Mazda Rx-8 What to look for when buying ??

robj20 said:
You have to be making that up. Its as simple as remove plugs, foot to the floor on the accerlerator and crank for 10 seconds, wait 20s and repeat, do it 3 or 4 times, next stick some 2 stroke in the plug hole for both chambers and crank again, add more 2 stroke, now refit the plugs. Chances are the car will now start if not repeat, never needed to do it more than twice.

You can also tow the car in 2nd for a bit, but this isnt as good for the cat.
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LOL, you make that sound acceptable! I wouldnt want to that myself, let alone would i try and talk my GF through that :p Thats a garage job, and one which i can quite see how it could be expensive.
 
robj20 said:
You have to be making that up. Its as simple as remove plugs, foot to the floor on the accerlerator and crank for 10 seconds, wait 20s and repeat, do it 3 or 4 times, next stick some 2 stroke in the plug hole for both chambers and crank again, add more 2 stroke, now refit the plugs. Chances are the car will now start if not repeat, never needed to do it more than twice.
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I can count the number of people I know that drive around with two stroke and plug extractors on my made-up fingerless stump :p
 
pcoltrane said:
Yes fuel + oil will cost you more, perhaps as much as £1k if you do plenty of miles (which the OP says he won't be) .. but where is the other £2-4k going?
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I normally do clock up a fair amount of miles....(The car i have now i done 45,000miles in 5 years)

But petrol is a little cheaper over here compared to england (Yesterday petrol price was £1.04 per litre )
 
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I thought that the risk of flooding could be almost entirely avoided by taking certain precautions, I.E not doing mega short journeys and I seem to remember that you're supposed to turn rotary engines off in a certain way (something along the lines of putting your foot to the floor as you switch it off).
 
It's hardly a hardship to follow one simple rule - don't turn it off cold, especially when it gets within acceptable temps within a mile/few minutes (two notches on the temp gauge should be safe to turn off)
 
MikeHiow said:
It's hardly a hardship to follow one simple rule - don't turn it off cold, especially when it gets within acceptable temps within a mile/few minutes (two notches on the temp gauge should be safe to turn off)
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Pretty annoying if all you wanted to do was unblock a colleague in the work carpark or move the car to wash it or something.
 
MikeHiow said:
It's hardly a hardship to follow one simple rule - don't turn it off cold, especially when it gets within acceptable temps within a mile/few minutes (two notches on the temp gauge should be safe to turn off)
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You make that sound as if it isnt something that many people so absolutely all the time in day to day life. Fox has highlighted a couple of the obvious ones. Thats an absolutely massive flaw if it disables itself to the extent listed in this thread every time you do that.
 
[TW]Fox;19971108 said:
Pretty annoying if all you wanted to do was unblock a colleague in the work carpark or move the car to wash it or something.
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Don't block a work colleague in, or leave it to warm up a bit before stopping, push it etc. etc.

These are rare occurrences for me, and most RX8 drivers I'd imagine, seeing as most of them will tell you they've never flooded theirs.

You can, apparently, turn it off while cold if you hold the revs while switching it off - I've not tried it though. I suspect it worked in the RX7, but may not on the RX8 seeing as it's FBW (I think?).

Jez said:
You make that sound as if it isnt something that many people so absolutely all the time in day to day life. Fox has highlighted a couple of the obvious ones. Thats an absolutely massive flaw if it disables itself to the extent listed in this thread every time you do that.
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Like I say, 95% of RX8 owners manage.
 
[TW]Fox;19971108 said:
Pretty annoying if all you wanted to do was unblock a colleague in the work carpark or move the car to wash it or something.
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But flooding after moving a car a very short distance isn't a rotary only issue. I'm pretty sure there is a Jaguar engine prone to flooding if switched off at a certain point before it has warmed up? There must be others.
 
MikeHiow said:
Don't block a work colleague in, or leave it to warm up a bit before stopping, push it etc. etc.
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Push it? Are you for real?! So you have blocked another car in, or you need to move it from the garage, onto the drive to wash it.

Your answer is to push the car out of the way?

Why not go the whole hog, stamp a couple of foot holes into the floor and 'flinstone' it out of the way. Screaming Yabba Dabba Doooo in a grizzly voice?

Once you aware of it, you won't turn it off cold, sure. However, it's no less of a pain for this to happen.
 
chaparral said:
Why do they flood if you stop the engine before it warmed up ??
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Some random forum I found on Google said:
The reason why the rotary is easier to flood than a piston engine has everything to do with total chamber surface area and the distance that the fuel needs to travel before it gets ignited. In a rotary, we have an awful lot of surface area that the air and fuel see. In a piston engine, for the most part the air and fuel stay in the same place and just get compressed there. This is minimal surface area and hardly any distance traveled before combustion. Since air and fuel have to travel to the opposite side of the engine in a rotary before it gets ignited, this is a lot of contact with a cold surface. The fuel will stick to the sides easier. It is harder to ignite and there is lots of waste that didn't get completely burned. This is why cars run rich until they are warmed up. They need to in order to get enough fuel into suspension long enough to get burned.

Since we have the possibility of more fuel getting unburned and falling out of suspension, this means that we have seals pulling the fuel along the walls. The shape of the apex seals is rounded slightly. This means that this liquid can get underneath the edges of the apex seal tips. Cold temperatures and slow engine rotation don't help compression at all. Some of this small amount of fuel under the apex seal can cause the seal to move up just slightly. This causes a pressure leak which further reduces compression. It does not take much fluid at all to make this happen. When we don't make compression, the engine doesn't want to start and we keep cranking it. This dumps more fuel into the engine which makes the problem worse and so forth and so on.

Once a rotary gets flooded, it is extremely hard to unflood it. You can not just wait long enough for it to dry out. You'll be waiting a VERY long time. A flooded rotary might not start after months or even years of waiting! You need to get the fuel out. The factory recommendation is to hold your foot to the floor while cranking. This shuts off fuel delivery and allows the fuel to escape through the exhaust. At least it's supposed to. This too is hit or miss as just enough fuel may continuously stay in the engine as opposed to getting out of it and this will keep compression low. You need to get the engine spinning fast enough to overcome the compression loss. You also need to pray that your plugs will still fire as they may be all gummed up and wet. You can pull start any flooded rotary engine and get it to run. If it can't be done with a simple push start and popping the clutch, pull it behind another car. It will start. Depending on the severity of the flooding, it might take a few feet, it might take a few blocks but it will start. Do not take your car to a dealership to fix it. It is easy and you don't need a tow truck.

Hopefully that helps.
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Sounds logical enough to me
 
Its hardly the end of the world, just remove plugs, foot to the floor on the accerlerator and crank for 10 seconds, wait 20s and repeat, do it 3 or 4 times, next stick some 2 stroke in the plug hole for both chambers and crank again, add more 2 stroke, now refit the plugs. Chances are the car will now start if not repeat
 
Joshy said:
But flooding after moving a car a very short distance isn't a rotary only issue. I'm pretty sure there is a Jaguar engine prone to flooding if switched off at a certain point before it has warmed up? There must be others.
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My parents old 5 series (L reg) used to flood if you didn't warm it up a bit. Was a 520i I believe.
 
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