Hey all, i've been ghosting your community here for a few hours, and have found lots and lots of info pertaining and even helping me with this car!

I actually bought it with a non-starting engine as a project car, for $1200. It was just an offer I couldn't refuse, haha! It's an 04 6spd with the Renesis and every single luxury package available. An old man owned it previously and told me he used to take a bunch of trips to Florida in the car. It has 150k miles on it, and from what he told me, it was the original engine. He said he wasn't sure, becuase he would just give the car to the mazda dealership to have them work on it. I got some reciepts for work from him, but nothing dealing with engine work.

So, I've got a few questions. He told me that the shop he took it to (he didn't mention the dealership, I picked up on this),, said it had 20% compression. I don't know what the exact numbers were, but I need to know a few things about engine flooding... #1, is flooding the engine in a Renesis similar to that of a lawn mower(haha stay with me), in that you can let it sit for a while and it will clear up? Or do I need to do the flushing procedure?
#2, The coilpacks and plug lines were replaced in 2010, are these going to be too old now?
#3, the battery is dead. I used jumper cables on my other vehicle to try to get it to start and run, but it would only crank and never catch. Also, the cranking seemed to be much quieter than the youtube videos i've watched on deflooding.. Any insight into this?

If flooding is not going to fix it, how can I be sure that one of the seals is toast? Should I try to push start the car? Should I run a compression test? Is running a compression test on a flooded motor going to show low compression? Geez, I feel like a super noob when it comes to rotaries..

Thanks for looking, and I appreciate any help you can give!!

 

Read the new owner stickies at the top of the new member section. Most everything you need to know is there.
You have to actively deflood the engine, it stays flooded if you don't.

 

See if you can get the compression numbers. Although 20%, no matter how they translated the results to that, does not sound good.

Coils last 30k-40k, so interpolating the 150k between '04, '10 and now, yes, you need new coils. Also new plugs, but you'll need those anway for deflooding. The new owner's thread should include info on where to buy ignition parts - definitely not from a dealer.

You can find out some of the car's service history - at least any warranty work - by contacting a Mazda dealer or Mazda North America.

Good luck and have fun with it.

Ken

 

I have deflooded mine, never touched the plugs. Just took out the relay for the fuel pump, crank it 20 seconds with 30 seconds rest x4, then put it back in and did the pedal down, slow lift until it started. Took about 20 minutes. You do not need automatically need new plugs to deflood the 8.

 

If the plugs are old and cause the engine to flood, you do need new to deflood. The softer cranking sound probably means very low compression. So, new plugs probably won't help. Unless of course you are doing this outside. Most videos I've seen are in a garage which makes it sound louder than it should.

 

Even if it has low compression, will it try to start? Will the engine ALWAYS try to turn over, or is there a time when it's just too bad? The guy said it just didn't turn on one morning which leads me to think flooded, but if he took it somewhere and it's truly toast...


Would I be better off just pulling and rebuilding, or should I pursue trying to start it first?

 

Coils will keep it from starting, 3 years is a long time. sitting for a long period of time too will leave you with really poor fuel, with the easy to burn part already evaporated. If it were me, I would to with fresh fuel, new battery, pull plugs for deflood, toss in a few drops of oil through the lower plug hole to held seal things up, and see if it starts. If it does, go very easy on it until you change the oil.

If you hear really bad metallic sounds, stop, you need a rebuild.

Once running, read both posts in my signature...

And, share where you are located.

 

It was definitely flooded, but it might be more than that, haha..


Anyone ever heard a ridiculous metallic screeching after starting a car up from flood? I mean, shake your pants off, need ear plugs (literally) screeching, like a jet turbine?


Is one of the rotors fucked? I'd take a video but it honestly won't convey the loudness of what is happening. Straight pipes would sound like a childrens toy.

 

Air pump?

 

Destroyed bearing up front, on the accessories, or a frozen pulley with the belt sliding on it. Also, a really bad bearing on one of the fans will do that. Hope would be that it is not one of engine bearings, but that is less likely to make the high pitched screech (parts are bigger, lower pitch).

Quick fix, pull the belts, make sure everything spins, pull fan relay and try again. If quiet, start with fan relay. Then belts. Remember, you have no water pump, so run for a very short time, be ready to deflood again....

Could also be release bearing. Start it in neutral, as soon as it starts, release the clutch. If sound goes away, suspect release bearing.

 

Pulled the air pump power wire, didn't stop yelling. Gonna check all the belt bearings... Will one of the belts being stuck cause the car to die? It won't idle unless I'm hitting the accelerator.

 

Have some one take a look when you start it, if its a belt, you should see or smell burning rubber. As Greeny said, pull the belts first . You are sure you pulled the correct plug for the air pump ?

 

Okay... I think the sounds ate coming from the cat, or somewhere near that. Gonna take it off tomorrow.

 

Oh yeah. Cat is toast. Looking up youtube videos I am hearing the exact same knock/rattling sound as people with collapsed cats. Gonna drill it out tomorrow.

 

Knock, rattling is a lot different than metallic screeching. Be sure your cat is bad before you gut it. A new one will run you $1400.

 

CAT will not screech, release (throw-out) bearing will, and it is in the same spot...

 

Drop the slave cylinder, start the engine, if no screech, then it is more than likely the throw out bearing.

 

Pulled cat, it's good. Hopefully that means an apex seal isnt gone either! I found an exhaust leak in one of the midpipe gaskets too, that could be contributing to it making noise and when it smoked after flooding from that area!

Going to see if I can pinpoint the noise this morning, yay! It might run today!

 

Just noticed Georgia in you box...

Check out Georgia RX8 Club.. They may have someone in your area that can help.

 

It runs! It was missing a spark plug, I giesss from when the other shop tested it lol. Now I need to get this door open. Thanks for all the help guys, I have tutorials for the door