Well, The car started idling a bit rough yesterday. Seems o.k when it\'s cold, but not so good when it\'s warmed up. Thing is, I\'ve also sprung a little leak somewhere on the radiator, too. Could this affect the idling at all? It also didn\'t fire up straight away after work this evening, but did go on the 2nd attempt.
Anyway, went over to Asda this evening. And the car wouldn\'t start when I got back to it. Just turning & not firing. Just prior to this I\'d had a sort of whirring/buzzing sound when the ignition was on (without the engine running) but it had gone when I tried (& failed) to start it afterwards. Pretty much ran my battery down trying to get it going.
So, I called my mate out. Tried it with his jump leads on it, but it was still having none of it. He\'s a member of the RAC, so he calls them out & parks his car out of the way.
RAC guy puts his jump leads on it & it starts straight away!!!!!! He reckons it had flooded, but I was under the impression that it\'s not so simple to get it going if that\'s the case. He also said it could just need some new plugs. Obviously I\'d rather get advice from you guys on here though, as I\'m not sure the RAC guy has done much with RX7s!
Also, it\'s still running really rough, though. The idling is slightly better if I switch on the Pivot air controller and put it to -10. If I switch it off, or put it above that, the idling gets worse again. Boost guage is showing a fairly steady figure when idling that\'s not jumping around or anything. Only fluctuates +/- 0.2.
So, does anyone have any ideas what problems I have here? Could do with some help as I\'m at a bit of a loss now! :xconfused
:confused: No one have any ideas???
Well, my mate thinks that the radiator could actually be what\'s causing it. Especially as it seemed to start running rough at the same time as it started to leak. So, were gonna get the radiator off & either replace it or get it repaired (appears to have been hit by a stone or something on the front face). Then we\'ll see what happens.
Apparantly, the radiator leak could be sending the ECU into "limp home" mode. Which would be why it started running rough. I reset the ECU the other evening & it seemed to run o.k for a bit, but then went back to running rough. So this could be a possibilty, I guess???
Anyway, brings me to the question...... does anyone on here have a radiator to sell?
I woud doubt the read leak would cause bad starting. Get the car compression tested as a sign of a knackered engine is bad starting when warm.
Flooded RX\'s dont normally start that easily.
Make sure its the rad leaking and not the over spill tank over flowing, (plastic tank by drivers side light), or a leaky AST tank.
Pretty sure that the rad is damaged. When warm, there\'s steam and hissing coming from that area and a big wet patch across half of the front of it. Appears to be stone damage on part of the front face.
Last night was the only time it has been a problem with warm starting.(The other occasion were I had to turn it a second time to start was from cold). Last night, I had parked up. Then started it and moved it to the other side of the car park before I went in the shop (being too lazy to walk across the car park). It was after this that it wouldn\'t start. Started up o.k this morning, but decided not to take it to work, just in case.
hey matey as gary said the rad leaking wouldnt cause the car not to start. but u DEFO need to get that sorted if not rebuild is a few days away
if the engine was flooded it wouldnt start that easily (beleive me)
if u want i could have a look over it not promising anythin tho
Thanks! :Thumbs-up Any help would be appreciated at the mo as I don\'t really know where to start!!! I\'m not bad with engines, etc. But I don\'t like to mess with this one too much as it is very different!
I\'m keeping it off the road till the rad is done. Don\'t want to cause any major damage!!!!
no probs ive got a couple ideas.
pm me with address save u putting it up
jon
The rads go pretty cheap on ebay. About £30 second hand. Lets not hope it has not overheated the engine when she sprung a leak.
Cool website btw :InLove do you dj at any clubs then? a mate of mine has **** loads of oldskool hardcore vinyl. i have about 1500 on mp3 but plenty more to go hehe..oh and the spectrum :Giggle i did have a spekky 48k when i was a kid but the interface that you plug the joystick into buggered it up. i now have the 128k version but aintplayed on it for years. i bought about 60 games off ebay for the old atari 2600 about 6 months ago. trying to build a collection up :cool
Hopefully didn\'t overheat. Water temp stayed stable (although I know they only tell you it\'s hot when it\'s too late) and there hasn\'t been a great deal of coolant loss. Probably just a vein fracture on the front.
Yeah. I used to DJ quite a bit when I was living down in Newquay. But only just decided to get back into it up here in Birmingham, but always continued on the production side of stuff. Still got my Spectrum+2, but not used it in a long while. I\'ve always kept all my old computers & consoles, so I\'ve got quite a few now!!!
Quote from: Mr J.Tno probs ive got a couple ideas.
pm me with address save u putting it up
jon
Thanks. PM\'d :)
Hmmmm. One of the things I forgot to add is that I get a smell of fuel when the car is idling/in traffic/manouvering to park, etc. I guess that means it\'s just running a bit rich though. Although I\'m planning on getting an Apexi FC fitted and mapped in the near future, which I guess would sort this out? Would running rich have an effect on how it idles, though? I\'m assuming it would, as altering the airflow controller also affects the idle.
how old are the sparkplugs?
Good point! Had the car a couple of months. Checked all the coolant, fluids, and cleanliness of oil, etc but never thought of the plugs! And There\'s certainly no harm in sticking a new set in there!
EDIT: I mean I checked over everything when I first got it, but forgot about the plugs.
Yes, it sounds to me like you have a fouled plug. No harm to replace them. They dont last long on our cars, and they are expensive, so often dont get replaced at the correct time.
Put in new spark plugs today. The ones I took out were looking pretty crappy. Really black all over. They were different plugs, too (NGK R6725-9) and they bear more of a resemblance to a standard type of plug.
Anyway, took it for a run. Seems to drive fine enough, but the idle still seems to drop really low.
While I was changing the plugs, I was looking at all the mass of pipes up top. Then, I noticed one of the small hard pipes has nothing connected to it and there\'s also a small rubber pipe that\'s coming up towards that area but also not connected to anything. Then there\'s another hard pipe with a little bit of rubber pipe with a self tapping (!!!) screw in it, and it seems to be splitting where the screw is.
So, I\'m wondering if some stuff isn\'t connected that should be, and would that affect the idling?
I\'m also getting the impression that it may be running too rich when idling, due to the fact that if I switch on the Pivot Airflow Controller and turn it down to minus 10, the idle speed improves slightly.