BigCajun

iTrader: (1)

Good to hear!
Don't forget RIWWP's advice. Try to find the root cause of why it flooded. You want it running good when your husband comes home.

Radbunny

I know what I did... after reading everyone's inputs and reviewing the forum, I did it. Last wknd my dad visited and I moved my cars back so he could park his Harley in the garage... I really didn't think about it!! So it was me. I started it, backed 3 ft and killed it. I know! I know!!! Well, I know NOW... I told my husband and he said it wouldn't do that if I drove it more often, so yay!! Permission to drive it more often is good to me!

Thanks again for your help!!

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Keep in mind that if everything is healthy, you can start it, move it 3 feet, and shut it off and it won't flood.

Flooding is a symptom. Something is failing that allowed you do flood by shutting it off cold. Expect to see further symptoms of that in the near future.

BigCajun

iTrader: (1)

Hi Radbunny, glad you got it running.
However, there is still a chance it could happen again.
You may want to consider a tuneup (coils, plugs, wires).
Might want to take it to a parts store that offers free OBD scans to check for stored codes.

Like RIWWP said, 8's don't flood unless there is an underlying problem.
In my case, I had misfires that killed my cat.
Once I fixed those problems, I no longer have a problem moving it or have to let it warm up.

I'm not trying to be a buzzkill, it's something you may want to think about.
Preventive maintenance can save lots of money and headaches down the road.

Nice talking to you.
Thanks to you & your husband for your service.
Good luck & have fun.
Edit* ha! RIWWP responded while I was one finger typing!

Radbunny

Thanks, guys! I plan to take it to Mazda for a checkup but we just had the thing totally checked out in Feb. Doesn't seem that long ago and we never had any issues before this. I've been driving it since I got it running and it's a little "chuggy" - if that makes any sense... It idles a bit choppy. I only put the high-grade gas in it, and I keep the oil level on the money. I do have one of those devices I can hook up to read the computer codes. I'll ck that and call Mazda.

Thanks!!

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

I'd honestly re-think that.

The dealers are moderately useless for diagnosing ahead of time. For example, the official Mazda coil test will show a coil as working fine when it's actually causing severe misfires. Even if they are willing to do tests, they are going to want you to have an actual problem that they recognize when you bring it to them. Mazda doesn't officially recognize that coils are regularly replaced maintenance items.

The checkups that dealers do really do not address a single point of what is critical for a rotary. The only test that a dealer can perform that I recommend continually to people is a compression test, and that's because they have the proper tool. Very few people outside of dealers have them.

It would be far more beneficial to find a knowledgeable local owner (Arkansas?) to check over everything that is actually important.

Offhand, I'd say you have ignition failure, since it's common and would produce all 3 symptoms (flooding, unstable power delivery, unstable idle). Other items can as well, but chances are it's ignition since it needs replacing every 30,000 miles or so. Flooding can also kill what is left of the plugs. Coils, plugs, and wires. $190ish if you buy the parts yourself and maybe an hour of work if you don't know what you are doing. Many of us can swap everything in less than 20 minutes. Dealers will charge you upwards of $600-$800 for the parts, and $400-$800 in labor.

1STPLTRX-8

so im having the same problem as of yesterday with it cranking/reeving but the engine wont start and i did try the procedure in the manual multiple times and still got the same result and had others look at it and got a few different opinions, also i want to mention right b4 that happened i was driving and the car was fine i only turned a corner at about 30-35 nothing major and then i tried to accelerate to get up to speed and the tachometer went up like it normally would as if i was accelerating but the car didnt go and i tried a couple times and listened to the engine and it stil revved while i was attempting to accelerate buh i still didnt go nowhere so i let the car cruise and let off the gas pedal and the tachometer went to 0 rpm and it shut off. if i can get ideas on what it could possibly be that would be great. after work today i have a couple people who are going to take a look at it and help me out.

my car is a 2005 red rx8 automatic with 91k i have everything as it came which basically is stock and ive been up to date with maintenance with changing the oil every 3k ive gotten the transmission flushed in january also the rear differential fuel flushed during the summer of this year and if im missing anything just let me know

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

You mention maintenance items, but you don't include coils, plugs, and wires. How old are they?


