so i took out my rx7 today for a drive around town.. and then i was on my way home when at a stoplight, my idle got really rough and the engine stalled. tried cranking it, but the engine would not turn over. thankfully i was near a gas station so i pushed my car there. i managed to turn my engine over easily but then got a REALLY rough idle and then it would cut out. if i rev the car, it doesnt shake that bad but it still doesnt run right. so i decided to call a tow truck and tow it to my house. i didnt see any visual problems. no vacuum lines disconnected, or... iono!! the cat was red though... i think.. but its a new cat.. so i dont think that caused the problem, although it was smoking for some odd reason. no fuel? too much fuel? carb-o-rater busted? lost compression? no fire in one of the coils? argh!!! and i just passed smog and registered my car and now i cant drive it....

 

how old are the wires/ distributer/ coils? cheak the spark plugs also b/c they may be cloged up with carbon

 

Does the engine bog down when you give it some gas, even when not in gear? If so, the same thing has been happening to my car for 3 months. 5 shops later and I still cant get it fixed. The red cat just means your engine isnt burning all of it's gas.

 

check ignition go over your fuel especially the filter becouse if there was any rust in the tank and it got into the filter it will clog it up and it wont run for ****.

 

Just remembered something.... Try smelling your exhaust. If you smell any trace of gasoline, then you definately are getting too much gas.

 

THANKS EVERYONE! its feels so good to get replies to help me out.

the wires distributor cap, rotor, plugs are all fairly new. just got the timing adjusted, seafoamed my car, oil changed and i passed emissions! so i dont think its those. maybe a dead coil? something might not be firing... i dont know how to diagnose this.

it does bog down when i just tap the accel. pedal and sometimes it will flood and stall. i have to keep the revs high like 3000 rpm or else my engine will idle roughly and most likely stall. so trying to brake, clutch, and keep the revs up was kind of impossible for me since i never done this before and didnt want to hurt my car anymore.

thanks for the input about my cat. yes it might be that the engine is not burning all of the gas. i also thought one of my housings lost compression and wasnt combusting. or maybe theres nothing to burn? << iono if that made sense but id thought id just throw it out there

fuel filter is a good idea. i dont know when was the last time it got changed. but if this is the case i would be soooo relieved i dont gotta rebuild my engine yet... ill definately check this out. i dont think there will be rust in the tank.. because my car has basically no rust at all.. its a california car!

ill try smelling my exhaust. oh i know what rich smells like lol. before i changed my shot plugs, and cat, and adjust my carb from rich to in between lean and rich. lol but my engine will idle super rough right now. ya i said that a million times already. the exhaust makes a tung tung tung tung sound. like only one housing is firing?

thanks again for your inputs. i hope i dont have to take my car to a rotary shop. ricks rotary in pleasanton. the local rotary guy kuz i dont want to tow it to like sac or san jose. rick charges 90/hr and i think 50 bucks to diagnose... errrr

 

Start with your ignition system, check the plugs, do a ghetto compression test.

 

yes i will take out my plugs to inspect, also when i do a ghetto compression test i just d/c the plugs from the coils right? and with the plugs out crank the engine. oh and take out the fuel pump fuse and listen for the woosh woosh sound? what happens if i have a blown apex seal? what sound will that makes. thanks dr. T

 

I've heard of a problem like that before with a guy's 2nd gen. His cats (new) were glowing red. Turns out, after an expensive visit to a shop, his fuel pressure regulator was the source for it. That's what he told me anyways and after a new FPR, it stopped. Could try that.

EDIT: And, I just realized that you said you had a carburetor. Shows what I know about those things....they don't have FPR's, do they?

 

If the seals are good, 3 even whooshes. Bad side seal, 2 whooshes, pause, repeat. Bad apex, whoosh, pause, repeat. No whooses, you took it out completely. Whooshes should be even for all 6.

 

check for a vacuum leak, and its possible that your cats are clogged, not running lean.

 

thanks everyone again. i cannot emphasize my appreciation for all of your input and great advice!

i thought it would be a vacuum leak since the idle was stumbling. i dont think carbs have fprs.. my cats are new so i dont know how they couldve cloged that quickly. when they clog isnt it suppose to smell like a rotten egg? i smelled my exhaust and didnt detect too much fuel but a little maybe because my engine was still cold.

ill check my plugs and compression this weekend and also my fuel filter (if i can find it) lol i really hope i dont have to take it to a high priced although reliable shop..

 

the fuel filter is under the car on the driver side just jack the back of the car up and right where the end of the driver doors is there should be a plate screved down thats your fuel pump and the filter should be right there also.

 

How is that hose doing that is connected to the cat? If it came loose, leaking air, or became disconnected in anyway it will cause all those symptoms you described. I'm guessing that you have a vacuum leak.

On my friends 7 when we had this same problem his car was not running any emissions and had all the block off plates on except the one that goes to the cat. So we plugged up the tube with a bolt and let it hang. The tube got too close to the exhaust and melted.

