed them (they are/were coming over for xmas dinner)..but I had to pick up pies and whatnot, so I "took" the RX-8.

Crank..crank..spudder... plop.

Took me 15+ minutes and a charger to get it started... And yes.. I have the latest flashes and new battery "upgrade".

Bascially, the RX-8 is a piece of sh*t. I will soon be trading it in on something that won't strand me in the middle of no-where... I just thank God that I wasn't camping or somewhere that could have been more serious.

Hmm...never had my car flood on me. It worked fine all of the christmas weekend. Then again I've been use to rotaries since I started out with an rx7 before I bought the 8. Even if it did I wouldn't go around bitching about it since its a known issue about rotaries if you don't take care them. Hell even my rx7 hasn't ever flooded on me. Also wasn't there a video that was supposedly sent out to new rx8 owners about normal care and maintenance?

sorry to hear, but i think u and amartin ought to get a different car

It is weird how some have this problem and others don't. My car has never flooded. I have had a couple occasions where it has been driven short distances and shut off. Every now and then I will have a delayed start but no flooding.

My car has never flooded until it was left in the hands of a bodyshop. Those ASSES! and they still have it and it is still flooded.

ok i have my 8 for 2 years and 37k miles and i have not managed to flood it yet.

i have many times not warmed it up for 5 min much less than 10 min. other people in my house have backed it out of the driveway and shut it off.

i have done the same to wash it..... never flooded... maybe i am lucky.... guess i should buy a lotto ticket sometime!!!

the people in the cold i have to defer to. i could see that happening, but read the directions!!!

the one in tx, you are a tard or you have a big cup of bad karma following you.

beers

I have to say that I am amazed at the number people that flood their cars. First of all, I think it does suck to flood out your expensive car, it is very embarrassing. I think someone must have screwed up at Mazda or else they would have shipped with better starters and batteries or had made changes to the design. However, I was taught from the first day I learned to drive that you never start a cold car and then shut it off immediately. That's just a rule of thumb. I let any car I drive warm up a bit before I drive or shut it off. I have personally driven over 400k in 14 years with rotary powered cars and never flooded once. I feel your pain but I can't help thinking that you should have let it warm up a bit.

I was talking to my dealer the other day durign an oil change. He told me the number one reason people flood out is that they push their gas pedal down. DO NOT PUSH THE GAS PEDAL DOWN!. Your car is a port injected engine and does not require it. Just don't touch the gas pedal. I have searched and attached a nice little cold weather driving tip article. Any car can be flooded in the cold.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/winter/030312.htm

You know, you've now stated this about 100 times on here. You obviously got a defective car, since almost no one else has had as many issues as you have. Quite whining and sell the damn thing, since you hate it so much. I doubt ANYONE has sympathy for someone who continually bitches and moans but is too lazy to do anything about it.

where does it ever say the car needs to warm up for 10 min!?
4 min is more than enough.
if you can't even wait 4 min,
rev up the engine a little to help get warmed up

no matter how cold my engine is, shuttin down after reving up, which I always do, became my habit.
every start is nice and clean

I understand that you really love your car and are willing to live with it and I applaude your car enthusiast spirit, however this is unacceptable on mazda's part. if youre willing to live with it and more power to you, but no one should have to deal with this in the first place?

that's why i traded my RX-8 for a different car after i owned it for 10 months, even i lost alot money on the trade. because i got it flooded twice, i hate it. i counldn't get over the flooding even RX-8 has many good things on it, i don't wanna worry about the car can be started or not everytime before i turn the engine on.

did you get a kia or a dawoo. i hear they start real good.

why are you still here???? not enough action on the my kia started again today thread!!!!!

beers

im the new owner of the rx8, so what we are not to do or what to do to preventing the car to be flooded??

