pareeann

Thank you for posting all this info on starting issues! As luck would have it, mine would not start this morning and still won't. I called Mazda and the guy said" welcome to the RX-8, you're going to hate that car, it's a pain and it's flooded"- without even having checked the car. I'm thinking..."what a tool"-lol Anyhow, I have to have it towed to them Monday for diagnostics, and now at least I know what questions to ask them after reading this! I have a 4 year ext-warranty but he said that won't cover flooding and if that's the issue I'm looking at about $250. Does this sound about right to you guys? I did read (above) that flooding is caused by a mechanical issue, so I would think THAT would be covered w/ warranty. Anyhow, all that info was very helpful and will hopefully keep me from getting ripped off!

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

If you have the car towed to the dealer, you are going to get ripped off. Period. There is no other outcome possible. It might be a casual cheese grating of your wallet, it might be a full surrender of every last bit of cash and credit you have available.

How about you let us help you instead? We can help you figure out exactly what the problem is, and the costs will be limited to just replacing any parts needed, which you can do all yourself very easily.

pareeann

Ok, well here is what I did....( mind you, I have ZERO knowledge when it comes to this stuff )
I read everything here I could find on flooding/starting issues and I do think it may be flooded. I say this because I last drove it on Monday, when I came home I took it out back and washed it, then parked it so it may not have been warmed up enough before I cut it off. ( um, learned that you can't do that here- lol) So, I just now followed some instructions on the 5-10 second intervals with the gas pedal to the floor and it did try real hard to turn over after about 5 minutes. The problem is I didn't wanna kill the battery, because I had no cables to run my other car and hook em up. I have someone coming over in the morning with cables so I can try that process again without offing my battery. I certainly welcome help- only a fool turns away valuable information! I'm so glad I held onto my MX-3 as a backup vehicle, it got me to work today

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Ok, yes, it's likely flooded, and yes, you likely were unable to deflood it because of running down your battery. A Complete deflood usually is more battery power than one battery can hold. Jumping it to another car is really critical.

Once you get it hooked up, do just this:

1 - Hold the gas pedal smashed to the floor, keep it there
2 - Crank the engine for 5 seconds
3 - Let it rest for 5 seconds
4 - Repeat #2 and #3 10 times
5 - Let the starter rest for 30 seconds
6 - Repeat 2 through 6 again
7 - Take your foot off the gas pedal
8 - try starting
If it doesn't fire up, repeat 2 through 8 again.
If it coughs and chokes but still won't fire, repeat again. If no hint of starting, then you are going to need to shift to a different deflooding method, because you are probably reflooding it immediately again.

Keep in mind that you will need to determine why it flooded in the first place. You can shut the engine off cold with no risk if your battery, starter, engine, ignition coils, plug wires, and spark plugs are all in good condition. So since it flooded, one or more of those parts is failing. Ignition parts need replacing every 30k max. You should have a decent idea of how the battery is doing from day-to-day use. If those are new and you know that the battery was in good shape, then take the car to the dealer for a compression test. That will give you the health of the starter and the engine.

pareeann

Ok, I can do exactly as you instructed tomorrow and will see what happens! I bought the car on Jan 27th, with 34000 miles on it...so I really don't know which parts are new/original, etc. Until this morning, I never had any issue with it starting right up. I'm guessing that even if I can get this thing fired up on my own, I really should go get the engine and stuff checked to be sure something's not going on. Sure would be nice if I had the kind of knowledge you guys have! Lol
And hey, thanks so much- I'll post tomorrow with the outcome!

pareeann

UPDATE:
First of all, thank you so much...dude, YOU are a ROCKSTAR!
So after waiting all morning for someone to come with cables and help me, I said 'screw this' and bought some. Never touched a jumper cable in my life so I googled how to do it, followed your instructions and BAM! Got it started in less than like 3 minutes. It farted a little bit of smoke for a second. Then I drove it for about 25 minutes out on the highway to get it nice and hot, came home then turned it off and prayed- lol
It fired back up, though it did seem a little 'hesitant' turning over. Hoping it won't give me any issues in the morning, so I can go get the stuff you mentioned checked. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help! I know to you guys, it was probably a pretty simple task- to me it was a small victory because I was scared to touch anything and screw it up

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Gratz

The RX-8 is really expensive to pay someone else to fix, but actually remarkably simple for anything but rebuilding the engine. Many of us were mechanical idiots until purchasing the 8, myself included. Not wanting to pay the cost of someone else doing everything, we became proficient ourselves.

pareeann

Well, I am going to learn as much as I can here! Like I mentioned, I did buy a 4 year/ 86000 mile warrantee so if it has an ignition, engine, starter problem or something like that it SHOULD be covered completely- but if it is something not covered, I am going to have to strap on a pair and learn how to do it myself. If nothing else, you just saved me $75 towing and $250 for Mazda to do the deflooding! I am reading your threads like mad

jp4wd

Quick update....It was the battery. I purchased a redtop optima and just went on a deflood and it runs fine now. Thanks for the advice.

xAgyex

FYI if you are having any starting issues and your Rx8 is over 60k. Just order all new coils, and replace them. I had this issue and went a different route: Changed Spark Plugs, Wires, battery, then coil packs. In the end the coil packs is what was the problem. I almost even changed the starter..

