I searched to find these out, but all I could find was experiences about flooding, and now I have some questions.
What exactly is flooding?
What causes it? and how to prevent it?
I think I read that they fixed it, but I'm not sure if I read that right. If they did fix it, how do I know I'm buying a car that has the flooding problem fixed?

 

I'm sure that you found TONS of threads on the flooding issue, and I don't blame you for not wanting to sort through them all to find the answers (they are all there, by the way). So, I'll give you the short answers... ...for the details, you'll have to search more, because there are some excellent write-ups on it.

What is Flooding: Flooding is basically getting excess unburned fuel in the chambers. This has several consequences: the plugs get wetted down and don't spark, and the effectiveness of the apex seals is compromised which severely reduces compression. Both of these things prevent starting (crank, crank, crank, no start).

What causes it: Starting the car when dead cold, and shutting it down very shortly later (less than a minute or so) and without reving the engine. When starting, a fair amount of fuel is injected into the cold engine. The cold temperature and low rotor rpm result in poor fuel atomization - and as a result, unburned droplets of fuel form on the rotor. Remember, it is fuel vapor that burns, not fuel liquid. If enough droplets form and wet the plugs and seals ... flooded.

How to prevent it: Make sure the car is updated to the M calibration on the PCM. The M calibration injects less fuel during the starting process, essentially eliminating the conditions that lead to flooding. Of course, if you try hard enough you can probably still flood it. Also, the best way to prevent flooding is to never shut the engine off dead cold. Always warm it up a few minutes. The manual describes a short trip procedure - 5 minutes of idle, followed by 3000 rpm for 10 seconds and shutdown.

The car can be started if it floods. There is a de-flooding procedure in the manual. Crank the engine for several seconds with the accellerator floored (This instructs the PCM to cutoff the fuel to the engine). Repeat this until the engine begins to fire, then start normally. Be prepared to rev the engine and see a lot of black smoke... In all likelyhood, you'll never have to do this.

Bottom line is - the flooding "problem" really isn't a huge thing. The vast majority of the owners have never had a flood, and the M-flash has appeared to lick this small problem.

OK, maybe it wasn't really "short" answers...

 

Thanks! I didn't need long answers anyway. That's all I wanted to know. Great info!