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[Impact Pete]

so my mates RX8 had a flat battery and when jump starting we think the engine flooded, as its a rotary engine its not so simple to sort, we have tried a few of the online helps like depress accelerator pedal and clutch and turn it over for 10seconds then wait at least 60sec before repeating at least 6 times, we disconnected the air thingy to protect the cat etc, we tried the above at lesst 10 times and then slowly released the accelerator pedal, it did try a bit but we think the engine is again flooded.

does anyone have experience in this and can help with advice, it was cold last night when we tried and we started running out of time as didn't want to upset the neighbours.

things to note;

we had my van connected to the car at all times running to keep charge on the cars battery
after around 5 tries you can almost hear what sounds like a better compression in the engine

should we keep trying?

[Nick W]

I went to lots of these as a recovery driver. My success rate was about 1in10. That was going straight to jump leads off the truck, pulling the fuel pump fuse, and cranking for ages at least twice with the throttle wide open, before replacing the fuse and trying again. Personally, in your situation, I would remove all four plugs, follow the procedure above, and fit new plugs the following day. That's what Mazda do.

Then sell the bloody thing, as Wankels are not suited for automotive use.

[Impact Pete]

I went to lots of these as a recovery driver. My success rate was about 1in10. That was going straight to jump leads off the truck, pulling the fuel pump fuse, and cranking for ages at least twice with the throttle wide open, before replacing the fuse and trying again. Personally, in your situation, I would remove all four plugs, follow the procedure above, and fit new plugs the following day. That's what Mazda do.

Then sell the bloody thing, as Wankels are not suited for automotive use.

Hmm thanks, I was trying to avoid taking plugs out.

It is a ridiculous engine I saw a video on you tube where some plebs just cranked it without a break till the starter got hot and set the engine bay on fire.

[2boxerdogs]

A colleague had one of these for a while , too many problems to mention chopped it in for a Lexus hybrid which he loves.

[b4ndit]

Pull the lower plug lead off and hold it away from the engine while cranking as soon as it tries to fire push the lead back on done loads this way 

[ronnyd]

If the rotor tips were worn away would that cause a no start situation?

[Viral_Jim]

If the rotor tips were worn away would that cause a no start situation?

A mate had one of these for a while. Iirc, it's a cyclical thing. Flooded engine washes the coating of oil off the rotor tips (hence why they're supppsed to use oil). This leads to rotor wear, which gives poor compression and trouble starting, and so the cycle begins again.

It usually begins with a car being low on oil due to someone missing a top-up. Downhill from there. Solution: whack a big battery and uprated starter motor on it and flog it to someone who doesn't know what they're buying. 

Alternatively, weigh it in to be made into bean tins. Shame really as the rest of the car is pretty cool. Other than poorer fuel consumption than Dr Opti's jag, which would be tedious.

[Impact Pete]

Ok so we got it started last night, this was our fix;

pulled fuel fuse (just so we didn't have to hold the accelerator pedal down each time) and pulled connector on air thingy!
put both a booster pack on battery as well as a jump from my transit gave a much better crank
then we did 10 x 10 second turn overs with 60sec breaks to keep starter from overheating
replaced fuel fuse and started normally but not touching pedal
took about 6 goes after this and then we filled the yard with dense smoke!

All seems ok now 

[Viral_Jim]

Have you tried starting it once the engine is fully hot? If not, I would do it at home the first time, starting problems on these are most pronounced when hot.

If it doesn't start readily when its hot, don't keep trying as you will be back to it flooding again. Instead let it go cold before re-starting.... and then sell it! 

[Impact Pete]

Have you tried starting it once the engine is fully hot? If not, I would do it at home the first time, starting problems on these are most pronounced when hot.

If it doesn't start readily when its hot, don't keep trying as you will be back to it flooding again. Instead let it go cold before re-starting.... and then sell it! 

It just needs the correct battery on this one, a previous owner went on the cheap it's not got the correct starting crank, and when the interior light was left on 2 days battery was flat, he tried starting it on a very cold night and used the accelerator pedal and flooded it

[Viral_Jim]

Have you tried starting it once the engine is fully hot? If not, I would do it at home the first time, starting problems on these are most pronounced when hot.

If it doesn't start readily when its hot, don't keep trying as you will be back to it flooding again. Instead let it go cold before re-starting.... and then sell it! 

It just needs the correct battery on this one, a previous owner went on the cheap it's not got the correct starting crank, and when the interior light was left on 2 days battery was flat, he tried starting it on a very cold night and used the accelerator pedal and flooded it

In that case hang on to it! in a couple of years it'll be rarer than rocking horse poop

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

If the rotor tips were worn away would that cause a no start situation?

A mate had one of these for a while. Iirc, it's a cyclical thing. Flooded engine washes the coating of oil off the rotor tips (hence why they're supppsed to use oil). This leads to rotor wear, which gives poor compression and trouble starting, and so the cycle begins again.

It usually begins with a car being low on oil due to someone missing a top-up. Downhill from there. Solution: whack a big battery and uprated starter motor on it and flog it to someone who doesn't know what they're buying. 

Alternatively, weigh it in to be made into bean tins. Shame really as the rest of the car is pretty cool. Other than poorer fuel consumption than Dr Opti's jag, which would be tedious.

Mrs Opti owned a 2008 RX8. Pretty little thing it was.

No torque and 13 MPG was about the size of it.