Hey all. Have encountered a problem with my FD '99 rx7.

Just repluged the battery today to take her for a spin. First time i have disconnected the battery so it wouldnt die on me as I went on a 2 week holiday. Heated her up, started driving and all seemed fine under 2500revs. Went to floor it and all it did was spitter, splatter and stutter and was feeling like it was dying on me, so i eased off. Power seemed lumpy under 3ooorevs and stutters when full throttle.

Everything was fine 2 weeks ago. Only engine mods are airfilters and cat back exhaust. Stocko computer, turbos, intercooler, etc.

At first i originally thought dirty fuel/injectors, so i gave it a lil bit more only for it to only get worse. Had a quick check/lookover of engine bay, but nothing too obvious. only makes abouyt .2 bar boost.

Funny noise it makes is when i try to give a lil, then back off, it kinda makes a sound like when your turning off a vacum cleaner, a lil howling/vacum sound. I think possibly the stock Blow off valve opening????

I was think maybe fuel pump fault/computer fault???

1: have checked intercooler pipes-all good
2: have checked with spare computer-all good
3: Where to next?

Im kinda thinking it may be the secondary turbo- hence the uneasy driving, low boost, boost leak, etc, etc...

what do you guys think?

Cheers :ic on_tdow

 

You didn't let anyone drive it while you were gone, did you?

 

hey there
maybe try another battery , when i first got my fd it sputered and cut out at 3000rpm and fuel cuts at 5000. thought it was my injectors and all but really it was a faulty battery , placed a new one in and have had no troubles ever since

 

Maybe try checking that the MAP sensor is still hooked up? My vacuum hose for it popped off once, and it ran like total crap.

 

Hey all. Thanks for your suggestions.

1: No one drove the car while i was away as i hid the key.
2: Havent checked the batterey as yet, but 'seems' to be fine. Will check with another battery this weekend
3: have looked at the map sensor and all seems to be good and connected.

Does anyone know how to siphon the fuel out as i have tried to stick a hose down the fuel funnel, but it stops about a foot down at some sort of restrictor. Was gonna empty out the fuel and try new fuel in it. The car is currently unregistered so i cant drive in on the roads.

Still wondering if anyone knows what a blown secondary turbo feels like? anyone?...

Cheers Big ears

 

there's a nut at the bottom of the gas tank that you can unbolt and drain the fuel. Look under the car on the fuel tank and you'll see it. Promise you won't miss it :-D

 

Hey zweetz32... had a look today for the bolt.. but none to be found.... looked under the rear of the car and felt around the whole bottom half of the fuel tank and nothing!... am i missing something here?????

 

Are you running the stock ECU? If you are... have you tried resetting it? You may be in limp mode

If your FD was running good before you left it for 2 weeks, then it would have nothing to do with the fuel.

Dennis,

 

There isn't a nut there. There isn't in mine. Maybe the American model is different.

 

fuel filter? Injectors?gas?

 

remove the pressure side of your fuel line coming off the firewall, get 3 or 4 feet of fuel line and push it on the hard line attached to the firewall and let the fuel pump drain the tank its self into a gas can when you put the key in the on/run position



can you get a little more detailed in the conditions at which the sputtering occurs. upto2500 its ok, under 3000 kinda lumpy???? you lost me with this one

check and make sure your rubber tube going from the filter box to the primary turbo is not crushed in.

 

ok so disconnect your battery again and get in the car and hold the brake pedal for about 20 seconds then reconnect your battery and you will be good. its in limp mode

 

^^^ I was thinking that, but not sure if the 16bit computers would put it into limp mode like the older 8 bit ecu's would.

 

Thanks for the help.

Okay, i will try and reset the computer tomorrow and we will see how we go. It sure is some sort of limp mode cause that is all that she is doing, limping around in a sorry state.

Problem with the car:

She will start up fine, and usually rev at 1.5 thou revs and then drop down to about 1 thou after 2 or so minutes. I always warm up me cars for atleast 5 mins before driving. when i tried to drive it, if i'd tried to floor it, all she will do is spitter and spatter, and momentarily try and pick up the revs, and then struggle and then revs will fall until i back it off. It will struggle all the way up to 5thou revs, and wont really go past that. will tend to fall/struggle more as i try to floor it harder. (under more load)

If i take it nice and easy (granny driving at its worst/best), she will slowly climb to 5 thou revs, but will struggle and spitter and spatter, but at a less obvious manner to get over that. At the same time, will struggle to make over .2 bar boost, and sometimes, no boost at all.

Idles fine, unstable revs, and low/no boost.

