OK, I'm not sure what is going on.

Symtoms:


Car kept dying - P'cola FD said it was my plugs, after all, it had been a year since I changed them.

OK - Done. They're changed.


Yesterday - Got them changed. Started car - It wouldn't idle for ****. Turned car off. Waited a few hours, started again... It would idle, but begin to die. I'd hit the throttle, bump it a bit, it'll die.

It runs fun otherwise, but when it's sitting at a stop, and idling it will sometimes act as if it will die.


OK, next.

Coolant.

Friday of last week, I went into town to pick up some RX-7 stuff from UPS. Met up with someone, turned car off. We talked. I turned car back on, and it smelled like coolant.

I did not worry, as I thought it was a bit normal. I have been running really rich for a few months anyhow, so I didn't not think.

Ok.... Got home. Next day, (actually yesterday) I checked the coolant, it was Low. From FULL to all the way to LOW , I found that really strange.

Any cause of why it dropped down to LOW so fast?

Thanks.

 

Define "wouldn't idle for ****." Meaning it kept bouncing all over the place? Idled low? High? I'd check all spark plug connections, make sure you didn't mess up leading with trailing, etc. After you verify all is good, just try to reset idle with the idle adjust screw. It may be too low, so it almost dies everytime.

Did you check the coolant with the car still hot? Coolant gets sucked back into the system when the car is hot. It is expelled into the overflowe tank as the car cools.

 

Well, It'll idle low. ~500 rpm or less, and then it'll die. It stood normal once yesterday at ~1k rpm. I'll check the plugs again - do you think I need knew wire(hoses?) that connect to the plugs?

Inorder to change the idle at the TPS - don't you have to have that little machine in order to do it?

Quote:

Did you check the coolant with the car still hot? Coolant gets sucked back into the system when the car is hot. It is expelled into the overflowe tank as the car cools.

I did both, yesterday. Checked this morning - it was fine at the full line. I'm not sure what went on, I just found that highly abnormal for coolant to drop like that, fast... as it never done that before.

 

So when you reported that the coolant was low, you had checked it with the engine hot? If yes, it was going to be low. If you check it cold and the overflow bottle is at the FULL mark, all is well.

There's an idle adjust screw on top of the throttle body, but something else could be causing the screwy idle, like a vacuum leak, check all the major hoses.

 

I'd definetly check the orientation of the plug wires. Should be like this (looking from drivers side of engine bay):

T1 T2 <-- Comes from the coil by the brake master cylinder (both are marked as T1 or T2)
L1 L2 <-- Comes from the coil by the battery (both are marked as L1 or L2)

As for the coolant, check for puddles on the ground after your car sits for a little while.

 

sounds like the idle problem i had, all it was, was the idle adjust screw, doesnt sound serious. as for idleing at 1,000k the other day. mine would do that sometimes to... i think it was the engine trying to get to normal op temp. then when it would kick down, it would run too low, then die. coolant. I would look for leaks, in your driveway. if its coming out its gotta go somewhere.