Check out the thread below, if you need help buying, and installing the coil packs.
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-multime...7/#post4545657

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Have you considered what would have happened if you had more than one failure point? Like if you had fouled plugs that killed the coils (yes, it can easily happen because of the excess heat in the coils from being unable to fire completely). Yes, replacing the coils every 30k is highly recommended, however assuming that the starting trouble is always the coils is not accurate.

New coils on old plugs and wires will die rather quickly.

xAgyex

Very true. I think doing the whole getup is best. Spark plugs, Wires, and Coils. I just wanted to point out that in the end it was 100% coil issue for me, as the behavior of the car during start up did not change after spark plugs, and wires were changed.

Great info RIWWP, thanks.

RX eight

Proud owner of a Mazda RX-8, 2004. I've had my car for about two months now, besides the cold and hot start problems I've been having (I'm guessing due to compression issues and will probably have the motor replaced or refurbished soon) starting issues. One morning, i tried firing up the car, and a loud screeching sound was all that came out from the car. I then tried kick starting the car, and still nothing, she just refuses to start. Sounds like the starter is slipping, but even if it does slip, shouldn't it fire up, with a kick start?

irishdesolo

HI all
Some great info here but none of it fixes my problem. Any help would be much appreciated.
Here is my problem.
I have an 05 rx8 with 70k and a new engine replaced at 55k.
It has got a remote start system which might be my problem. I have never had any problems starting the car before.

Basically
I put the key in and the dash lights up as it should be.
When I turn to start the engine the rev and fuel needles start jumping all over the place and there is a mad clicking noise. (Its not the Battery)
Also there is a noise coming from the cd player like it trying to change cd. The central locking on the doors starts to make a noise as if it trying to lock the doors.
Some time the cars alarm goes of. But it does not start.
After about a half an hour of messing with it I got it started and it drove with no problems. I turned it of and tried to start it again and then same problem started.
As I said I never had a problem starting before and the only other thing is the car is not used much now. And help would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Derek

rx8nola

Ok this is what I have going on. Just changed my ignition to the bhr kit also new red top battery. Car never had this problem before the upgrades, first no hot start problem at all I can turn it off and start it right away or 30 min or a hour later and starts up without a problem. The issue is this, when the car sitts up overnight and I try to start it, most of the time it won't start and sometimes it starts last min like right when I'm letting go of the key it starts, but it will start right away 2nd try and I mean every time, ive been searching the fourm and haven't found anything like this unless im not searching right but I've worded it so many different ways and read so many pages and nothing so im finally reaching out for some help……

Charlie7077

Hi guys,

Newbie here. Basically my boyfriend's rx8 has been sat still for a long time (both of us deployed with the army). He had an issue prior to leaving (I think it's probably the starter motor) made the schoolboy error of not disconnecting the battery.

Anyway long story short I bought a new battery and before fitting I disconnected the horn fuse and relay. Cue alarm still going off! I disconnected the battery again but it still goes off for a while, what am I missing?!?!

I wouldn't be bothered but given that I'm testing the starter motor and I need to keep the battery connected I kind of need to avoid annoying the neighbours!

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

TBAGG

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to share my starting problem story. It literally took me from Feb 2014 to Sept 14 to solve. I read this thread start to finish several times so I figure it's the best place to archive my findings.

The short story is that I ended up having a coolant leak. So... my spark plugs were trying to light coolant (or water) in my chamber, hence the problem starting. I put Rislone "Liquid Aluminum Cooling System Stop Leak" in my radiator. And... now my car always starts fine. (after 6 weeks testing)


Full Story:

I have an 04 series I with 168,000km.

Symptons: The car went from starting instantly to taking 2 seconds to start, then 3 seconds to start, then 4 seconds to start. Previously my car had always started instantly.

Actions Taken:
- New Battery
- New Starter (california starter rebuild bought from ebay for $115)
- New Plugs/Coils/Wires from BHR Racing

After each of these actions my problem would come back. It started to get worse. Several times the car wouldn't start after 10 seconds and I had to hold the starter down for 45 seconds until the car started. A few times it took me 5-10 minutes to get started.

Mazda Dealer did full analysis. They said my cat converter was fine, fuel pump was fine, coolant pressure was fine, my engine compression was fine. All they did was clean my spark plugs but that didn't solve the actual problem. They suggested the starter I bought off ebay was the problem. They also suggested new plugs.

I then took my car to my old ford mechanic. (A guy who has his own shop that doesn't specialize in anything). He was better than the "rotary expert" at the dealer. He ended up doing analysis and determining there was a coolant leak. He suggested that the proper fix is an engine rebuild but they are really expensive. So... I may want to think about getting a new car since the rebuild is the same price I could sell the car for if I was lucky.