This led me to thinking, due to the sequential turbos, i was thinking that i may have blown the secondary turbo (still stock engine and turbos), therefore the unstable revs, as there is boost leak, and therefore air reversion out through the inlet filter, which may also cause the map sensor to act all funny.

Another worry was that when i took it past a mechanic mate, he tried to rev the engine from the engine bay, and if u pull the cable fast, it will spitter and spatter, and then may pick up the revs, but at the same time, fumes or some sort of exhaust gas was start coming out of the airfilter (most notable in one of the filters that i can remember. (trust airfilters)

I think that is the gist of it.

So far i have been advised that it may be fuel, or injectors, spark plugs, pump, coil packs, leads...

So it could be many things, but was just trying my luck here to see if anyone else has had this problem and had a solution for this.

Thanks all, will let u know how i go.

Cheers,
Dave

 

Also, with my spare 2000 model rx-7, i swapped computers to test to see if it was the computer, but put in the other one, and it still had the same problem. So im thinking that its not the computer (both have stocko computers, one is a 99 model type r, and the other is 00 model RB-S.

 

did you change the plugs in that car?

 

i havent touched the plugs on any of the cars yet. but may be considered if problems persist.

 

since it not the ecu, I t's either an ignition or fuel issue. Check them

 

I had 1 fouled plug in my car and in 1st i would get sputtering and back fire sometimes at .4bar. In 2nd or 3rd under some load it felt like the car was surging. Only takes about 10minutes to check and replace plugs.

 

sounds like what happened with my car, the OMP went out putting the car into limp mode. it had all the same symptoms. You say you don't think it's the ECU, but if you have something putting it in limp mode then it's not going to matter cause both the ECU's will just go right into limp mode.

I find it hard to believe that the secondary turbo would just go bad from sitting there for 2 weeks, and you wouldn't have those types of symptoms. It would drive just fine while under the first turbo.

I know how you feel right now though, cause I was going insane trying to figure out what was wrong with mine.

I take it you don't have a CEL? I don't know a whole lot about the JDM cars but I would try and see if you can find a way to pull any codes, couldn't tell ya how to do it but I'm sure it's on here somewhere. if you can pull a code and look it up then it'll help you determine if it's in limp mode or not. there aren't many problems that would cause it to go into limp mode, but there are still a few.

I must warn you though I only really know about USDM cars

 

Unless there's something really quirky going on in some of the production, there is a drain plug with al washer - not a nut , pretty much dead centre of the later tanks.

Plug and lead replacement would be a good simple place to start before things become hard. No CEL on these, some auto-electricians carry the scanning tool that's required....let your fingers do the walking??

 

hey all.

I have been a bit busy with uni studies and what not.. e.g. procrastinating, surfing the web... etc... but i went past a rotary specialist yesterday and described the problem to him and he said that 'its sound like you "control box" is playing up.'

He said that it was the rats nest under the manifold, and it probably needed to be looked at and to check that all valves are good or sumthin. He said this was most likely the cause as he has experienced this before. The feeling that at certain throttle point it wants to die on you and the engine will struggle to pick up the revs. I think he pretty much bunged it on the head, and also, he said that it will only cost $330 AUD to fix, well that is if this is the problem.

I only though i may have blown one of the turbos as during one of my last block runs, i may have given it a lil too much of a blast, but i wasnt sure of how the sequential turbo setup works like, but if you have one compressor not spinning, and therefore the other turbo is spinning out and bosst is leaking through the secondary 'blown' turbo compressor which in the end causes the map sensor to play up, you kinda get where im heading.

I have two FDs out front and neither of them have this drain plug... might just drill a hole and drain it then plug it back up with sikaflex... lol hahahahha as iffffffffff!!!

Has anyone had experiece with the rats nest? im gonna have a look at it in a couple of weeks and anyone with any knowledge or know how please let me know. I am kinda mechaically savvy, besides the drilling a hole in the fuel tank bit..lol... but these are the first of my FDs, and probably not the last. My previous ride was a...... R33 Skyline...

I saw this on the irish Rx7 internet forum and kinda backs up what the problem might be...
http://www.irishrotary.com/forum/php...pic.php?t=2900

Might have another look this weekend, and may take off the manifold to see what i may be up against. Any tricks to taking of the top inlet manifold guys? Im just trying to get to the rats nest , but i was also told that there were 3 control boxes... DAMMMMIT!

Any help will be awesomely greatly most appreciated in your debt thankful, and very helpful.

Cheers guys,

Dave

 

Also, what the cel?

 

Check Engine Light.