I let my rx8 run out of gas yesterday and now i cant get it to start. Can anyone help????

Cheri

 

why would you do something so stupid?

 

....put gas in?

 

that was a horrible idea you may wanna go to a real good mechanic

 

this could be a serious enough problem to have to send it to a mechanic or it could be something as simple as priming the fuel pump to get fuel flowing again

 

does it crank? does it sound like it has compression? ( do you hear a whirr noise or does it kinda go wah wah wah when starting it) does it even try to start?
sounds wierd but it could be flooded.

 

it's probably flooded. Remove the fuel pump fuse (check the handbook) and crank the engine in 10 second intervals with a few seconds between to let the starter cool. You may hear the engine try and start at this stage, refit the fuse and see how it goes. If it doesn't start you may need to have the plugs taken out to clear out the chambers.

 

rx8's are TERRIBLE about flooding if well, not treated right. I haven't heard of this specific concern, but we get them in the shop quite often, and put motors in them rather often. If you drive it hard and just make sure it always has enough oil (as the rotary is designed to consume oil to lubricate the apex seals), you should be okay. But if it's always driven very gently, and if it's often driven short distances without a chance to reach full operating temperature, you're at risk of flooding it. I've never seen another motor have such a terrible time starting after flooding itself.

 

A lot of the motors that are so-called "replaced often" are due to misdiagnosis on the part techs at Mazda dealers. Not knocking our great service dept's at Mazda. I love the Full Circle checklist where the tech just checks everything being checked & done, when in reality very few things were actually done.

 

Trini,

A lot of the time, the motors get severely flooded. Sometimes you can clear it out, but sometimes it gets so carbonized and clogged up in the chambers that Mazda will authorize replacing the motor. Customer gets it under warranty (especially with the now extended powertrain warranty on RX-8's), and the previous motor is sent back and rebuilt. On major replacements such as a motor, or a turbo on a CX-7 (sometimes the oil seals go out in them), when it's going to be replaced under warranty, Mazda headquarters essentially has to give the go-ahead for the repairbecause in the end, they're paying for itnot the dealership or the customer. It's not that it's a misdiagnosisit's that to open up and clean out/rebuild the motor at the shop, a) the customer will be out of their car for MUCH longer, and b) shops don't rebuild motors anymore. Too many worries about liability.

In terms of the Full Circle checklist, unfortunately you're right about many techs, in that they just check the list off without examining much. But that applies way beyond Mazda, into most shops that have any sort of inspection checkoff sheet. Personally, I do check all that stuff. Now on a car with very few miles, it's reasonable to check off and assume that the suspension is okay, that the motor or transmission isn't leaking, that the battery is still good, etc. However I've got a watchful eye and I'll still notice if those components need repair or replacement as I'm doing the requested work. But if you bring in your Mazda and it's got tons of miles on it and our history on your car is missing maintenance, expect me to take a little longer to make sure I don't miss anything. Many people come in and just want what they came in foryou know"change my oil, and get me outta here." But two customers come to mind that only want me working on their car because they've seen how thorough I am.