hybridphil

Last night, after a long drive moving some stuff, I park the car temporarily to unload and upon trying to restart the vehicle, it started, but died immediately. I thought I forgot to switch off my starter kill but upon each attempt, it would die even quicker. After 3 attempts, the car wouldn't start at all. After hours of troubleshooting and talking to the last owner,(Just purchased the car a couple weeks ago) I tried bridging the fuel pump test connector. After doing so, the car nearly started, and then died again and it wouldn't start at all after that. Any...ideas of what it could be? I am currently in the progress of moving and all my tools, FSM, and voltmeter are at my other place, an hour away...so all help is appreciated. Any thoughts?

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

Try the deflooding procedure. Sounds like it might of had the hot start flood problem.

hybridphil

I wish I could give more information to make this problem easier to fix but this is all I can give because of lack of tools. I might have to resort to getting it towed to a shop to get fixed but I'm sure it's an easy fix that might have to get unnecessarily expensive. Any more troubleshooting I could do? Is there any way to perhaps get the flowchart from the FSM online to help me out? I'm going to see if perhaps my engine is flooded now that the fuel pump is running. I'll keep you guys posted and tips are much appreciated!

hybridphil

And by deflooding, I'll assume taking out the egi inj fuse, cranking a few times then replacing the fuse? Wouldn't this have the same effect as cranking with the starter kill switch down and flipping it up while cranking? Or no?

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

well if by "starter kill" you mean a fuel pump switch then yes.

And I consider that the light-duty de-flooding procedure. If its severely flooded you'll need to pull the plugs, clean (or replace) them, drip some oil in the holes, crank the motor (with the EGI fuse pulled or fuel pump switched off) drip in a little more, crank it again......re-install everything and try to fire it.

The reason you need to put oil in it is because the film of oil on the apex seals is largely responsible for compression, if its washed away (by fuel) you WON'T have enough compression to start it until the oil is restored.

hybridphil

So on attemp to unflood my engine ...light-duty way as that is all that my lack of tools allows, I had no start. I did smell fuel from inside the car as I flicked the fuel pump kill switch on, but unfortunately only cranking at this point in time.

hybridphil

I don't think that flooding is the problem. This is the third time in the last few days that I've had to strand my car. After a while, the car seems to have no problem starting up but when it's warm, it won't start on me. I use my starter kill everytime and let the car go for a few seconds with the starter kill on and turn the ignition off just before it's going to die. After 15 minutes, when I need to start the car again, it will fire up but die immediately. More often with the starter kill on ironically. If it was flooding it wouldn't fire up at all I assume? The problem seems to be somewhere else. I've been told it could be the fuel filter clogged but would the car still be able to start...some of the time?? Sometimes it starts sometimes it doesn't. It's a guessing game and the car is really unreliable to me at the moment and it seems to happen at the worst of times. I'd like to get this problem fixed but can't figure out what it is...;

Valdez

iTrader: (1)

If your engine is near the end of its life you may have to do this often. My last car went out like this. I had to use the fuel cutoff switch every second time I started it until it finally blew the seals. Sounds like it starts for you on some occasions, so if it doesn't start right away, switch off the fuel and crank it over until it starts to catch. Once it does catch, turn the fuel back on, otherwise it will die out again. It's all in the timing to try and get the fuel already in the engine burning before adding more.

Another trick to try if you have a manual transmission is a push start. That has worked for me in the past when all else fails. I recently got another RX-7, this one wasn't running when I got it and and still isn't. It is prooving to be a pain to get running especially since it is an automatic and I can't just push start it.