# What causes a car to be "flooded with fuel"?



## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

My earlier post in the GA16DE forums about my car not starting was solved by easily stepping on the gas and and clutch and starting the car. I had asked one of my friends what could be my problem and he said that too much fuel was pumped and that my engine was flooded with too much fuel and to hold down the gas while starting the car to clear it. Now my question is, what exactly causes a car to be flooded with fuel? He says his manual cars have had it happen a couple times, but his automatics never have the problem. Several of my friends agreed to this and have had this happen; this was my first time having it happen. I have all my sensors on correctly and I don't have the CEL/SES light on, so what could've caused this? Is there something wrong with my fuel injection system? Thank you for your time.


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## sersr20dk (Oct 15, 2003)

your engine isn't flooded, you probably just need a new fuel filter, by pumping the gas pedal you are increasing pulse rate of your injectors because it see's the tps moving, eventually after doing that, the car has enough fuel and finally starts. try a fuel filter and let me know, do your friends know its hard to flood a fuel injected car?


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

flooded cylinder is mostly the misconception of flooring the accelerator while cranking engine, this is also most common on carb'ed engines, wherein fuel is dumped in the manifold. but on fi cars, the tps sends a wot signal, thus requiring the injectors to allow fuel to go in the manifold, but without spark, the fuel vapors just stay and accumulate, the spark plug gets wet, and the cylinder walls washed down reducing compression, and a no start/long crank condition.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

For future reference, if you actually do flood your engine, the best way to clear it is to just wait a while before you start it.


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## sentravis (Jul 7, 2002)

umm.. i thought (and correct me if im wrong) that you could only flood an engine if you had a carb. engine. and not if you had EFI motors??? and i thought that would only happen when the car is completely off and you would push on the pedal and hold down on it.. (if it was a carb.)?? Travis


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

It's still possible with an EFI engine. Normally it happens when you have problems starting up (the engine will crank but won't start), and you just keep it cranking for too long (all of the fuel gets dumped in, but not enough of it is combusted). There are other ways to do it, but that's usually how it happens.


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## James (Apr 29, 2002)

a leak in the o rings will flood an engine as well...


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

field fix, take out and clean the plugs with throttle body cleaner, squirt small amount of oil in cylinders, wait a while, then start it up, and don't mind the blue smoke.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

One thing I did forget to mention before:

Have your battery checked as well. I actually can't find your older post (I'm not looking hard enough), so I don't know if you have, but if you haven't, I suggest you do it.


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## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

Thank you everyone for your replies, it has helped and taught me a lot.


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## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

Actually it just suddenly occured to me, although I know what caused the problem now, should I have any concerns about my engine now that the problem is gone? Should I replace some stuff? Fuel filter? Spark plug and wires? Distributor? Full engine tune up?


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

What was the problem?


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## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

The problem was that my engine was flooded and the simple fix was just to wait a while and start the engine by holding onto the gas and clutch while turning the key which I heard was to make the engine start out lean or something like that. I'm just curious now that this has occured, should I be worried about other components in my engine whether they could've been damaged by this ordeal or they caused it? If so what components would they be?


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

200sxOuTKasT said:


> The problem was that my engine was flooded and the simple fix was just to wait a while and start the engine by holding onto the gas and clutch while turning the key which I heard was to make the engine start out lean or something like that. I'm just curious now that this has occured, should I be worried about other components in my engine whether they could've been damaged by this ordeal or they caused it? If so what components would they be?


Oh. I thought you meant that you had discovered what caused the problem.


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## sersr20dk (Oct 15, 2003)

you must need a tune up, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and fuel filter at least. you need to determine why your engine was flooded. are you sure your engine was flooded?? who diagnosed this? when you started the car, was there initially black smoke, or a strong smell of unburnt fuel? i wouldn't be surprised if this comes back, if it was caused by your engine flooding for sure, check the tps, thats really the only way a efi engine will flood unless you crank the car for a while with a weak ingnition system. it could have been flooded but it would take an excess amount of cranking and a very weak ignition system. that would be your fault if thats the case but if you had to crank it for a while, you have other issues. do a full tune up, i bet your whole car feels different.


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## wiskers40 (Mar 3, 2014)

*86 sentra with a carb*

Mine floods after it warms up gas just pours over the top of the carb had a lot of mech. look at it and work on it and still has same problem can anyone help?


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