hey hey guys.. i cant say that im happy posting an issues but i am a lil excited to see what you guys come up with. .

heres the story.

this past friday car was running great went to work at 8 got out and 4pm went to school to do my final in cerritos car was only off for a bout 1.5 hrs. waited for it to fully warm up. then i drove to a homies house for a pool party. got there around 8 and we started to leave at 12. i come to to turn the car on and it just cranks no turn over..i thought it was flooded. but wasnt sure how that happend. i was a bit too buzzed deal with it so i got a ride home and came back in the morning.

did the whole unflooding routine and worked great. started up with no hassle which i thought was odd cuz if it was flooded wouldnt it sputter a lil bit 1st then turn over? anyways. this was about 14:20 on saturday afternoon.
i drive over to my friends house in torrance to go kick it and and we went the local stop 7/11 to drop off a red box movie.

car was drving fine but i did notice that none of my dash lights other than the"shift" light would come on and i had no tail or brake light. it was still light out so i wasnt too worried about it. and thought id look at it when i got home.

out of nowhere the car shut off on me while i was decelerating to make a left turn at the light.

tried the who deflooding thing again. ( i know im a noob i know lil of rotary) obviously that was not the cause cuz afte 1.5hr the car turned on, waited for it to warm up again and tried to get it home asap cuz i didnt know if was gonna do it again.
going home on the 91 at aroun 8pm with no taillights is scary. the car was driving great no loss in power when i came out on the willmington exit off ramp light i i was decelerating again and yes the car shut off. thankfully the light was green and rolled thru the intersection and down the hill. i tried to use the momentum to clutch pop it to start but no go. so i had it towed from there. and now im posting this for some responses.

here it goes..
1- FC SHUTS OFF WHILE DRIVING

i cant really explain too many symptoms but here is what i got.
i did notice some funky hot idling, cold start idling holds stead at 1.5k rpm sometimes a lil lower. cold start still works. ummm what else.
im thinking it could be fuel pump? timming? alternator? im not really sure.

oh my head lights work fine just no turn signal dash lights or tail or break.. but im thinking that it may not be related. any ideas?

 

Bad grounds sounds like it. Go over all the engine bay grounds and check the connections at the engine bay fuse box and the harness going through the firewall to the interior fuse box. Could be the tail-light fuse burned out coincidentally while all this happened. Check battery terminals.

Google aaron cake. Go to his website. He has detailed ground wire inspection walkthroughs.

 

http://www.aaroncake.net/rx-7/grounding.htm

was this the link you were referring to?

 

Yes that was the website. I just thought about this more. If it is shutting off out of nowhere, but all electronics still work (after checking fuses) it could be another components like the fuel, ignition, ect.

Check your fuses, make sure you can get those tail-lights working first. If you can get those to work then we at least know there isn't any weird electrical issues.

Does the engine crank over all the time, or it just doesn't crank sometimes? If it turns over all the time, but just doesn't start that would really eliminate some more electrical wiring issues.

Go over the grounds while you are at it. Download the FSM (factory service manual), it will be your best friend. There is just so many things you may have to go over that it will be best to just go through it with the manual.

 

it cracks every time (well i do have that clicking starter issue, but im no sure if that is related) checked fuses. they seem intact, one fuse looks questionable. the pink one furthest away from the motor.
i have no dash lights, head lights pop up tho, gauges work; no emergency or rear. i did find a ground that looked bad. tried replacing it. its the one on the driver side right next to the oil filter. has this lil black circuit box connected to the wire then to the bolt that grounds to the engine.

in the aaron cake link he mentioned a ground that under the upper intake but im not confident in removing it. i hope my issue is that ground. other than that i couldnt see anything else wrong. i tried to check my fuel pump in the hatch to see if there were deposits but one screw is stripped and couldnt get it off. gonna try again later.

was reading up on some other possibilities and found a thread on nopistons.com that the issue could be the coasting valve, which could be the cause of the car stalling and flooding out.

which is funny cuz the car shut off 2x when i was decelerating an

 

Check your alternator & battery (plus all connections to and from them). Alt start going out and they'll cause all sorts of issues (wipers going wide open while being turned off, loss of power steering, etc). Don't ask how I know.

 

That is for your oil pressure sender. sorry

 

There are more fuses in the drivers kick panel, have you looked at those? I would also agree with the post above, check your alternator. If all other grounds look good, don't worry about the one under the upper intake for now...

 

Battery cables. Check them.

Check your connectors at the ECU AND the one's to the side of it.

 

just a quick update. fuses under the driver side.. all good there. double checked my battery cables; followed the -ve one to the ground connection to the body, i looked a lil grimy so i cleaned it. the +ve has a tear in the wire housing the wire is a bit expose its the wire that connects under the fuse box in the engine bay, cleaned it up and tapped it back up again with some electric tape. i did manage to see a ground connection waaaaaay in the back to part of the block behind the top intake. that came clean off so i fixed that one too.

tried to start it up after checked the grounds but i didnt have enough juice in the batt to get a decent crank. waiting on the lady to get back to give me a quick jump. havent checked the alt yet ima have to get a volt meter no?

OHHH also just noticed somthing.. dunno if this is related but my oil pressure gauge is over max and all i did was put the key to the on position. that mean anything?