The car would not ideal and we had to rev the hell out of it to keep it going.

There also another thing connecting to the Blue intake for emissions purposes that some times go bad and causes the same problem.

If you can I say try a new piece of rubber tube to the cat temporarily and see if that fixes you problem. If it does that means that old one melted enough to let air in, And you need to find a better solution then the rubber tube to connect to the cat.

 

hey rx seven thanks for keeping a lookout for me and remembering about my blue tube. yes, like you said, the blue tube could/did catch on fire once. maybe it has finally disintigraded enough that it lets air in. but i thought this is just to pump air into the cat so that the cat can burn hotter and be more efficient. if the tube burned through and theres no air pressure, will this mess up my acv and cause problems with my idle and performance? very interesting. i will have to jack my car up to inspect the fuel pump and this tube. and then inspect plugs, compression, and i know i might forget something...

 

If you don't have air pumping in to your cat. Your cat will die. My guess is your cat is dead. Try disconecting the main cat from the pre-converters, start her up and see if she runs better, if so your cat had melt down. It will be loud!

 

thanks for your input adamant but my cat is a aftermarket bonez system which is still pretty new. my air pump works because i can feel it sucking when i put my hand over the top hole. my acv should still be working to deliver air to the cat too. unless this crapped out.. well it better not. if my cat melted or got clogged, would it cause restriction problems at low rpms? this better not have happened to me either. damn well i have to find out someday..

 

ok i got some vids that are being uploaded right now here is the first start of my car since wednesday. its running on the choke until the end when i took off the choke and that is how it sounds/runs/shakes like when its idling under normal temps, cold engine or warm engine

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v3JifX9jhr0

 

ok here is my ghetto compression test clip. can anybody tell me if this noise is good?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sVwECY5a9mA

 

in this clip, this was my second try to start the car. it turns over for a few seconds and then cuts out. as u can see in the tach, its somewhat idling super low..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qJRKHEWszWA

 

heres a better sound of the engine crapping out

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JOrXD4aJVWM

 

ok heres the last clip i took. i also got some pics but ill post them up later. this is from the rear side to hear how it sounds. doesnt really sound that smooth. kinda rough exhaust note eh? it smelled super rich too so i just cut off the engine instead of letting it stall. oh and u can see a dent in the rear corner right http://youtube.com/watch?v=uN2VyHiZYZ4

 

heya matey, she sounds sick.one very impotant thing to remember is that if you dont know what the problem is start illiminating things backwards b4 you just crank n crank, you could go from sick to dead. the engine needs 4 things to run, air, feul, spark, compression. i can hear your apex seals and they sound alright there are 6 solid whooshes (you can see the cloth goin crazy) but there might be a hairline fracture in one of the seals with a leak thats undetectable without a (rotary)compression tester, a piston tester reads slightly differently, assumin comp is all good, pull feul ilet hose off carby and into a coke bottle and turn ignition on (dont crank) and only for a second or two, this is checking for feul pressure to carby, after 1/2 secs you should have 1/4 of a coke bottle full. if this checks out, look at your oil injection to carby and make sure it flows smoothly as this assists with compression and lubrication. but it really sounds like its either not sparking right or being leaned out (hence the red hot cat) wich is fatal. DO NOT LEAN HER OUT! if al four sparkis are fiering then check timing, have you moved the dizzy at all?? if all else fails try spraying carby cleener down the carby with air intake disconnected and throttle at approx @ 3,000 use bout 1\4 of the can, if she was dirty ull see thick grey\white smoke out exhaust, try all dat, if she still not go. then we can narrow down the possibilities. good luck matey.

 

hey rxsben thank you sooo much for that great deal of information and help! i guess my compression is still good but if there is a hairline crack in one of my seals i dont think the performance of the engine would be affected this much right? i will check my fuel filter and fuel lines as well as my fuel mixture. i have had the distributor moved recently just a little to pass emissions testing so right now the timing is set at factory specs. i will also try the carb cleaner method and see what results i can get. here are some pictures of my spark plugs.

the first pic is my finger showing what i dug out from the spark plug holes... the second is the leading plugs from housing 1 then 2 and the third pic is the plugs from the trailing 1 and 2.

i hear that the best mechanc can tell everything from just looking at the spark plugs... lol i wish i was that good. i would have my car running good by now.

 

oh gosh what luck? there has been a few old threads that have been bumped and ive been reading them. they seem to all have a relationship to my problem. im really guessing its a coil maybe the leading coil? because before this started, my engine was still pulling good. i just take a spark plug and plug it to one of the trailing or leading wires and ground it to my body and see for arching when i crank? thanks a lot guys, everyone has been really helpful so far. i think im narrowing down my problems. i didnt see any cracks in the hoses, compression still looks good, fuel... i heard from one of my buddy that theres this thing called a leak down test.. but i think that only checks for cylinder firing which we dont have.. for rotary guys at least. anyways argh... having my first gen is good fun! =D