AKuntze

Last week I had to take my RX-8 into the body shop to get the front bumper resprayed due to some parking lot scuff someone left me. They called me and said they could not get it to start after moving it, and I was positive they flooded it. They said they tried taking the plugs out to let them dry, and finally got the car started after speaking with a Mazda tech. I picked up the car on Friday and it seemed to drive fine. I hadn't driven it since, and today (Monday) it seemed to be lagging low end power. At first I thought it was just me, but there is a lack of power until the higher rpms.

My question is could this be caused by the body shop putting the spark plugs in incorrectly and messing up the leadind and trailing plugs?

PJLyons

iTrader: (3)

I'm pretty sure there's no way it would run if the spark plugs were reversed (i.e - trailing in the leading/leading in the trailing) although you could look at replacing the plugs as they could be the factor. How old are the plugs? Plug wire and coils also could be suspect.

AKuntze

Well turns out one set of plugs was reversed. I am ordering some new plug wires as well. The plugs were only like 5k miles old as I changed then at 60k along with the coils. That's what made it so odd. Going to keep an eye on it in case but seems ok now.

Harlan

iTrader: (3)

It'll run with the plugs reversed. Or 2 leading for one rotor and 2 trailing for the other. Doubt it's good for the engine, but i'd be more worried about the other destruction caused by the idiot who put the plugs in wrong.

PeteInLongBeach

How does a body shop (obviously not experts on a renesis) justify working on your motor without any authorization from you?

I would be screaming....

AKuntze

If it was "just some shop" then I would be furious.

It is the paint shop of a friend who always is nice enough to do great work, and do it at cost for me. He told me what happened, apologized over and over, and knowing the way the RX-8 can be with people who aren't familiar, I wasn't shocked they flooded it.

He called me saying they could not get it started and asked if I could help. I explained that I was sure it was flooded and to try some things in the manual. They did but nothing worked so he said they took the plugs out to clean them, dry them, and make sure the gaps were all right when they went back in. At the same time, they had a local Mazda Dealership tech walk them through how to get it started. Since the rotary isn't like anything else, I was not really surprised, and I knew exactly what had been done to the car, so I knew I wanted to check everything over.

Now that it's fixed, not a huge deal, but did push me into finally getting the new starter and new plug wires to help avoid this in the future.

Grace_Excel

iTrader: (5)

The engine will run if the trailing/leading plugs were flipped, it's the plugs you don't want to mix(trailing into leading, vice versa). Next time the car floods, I found it easier-if it's a manual transmission, to tow/push start the car.