If you flood due to failed ignition or failed compression, deflooding won't magically fix the ignition, and it's just going to re-flood when you try to start it

1STPLTRX-8

i cant say how old they bc i dont know what the previous owner has done but i had it since janaury and i got the car the day it was sold to the dealership this year and havent changed anything on the car yet except the brake pads...but i know later after work a friend is going to help me check everything and see what needs to replaced

what i have been told so far from someone who took a look at my car last night was it could possibly be the fuel injector and the sensor is broken and keeps feeding the motor fuel when we start the car and it may already have enough in it....another person who has a rx8 and is going to look at it after we get off said it could be the plugs coils or wires which we will confirm later....another friend who has an 8 i asked his opinion and said it could possibly be a blown seal and i would need it rebuilt

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

The ignition recommendation and the engine seal recommendation are both entirely viable. The fuel injectors and "sensor" recommendation is moderately absurd. Of course the fuel injectors are supposed to feed fuel to the engine. The problem is that the fuel isn't being ignited (hence the definition of the term "flood") The "sensor" that determines when to inject fuel is the same sensor that determines when to fire the coils (to create a spark at the plugs).

Since you have neglected the maintenance of your 8, and have no idea if the prior owner neglected it either, you might want to seriously go through this list:

https://www.rx8club.com/new-member-f...t-here-202454/
I am buying it! What should I address first?:
Generally, the more history on these items you can get from the prior owner, the better. These are all RX-8 specific. They are in addition to typical items like brakes and tires. Every item on this list is on it because it either fails regularly OR a failure of the point will result in significant cascading damage and costly repairs.

Car mileage over 30,000:
- Replace Ignition coils
- Replace Plug wires
- Replace Spark plugs
- Clean MAF (mass air flow sensor)
- Clean ESS (e-shaft sensor)
- Reset ESS profile
- Clean power steering connections
- Clean battery terminals and clamps
- Replace transmission fluid
- Replace coolant (Mazda FL-22 is highly recommended)
- Replace air filter
- Replace brake fluid (fluid in the brake lines AND the clutch line)
~$300 USD in parts if you shop smartly.


Car mileage over 60,000:
...all above, plus...
- Clean all chassis electrical grounding points
- Replace accessory belts
- Clean OMP lines
- Replace rear differential fluid
- Replace thermostat
- Clean / Straighten AC condenser fins
- Clean / Straighten oil cooler fins
- Inspect catalytic converter
- Clean / Inspect intake valving
- Consider / inspect all points in 90,000+ as well, many items fail early
~$130 USD in parts if you shop smartly.

Car mileage over 90,000:
...all above plus...
- Replace coolant bottle
- Replace radiator hoses
- Replace radiator
- Replace front O2 sensor
- Replace motor mounts
- Inspect clutch pedal assembly for flex / weld breaks
~$900 USD in parts if you shop smartly.

Obviously if you get information about any of these items already addressed, it will help to reduce the list / cost. Get as much certainty as you can though! All cooling related items can cost you your engine! Even as soon as the same day you take the 8 home with you. It has happened more than once. The rest can be just as critical in how much it can cost you.

Note: This isn't a dealer's maintenance list that is filled with questionable fluff. Every single one of these items is something that typically fails in that mileage range, and for each item, if it fails it will either A) strand you, or B) cause significant and costly additional damage.

1STPLTRX-8

i will defiantley get on that asap which my best bet will be in janurary bc im waiting for taxes so i can go all out on my car but i will also find out what needs to be done now and get it done now also ill post an update this weekend on what the problem was

1STPLTRX-8

So as you mentioned about the plugs wires and coils im going to need to replace them and see if that solves the problem and we also found out the trailing spark plug i believe thats what it is, was unplug that leads to the rear rotor and there is corrosion on it also and im sure that was from the previous owner and I'll be sure to do a lot better job with keeping my car in great running condition

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

That would do it. I think only the trailing plugs fire while cranking (though I might have that backwards) which would mean you are trying to start the engine on the front rotor alone (which is almost certainly going to be unsuccessful)

1STPLTRX-8

So we just finished the time up with the coils wires and plugs and it won't start....you can hear the engine rev as if its trying to crank and we cant figure it out...would it be the starter? Or can anyone suggest may be the problem? We charged the battery and its still hooked up now to charge

R3AP3R

Hey guys, I didn't want to **** anyone off by starting a new thread, and I see this one has been happily resolved, and the root issue is the same.

