WAYNE88N/A

Hi guys (& gals)- I've been reading this forum for quite a while now, & just became a member a week ago: I figured it was only a matter of time before I had to post a "HELP ME" request, gotta love these cars, huh?! Here it goes: last night I drove home from work & had to go through about 5" of water for about 1/4 mile to get home (i'ts been raining in houston FOREVER). Kept it in first, went slow, etc... car ran fine the rest of the way home ('bout 8 miles). Shut her down at home, tried to start her again about 10 min later, had to shove the throttle to the floor to start it and keep it running, kinda acted like she's only got one rotor firing...Won't idle... Now before you think "blown engine", I've checked the compression (90 psi all chambers), ran a diagnostic check (says o2 sensor), coils read good @ .5 ohm apiece, trailing plugs were dry when I pulled 'em for the comp check (I think I smell gas when I get her running with the peddle half way to the floor, so I thought maybe one rotor wasn't lighting off) If it ever stops f#$&ing raining I'm gonna hook up the timing light & make sure all the plugs are getting juice...only mod on the car is a bonez hi-flow cat. Any "been there, done that" ideas would be greatly appreciated

theonlygreat

I'd suggest checking the AFM. Some water may have damage it, causing it to give off bad readings or possibly just made it stick open some what.

WAYNE88N/A

Is there a simple way to check it with a meter? The Haines manual says to take it to the overpriced Mazda dealer to check it out. Only the very bottom of the engine bay was wet when I checked it, pretty sure I didn't suck any water in the intake. Good idea, though, I'll do a visual check right now....

theonlygreat

the Factory Service Manual requires you to use a multimeter to test it. If you know how to use one this picture should give you the info you need:




This is for an 86-88. I see your Screename says 88 so it should work.

SpeedFreak03

Yea probably the AFM. By the way rotaries can't hydrolock (thats what ive been told - ive never tried ).

WAYNE88N/A

O.K., guys, AFM reads good (can't find the damn connector clip spring that went flying off, though:0), Is there anything on the lower 1/4 of the wiring harness that could be wet/ shorted that would cause this,i.e. oil thermo sensor,etc...? By the way, thx for taking the time to post that FSM page for me!

theonlygreat

well it sounds mostly to me like you are getting too much fuel, so you need more air, which is why you have to hold the throttle down to get it to start. i can't think of anything on the lower portion of the engine that would cause a rich condition.

WAYNE88N/A

rain's down to a drizzle, so I put the timing light on all the plugs wires & they're all good. Can't get it started now, it's acting like i'ts flooded, but it's not making that really funky sound they make when they REALLY get flooded...Gonna pull the plugs again now...Any other ideas, guys, even if they're off-the-wall? Remember, this might not anything to do with driving her through the water (done that several times over the years), or it might have everything to do with it. This hasn't happened to anybody?

anobii

Now I had a similar thing happen to me in my 90 t2. I hit a patch of water that was about 6-8 inches deep and all the info center lights flipped on then off but the engine never stalled or sputtered. Well about four miles down the road it would start skipping and get exponentially worse until I pressed the pedal down just barely enough to open the secondaries and then, no skip. As soon as I let off it would start again. I changed my spark plugs and it seemed to help, but it didnt truly go away until it stopped raining and got very hot and dry outside, which leads me to believe that it's an electrical connector somewhere. One thing you may want to check, though, is your gas, if it's been raining for very long theres always a chance water could have gotten in the gas, the tinyest little bit can wreak havoc on fuel injectors and such. Pull the fuel filter and pour the contents in a bowl and see if theres any water droplets. It's worth a shot. Good luck,

-E

WAYNE88N/A

O.K. I'm back- went & got new plugs & put 'em in, even though the ones in there had only 9k miles on 'em (it's a trip how fast these things eat spark plugs)... trailing plug on the front rotor was gas soaked- so maybe I'm just dealing with a flooding prob (I hope so- I can handle that)...still won't start though after 2 unflooding procedures- why does it always have to be wet & cold when we HAVE to work on our cars? Thinking maybe going through the cold water told the ECU I wasn't in the warm-up mode and that's what caused the flooding- although it did start again after the trip through the water- just a pain in the *** to keep it running. Thanks for the help guys!