It doesn't matter two shakes whether its a flaw in the car or not. You KNEW about it, and you chose to ignore the facts of reality, and you paid the price. I shouldn't have to pay the ridiculous taxes that I pay either, but I don't just stop paying them and assume that the universe will somehow rearrange itself to suit my whims. Whether the warm-up business is horrible or acceptible is irrelevant. I should be able to run my air-conditioner, microwave, and vacuum cleaner at the same time in my appartment. But I can't, the circuit breaker will blow. It sucks, but that's what it is, and if I choose to ignore that, I'm just a dumb-shit.

(a dumb-shit in the dark, actually)

if you have an 05, just read the owners manual. o wait that is all i did....

btw, how is your first post on this thread???????

i would think you would have a better ??? to ask with a new car and all.

beers

im glad you sucked it up and traded it in, instead of bitching about it over and over again, more power to ya. hope you like your "new" ride.

let your car warm up 4-10 minutes. then drive.

never shut the car off if it is still COLD....meaning temp needle is still below or near COLD.



rev up 2-3K before shutting down will help burn off access fuel.


check your oil every other gas fill up....always have 1-2 Quarts of oil with you at all times. you never know when you might need to add some oil here and there.


umm.... i think that's all i can remember at this late of a time lol

thank you very much!

btw....how often do i need an oil changed, and what else that i need to know to be a rx8 owner?

I agree that people "shouldn't have to worry or deal with this" and that Mazda should come up with a solution for the rotary's cold-engine flood risk. However, that doesn't excuse owners from following the simple cold-engine shut-down procedure: rev to 3k RPM for 10 seconds before shutoff (You don't need to wait 10 minutes). I've moved mine several times without warming it up.

From your description of the events, it's your own fault. If you can't deal with the cold-engine shut-down procedure, get something else.

Flooding is not new to rotaries. My Dad had a RX-7 Turbo II that had fooding issues as well. So bad was it that someone had installed a fuel pump (electric) cutout switch that would prevent the engine from getting gas on startup that it really didnt need. Maybe someone will do something similar on the 8. Until then, I'll just follow the directions. If you dont flooding can AND will happen to you, too. I feel a little sorry for those that experience this (but only a little).

People who say this shouldnt happen on a modern car should just stick with their piston engined cars.:boring:

Its a known fact that you should warm up the 8 before shutting it down. If you disregard it, what can you expect? If warming up the car is so hard/annoying then maybe its time to get a different car. I have 24k+ miles on my 8 and haven't flooded once yet. How? Because I make sure the engine is warm. Now if you're still flooding with a warm engine, then I would sympathize if you flooded.

nope, don't have the car yet. Have the finances, almost bought it, but some personal issues came up.

AFAIC, flooding should not be a problem for someone who is informed about it. Whether mazda should have solved the issue prior to production is a different matter, and i agree with you there. You know the consequences and yet you do it, then you start blaming the whole world for your ignorance. This is the issue here.

You need to know how to open your glovebox. It contains a small book about a Spanish RX-8 owner named Manuel. He had an interesting life and many good times with his car. Read it all.








:rollingla

so how long should i leave my car engine on if i have to move it only a short distance, to prevent flooding..

!?!?

Your question was already answered in this thread (and in many threads before it).

Til it gets up to temperature.

I moved my 8 from the driveway to the garage. All of about 30 feet and it was 30 degrees outside. I revved the engine to 7K and then cut her off. This morning, she cranked without the slightest hesitation.

Well, I don't think its a "defective" car... This is only the 3rd time in 2 years this has happened (abliet in the last 5+ years this is the only car I've ever "flooded" simply by turning it off, and it is the ONLY car I've not been able to "unflood").

And in reality, thats the problem-- not flooding. But the inability to UN(de?)flood this vehicle, at least trying to do so following Mazda's procedure.


As far as "selling" it because I bitch about it and nobody else has as many issues-- Now thats just silly. First, if Mazda would compensate me for providing a sub-standard vehicle so I could get out of the car w/out a substantial financial loss, I'd go for it ASAP.