 

Check grounds. after that check the Circuit opening relay (under the dash / drivers side /black and yellow box with a 6 pin connector) Main relay (in engine bay by the clutch master, black box / covered in rubber / 6 pin connector) also check the EGI relay (next to the main relay, grey rounded box with (2) separate plugs coming out)

Either a ground is bad causing the relay to trip and shut the car off or the relay is starting to go bad or a combination of both.

Also there is a 6 pin ground connector underneath those two relays in the engine bay. It is bolted directly to the strut housing, check and/or fix that, it can cause those relays to go whacky.

 

ok, quick update;

i popped the hood and started checking spark cables and coils and what not double checking grounds too. dont have a ohms/volt meter so i guess ill have to get one to check again later, then i just for ***** and giggles i popped the hatch and tried to look at the fuel pump (maybe it wasnt getting any fuel) couldnt get the darn thing off cuz one of the 8 screws is stripped to hell. since my dash is falling apart too and the cluster housing is comming off; i fiddled with some connections (nothing big tho) after about 2 hrs of removing **** and putting it back i was getting fed up and started putting tools away. then as a last resort i thought id crack it again to see if anything changed.
oddly enough the car cracked and started right up. i didnt do the unflooding tho. i was surpised that is started up but noticed a clicking sound comming from the engine bay (hood was up) i forgot to put in the front top spark plug wire in, so i shut off the car and place the cable back. went back to see if it would start and it did. so i sat there for about 20 min until it warmed up. it did the cold start 3k rev and hovered at 1.5k till it finally dropped to its idle point. i didnt do any driving (fear of it shutting off on me again) but i did cruise around the block once. nothing out of the ordinary. came back to park the car and noticed that i left my hatch open cuz the hatch light just randomly turned on. and it started to dimm and flicker when i was parked (i thought that was a bit odd) while the light did that the cars idle fluctuated up and down but ever so slightly. i still have no brake or rear lights/turn signal/hazards or cluster lights. head light and high beams work tho, defroster too and wipers. im not sure if it is related tho. im a little confused but hey at least now i know it can start.. even if it is when it wants to. thought this info might help narrow down my problem.

edit. all gauges still work.. allthough the oil pressure gauge is through the roof! and i did notice some bubbles in the dipstick

 

WOW i had a blast reading that web site!! now im about to check everything on my 7 lol

 

ok here we go again,

car runs fine now apparently even tho i didn't really do anything. drove it work today and it did not shut off on me.

i have checked every fuse inside and outside, grounds are good. battery cables..check. bulbs checked. checked light switch connectors on instrument panel and still no luck. my volt meter reads one dash above the 12.

2 things.
there was a ground connection right behind the the oil filter that bolts the clutch cylinder thing in place. that was connected to some lil black resistor but the wire came outta the resistor i removed it untill i get a new one.

the connection to the clutch pedal switch came loose gonna fix that too but i im not sure if that is related. my only other idea would be to change alternator.

 

That does sound alternator related, for sure, in my opinion.

 

hey bro... i got a alternator if ur looking for one. hit me up.

 

I just had the same issue 2 days ago.

Problem:
1) Clogged fuel sock
2) blown o-ring on pump outlet

Easily solved with $20 worth of parts. My problem came just as suddenly as yours, and the car would run for a bit and drive, but would eventually starve of fuel and just die off on me.

 

the little black box that is bolted to the clutch slave cylinder is for the oil pressure gauge.

 

this sounds a LOT like when my alt died on me. several times my car just randomly died (usually at the worst times possible) i would take up Streetwize420 in his offer though. Didd you ever notice any of your dash/idiot lights flickering a bit or dimming right before the car **** out?

 

streetwise!! yo mayne.. thanks i will hit you up. but heres yet another update.. just for ***** and giggles.

yesterday, finally got a tester lol.. so i went around checking for good/bad connections.
i found:
the top 2 rows of fuses in my fuse box under the driver side have no circuit(the light on the test never came on), rows below are getting power; also noticed im missing alot of fuses. hmmm.. crazy odd. but ima get that alt from just to see what happens.. haha


only dimming and flickering i had really was when i hit the brakes while i was parked. volt meter would drop a bit lights would dimm.

thanks yall

 

well im sure its no the alt. streetwise and i swapped out alts and there is still no change. again after testing connections im getting no power to the top 2 rows of fuses. ive checked grounds. only one im missing is the one that is bolted the clutch slave.

also my car died and sputtered after leaving his house yesterday. sounded like a fuel pump or filter issue.

 

Check my post above, it seems everyone is ignoring it.

 

^^ what is fuel sock?
what o-ring do you speak of? got a picture?

 

I left the old sock and O-ring at the shop (work). The fuel sock is a strainer attached to the inlet side of the pump the keep the pump from sucking garbage from the bottom of the tank. The o-ring I speak of is on the outlet side of the pump. You may or may not need to replace the o-ring. I recommend you do since you already will have the pump assembly out.

 

+1 on JJWalker's response.

This EXACT thing happened with mine, but instead of it just DYING, straigh-away, it would run rough as ***, pop and sputter (poop flames, a little) THEN die.

Check out what he recommended, and get your life, I mean FUSES sorted out.