One more thing, he told me that the car was on it's way out and it took him 15 mins to start. He said it is starting to blow lots of white smoke now. (so the problem got worse over the 6 months I had it)

So... I ended up doing extensive reading/research. I ended up finding a thread where a guy "Kentetsu" dumped alumaseal into his rotary engine. Another guy in the thread dumped in another chemical.

no idea wtf is goin on at cold start [Archive] - Rotary Car Club

Many people were saying that dumping crap in your rad is a horrible idea and they said to exercise extreme caution. So I was a bit nervous to do it. But... I went for it. I went to canadian tire and bought the Rislone Liquid Aluminum for $10.



I followed the directions and dumped the crap in my radiator. Then I let my car idle for 20 minutes. The whole time it idled it was blowing white smoke and nothing changed. Then I took my car for a one hour drive. lots of highway driving. I got home parked it. Since that day I've driven almost daily and the car has always started fine. I'm no longer worried about whether it will start or not etc.

Hope this helps some people who end up in my situation where you have a car worth $2000-$4000 that you just want to get another couple years out of.

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

Wow ...great story ..Thanks for sharing !

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

Have you tried just pushing the alarm button on the remote a couple of times to reset the alarm ?

TBAGG

Thanks.

One more thing I should mention is that my Air Conditioning and my Heater still work fine after the fix.

I only used half of the bottle. If you read the instructions it says "for 4 cylinder engines use half". There's nothing about rotary on the instructions so I just made a guess. I'm getting a coolant flush this week and I will put the other half of the bottle with the new coolant. (my coolant is pretty much water after topping it up all summer... so.... I gotta get ready for winter).

One symptom I forgot to mention is I was getting a really aggressive "Water in the dash" sound after starting my car. Based on what I read this sound is normal for the RX8. But... when it's really splashy and really bad it is a symptom of your coolant being low. So if you have starting problems and the water in the dash sound, you may have a coolant leak.

I'll try to give an update in the spring to let you guys all know if I made it through the winter.

coverhag

Hello to the RX8 group, I am a avid RX7 FD fan for years and am just now trying my hand with the 8. Just brought a non runner 8 that is a 2004 MT with 136,000 km. Having starting issues. Have read more threads than I can comment on and still no go.
What I know:
- strong compression, 105 average all 6 pulses.
- engine starts when fuel is introduced through spray to intake
- strong fuel pressure, pump starts and supplys fuel
- engine is not flooded
- 1150 cca battey is fresh and during troubleshooting have conncted second running vehicle
- 12v current to injectors
- all fuses are good
- all engine bay grounds I could find have been cleaned
- ess was removed and found damaged, replaced with spare FD ess
- strong spark
- no codes
- 20 brake stomp completed
- updated starter is installed on this car

Looks like ecu is not grounding the injectors.

I am thinking that the injector circuits might be fried, ess from FD not compatible or another sensor is providing a situation that the ecu doesnt agree with and therefor wont fire the injectors.

Any thoughts that might help ?

cantstopbuzzin

hi guys, i have the same problem as coverhag, ive been trying to work out why for the last 3 months to no avail??

i too get no negative injector feed to the injectors,ive tryed changing the ecu, with key,immobilzer,dash (all from same car) still does the same thing.

ive checked the power n ground at ecu, all work as suppose too.

i keep thinking its ess, carby cleaned it etc.. nothing same problem..

please anyone that had this issue n solved it i would be greatly appreciated.

thanx

coverhag

Sorry to see that you are in the same boat cantstopbuzzin,

I was considering an ecu / key switch swap as well. Will put this off for now as I see that you worked through that one with no change to starting.

I'm at the point of thinking that there must be conditions that the ecu looks at before firing injectors and those conditions are not all being met. For example, it came to mind to check the coolant level. I had none. Now remember that this is a car I have not been able to start the engine on since purchase. I'm now digging into the area to the right of the water pump to determine where coolant pours out of as fast as I pour it in.

Once that is repaired we will see where we are at.

Searching the net, I have not found a list anywhere of conditions the ecu looks for. Anyone have any ideas ?

Considering a scan tool or bringing the car into Mazda to have a computer look into the ecu to see what conditions exist. My simple code puller doesn't get deep enough into ecu operation.

cantstopbuzzin

if you go through the mazda workshop manual, in trouble shooting it say to check or replace :

-tp sensor (tps)
-iat sensor (air temp sensor)
-maf sensor (mass air flow sensor)

ive replaced the throttle/dbw/tps, same thing.
ive checked the air temp that reads ok.
the maf sensor did read, but it did have less volts than what it said in the manual.

i will try to replace the maf sensor, but i highly doubt it would do anything.

the car sparks n runs fine if you supply it with fuel, pumps work, good fuel pressure just doesnt open none of the injectors??

ive looked through the wiring diagram and gets its feed straight from the pcm (ecu).
i keep thinking ess, but the coils fire and spark side works perfect.
there must be some sensor not reading or failed to shut down injectors through the pcm. but what ?

rokdok2010

My gf 2007 rx8 will not turn over....The clutch is pressed all the way in, dash lights are on, battery is fully charged...We turn the key and nothing....Mazda tech mentioned the neutral safety switch on the clutch could be bad...I have searched the forums and have found nothing on this...I called the mazda dealer and he said there was two switches on the clutch....One was $18 and the other was $48...Can ANYONE help on this ??? Thanks !!!! email me at rokdok2010@gmail.com