Towing to deflood.. How far?

[Azimuth]

So, after 5 years of ownership I've finally managed to flood my engine.

It happened once before when a garage owner did exactly what I asked him not to... "I only moved it a couple of feet!".... but I was able to successfully get her going again without too much drama. A few days ago I managed to do it myself after getting a bit complacent and letting my battery get too low.

I've tried all the suggestions, such as removing the plugs and spinning it over etc.. all for nothing but a couple of encouraging coughs.

Someone kindly offered to tow me after a facebook post, which we did this morning but with no joy. I was under the impression that the car would start reasonably quickly with a tow, but having never done it before I wasn't sure, and the owner of the truck didn't want to go any further than up and down my 400 metre road.

Finally to the point, how far have you needed to tow a stubbornly flooded RX8? How far should I reasonably expect to need to be towed?

Thanks, as always!

[Azimuth]

It shouldnt be more then a 50 metres at most. Get the person towing to go about 20-30mph you should be in second gear with the clutch down and pop it when the RPMs of your car is about 4k~. Should fire up pretty fast. Just don't let it stall.

[Conan]

I suspect there is another problem preventing it from starting
Check you have a good spark at all the plugs
50 mts should be fine , I’ve put one in first and had almost immediate start up.
It’s unlikely your revs register before start up
Regards
Pete
PS: I forgot to say keep your foot off the throttle until running

[Nickp47]

It can take a good few hundred metres sometimes, the clue is to look for smoke out the back I.e if you see smoke, keep going until you get it running of it’s own accord.

[Azimuth]

Thanks.. Yeah that's what I assumed people meant, rather than needing to go on a sight seeing tour of the village.
More investigation needed.

[PaulAV]

2nd gear around 20mph get up to speed before trying to lift the clutch,, also worth holding your foot on the accelerator peddle whilst beginning this process, then once the engine is turning lift the accelerator pedal to side the car to start

[warpc0il]

And de-clutch before you hit the tow car!

[350matt]

more likley that the crank sensor has failed I'd say if you measure its resistance that should tell you if its OK or not
it shoudl be 950 to 1250 ohms

[Azimuth]

If the Eccentric Shaft Sensor has failed then the CEL doesn't go out when the engine is cranking on the starter.
It should come on for the lamp test and then go out.

Again, if failed then there would be a code stored and an ODB2 reader can't show live cranking rpms.

[RenesisRaceBuggy]

50-100 metres should be fine, did that a fair few times down the runway at Waterbeach in the buggy!

[350matt]

If the Eccentric Shaft Sensor has failed then the CEL doesn't go out when the engine is cranking on the starter.
It should come on for the lamp test and then go out.

Again, if failed then there would be a code stored and an ODB2 reader can't show live cranking rpms.

depends on how its failed Dave
I've had one go where it still had continuity so no check engine light but wasn't producing a 'clean' signal
however I do agree plugging in a scan tool to read if its showing rpm during cranking is a good shout

[Azimuth]

Finally got her running this morning after diagnosing one failed (L1) coil, which certainly wasn't helping. It appeared to have enough juice to light up one of those blinky testers, but not quite enough to fire a spark plug. Luckily had a spare.
Also jumping off a 1.4 Citroen C4 didn't have quite enough juice to really help, while a 1.6 Ford Fiesta did manage to raise the cranking speed... Although the Fiesta owner was far more gung-ho about revving his wife's car while I was cranking!

Anyway, back terrorising the curtain twitchers with my ghetto decat and scrap yard Racing Beat catback. Will be needing an ignition system refresh sooner rather than later.

[RenesisRaceBuggy]

Happens often, snap the electrode off an old plug so there's a big gap for it to jump and that'll give you a better tester

[New Duke]

Curtain twitchers should be terrorised. I have some of my own to deal with. One day they'll need help and I'll say... no.

Glad you got it going again