As far as "nobody else has had issues like you"... Well, you must just be in a mood, because all my "issues" are the same ones that everyone else has: Gas Milage, Performance, Flooding, and build-quality issues.

Now, if you want to "censor" me from informing other potential buyers about the pitfalls of this vehicle, that's entirely your right as an admin of this board, heck, you could just delete all negative posts about the vehicle... but either way, it still wouldn't be right. The car does have problems, people deserve to know, and having paid TWENTY EIGHT THOUSAND dollars, I don't think I'm unreasonable in being vocal about the issues the car realisticly has.

Na, you only need to leave your car on long enough for the rpms to drop below 1,000. You don't need to warm up the engine entirely. Dependign upon temp, it takes me about 2 minutes to drop below 1k rpm.

When the car is cold, the computer runs the mixture very rich. Your idle is high as a result. Once the rpms drop back down below 1,000 the car has heated up enough for the mixture to return to normal. That's all that is to it.

If I wanted to censor you, I would have warned and banned you. But you have not broken any rules, so that would make me a bit of a hypocrite. However, as an owner of the car, I DO take issues with your repetitive complaining. YOUR car has had issues. This does not mean anyone else's car has had issues. Most of us have not had problems with any of the above(excpet perhaps mileage, and that just goes along with every other vehicle out there right now). Like any other problem, those WITH the problems are more vocal about it than those who don't. You, however, are more vocal and vituperative than most. And after a while, it starts getting old. You hate the car. Everyone knows. So, since cars are not an investment, as you've pointed out, you may as well just get rid of it and buy something you DO like and lose money on THAT instead. In the long run, you'll be a lot happier.

I don't even know how anyone is flooding their car. I bought my rx8 back in June (I think) of 05 with whatever flash that was. There have been a couple updates since then that I have not gotten. I have repeatedly TRIED to flood my car with no success. I will turn it on/off a couple times giving it only a few seconds, and sometimes a minute, in between shutdowns and it wont flood.

I've also moved my car in and out of the garage giving it less than a minute each time of idle/driving to do things, no flooding.

I think it's you :p:

I got an 06 350Z, although it's 2 seaters, but it still has good look and strong low end torgue though. you mean i can't be here because i sold my 8. that's sad.
by the way, i never drove a kia, i should try one just by what you describe it.

amartin = drama queen
 

Wrong. I don't have any of those issues. As I did a little research before I bought the car, I knew exactly what kind of performance and gas mileage to expect.
Why would they censor you? Most of your posts (in this threads and others) are nothing but rambling nonsense that provide the rest of us with amusement:
So you didn't follow the simple cold-engine shutdown procedure (that takes all of 10 seconds) and you trash the car. Another one of your constructive posts:
And when you're not being a drama queen, you're spouting BS:
Hell, even Ike retorted that one. More drama:
:nopity:

my car had no problems starting up in 10 degree weather after it was parked for a week. all it took was a 5 minute warmup then i drove off. I too, live NY.

Of all the times you flooded the car did you shut off the car cold? I have had my car for 1 1/2 years and have never flooded it.

You try to follow Mazda's unflooding procedure but dont pay attention to the "cold shutoff procedure"? That makes no sense, I hope the dealer charges you to deflood the car for owner stupidity.

Did Mazda FORCE you to buy the car? I didnt think so, why should they pay you to get rid of it? It was your choice to buy it, there is lots of reviews and information on this car and what it needs to be maintained properly. You should start doing research before you buy.

As for everyone having your issue I dont have any problems of what you list. My milage is 18 mpg +, performance is great this is not a drag racing car nor was it marketed to that, again I have never flooded my car, build issues I had none.


You seem to like to complain alot, just suck up the loss for trading in the car. Live and learn.

I always thought it strange that non-RX8 owners are members of an RX8 Club and participate in RX8 related threads. I can see past owners that were frequent thread posters staying involved in the forums based on relationships developed over the years.....but JunJTan, you have 11 posts!!! Why don't you go join a 350Z club instead?