Let me start by saying I'm a tech myself, love my rx8 dearly, and have had to deflood it before (2 occasions) so I'm no stranger to the crank no start flooding.

Scenario: my dad moved my cAr, parked it, and shut her down. By the way it's an 06 auto. Anyways, so two days later I went to fire her up, blam, crank no start. Awesome, flooded! Went through the deflooding procedure and still won't start. Thought ah what the hell, tried to deflood this time by following the tsb instead of the other way stepped out here in the forum. Still no start. I recently had a no start condition caused by my coils. So I pulled all four coils and ohmed them out following schematics here in the forums. All seemed ok but I through some coils at it. Still nothing. So. Pulled the plugs dried them off from the cranking, went through the deflooding again. I'm obviously getting fuel because they're wet again. Still won't start, so now I'm getting worried I have no compression (115k miles on the engine). So then I remembered plug wires can also causes no starts if they're open or the resistance is too high. So this leads me to my biggest question, is what is the general window for resistance readings on stock plug wires? I ohmed both leading and trailing wires for the 2nd rotor and got 748 ohms for the lead and 1565 ohms for the trail. Now I don't know if all 4 are supposed to be identical despite leading or trailing wires. I would think the plug itself would determine the separation between leading and trailing and not the wire, unless the dif resistance in the wires is what creates the spark difference between the lead and trail plugs. (I know the lead and trail plugs are different for spark pattern, etc). Are my readings out of spec and the plug wires could in fact be my problem? Or do I need to have her towed and have the dreaded compression test performed?

Again, thank you for any help In advance. I do apologize if my posting here is out of order or not in accordance to rules. I did a lot if research and a lot of reading before I broke down and posted here.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

1) The factory ohm test on the coils is completely worthless. It will only detect a coil that has completely failed. You can have flooding problems and misfires with coils that pass the ohm test.

2) The plug wires shouldn't have any significant ohm value at all, and the lower the resistance the better. 1565 ohms sounds like a pretty bad problem, even 748 seems way too high. Yes, they should all be roughly identical. Technically more for the longer wires, but the distance increase really shouldn't be enough to make a significant impact.
Edit: I found this on the web: "RF suppression wire is approximately 850 ohms per foot."
So you might have some degrading wires, but not as bad as I originally thought.

3) The ECU fires the coils individually, and on their own timing based on internal ECU timing tables. No coils, wire, or plug has it's own control over when it fires (unless something is broken and it refuses to fire at all)

4) You still need a compression test, but replace the wires and you might be able to get it started.

5) Coils plugs and wires are a "every 30,000 miles" maintenance item, doesn't sound like that has been followed.

R3AP3R

Thank you for all the information. That def gives me a good direction to go. And yes the 30k ignition maint has not been followed. I got the car with 85k and now at 115 so I'm literally at the 30k mark. But I can confidently bet that they were not replaced anytime before I bought her. I will pick up worse tomorrow. I replaced plugs with my coils about 10k miles ago. I will post results. Again thank you bro

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

If you haven't yet, at your car's age and mileage, I'd expect your cooling system is probably weakening as well. If your engine tests fine, you will probably want to spend the ~$500 to preemptively replace all your cooling stuff to keep it from taking out your motor.

Check out the new owner's list for the full list of critical maintenance stuff.

R3AP3R

So I got the new wires and immediately checked the resistance in the new compared to the old. 3 of four old were 750 ohms or less, with only one wire having 1568. The brand new wires are all approximately 1560 ohms. Installed the new wires and yet again, to my utter dismay, cranks but doesn't start. I guess on Monday I will call the hook and have them drop it off at the local Mazda for a compression test seeing I don't currently have the equipment to do so. There are no faults currently active either, so my problem is def leaning harder and harder on the ugly shoulder of a compressionless renesis. I may try to deflood it one more time with the new wires, but all that cranking can't be good on those apex seals. Time seems to be my number one enemy on figuring out this problem. Will post what I do/find next. Meanwhile, any other items you guys can think of that I may have missed feel free to throw them my way. I may be overlooking something severely simple, which is what I am hoping. ....well and I guess there's the broken down cat that could be potentially causing this also. At this point tho I just know I want a compression test done.