Mazda Rotary Club

General => General Technical => Topic started by: Fish on March 06, 2007, 09:54:48 PM

Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Fish on March 06, 2007, 09:54:48 PM
Drove the FD home from work the night before without any problems. Petrol is about 2 weeks old Shell Optimax, at about half tank.

The car will start, then die after about 2-5 seconds. If I press on the accelorator it will rev up but will be popping and banging like I am running anti-lag.

Any idea\'s?

Thanks
Fish
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Laeeq on March 06, 2007, 10:04:24 PM
How old are the plugs? may be worth taking them out and give them good clean + check the boost sensor plug too, that may be loose...
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: John Yorke on March 06, 2007, 10:33:03 PM
Not trying to teach you how to suck eggs:o  but have you used it much lately not all coked up is it?
What state of tune are you at, how cold are the plugs 10s/11s tend to make starting / tickover a bit problematic. Found with mine after the last tuning session tickover was around 900 when warm, put the headlights on and she dropped to below 600:eek  had to wind up the screw to settle it down some.
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Fish on March 06, 2007, 10:45:26 PM
I had been using it for about the last 3 weeks (since getting it back from Carl) about 2-3 times per week with at least 2 redlines each time of use.

Tuning is by Carl, running 9\'s leading and trailing, but at idle was seeing readings of 11.3-11.5 on the Techedge. :o Mapped for very safe idle. :Thumbs-up

I\'ll be taking the plugs out tomorrow to see the state of play. Also tempted to check the lambda sensor as I\'m also not sure how old this is.

Fish
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: John Yorke on March 06, 2007, 10:56:43 PM
Sounds like your doing all the right things, is the tickover or lack of it just deing away or is it just not ticking over at all - what about when cold?
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: HaywardRotary on March 06, 2007, 11:46:35 PM
Check the map sensor.
If that is ok then give me a buzz tomorrow.
Regards
Carl
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: antnicuk on March 07, 2007, 08:57:13 AM
sounds just like the map sensor to me
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Fish on March 07, 2007, 10:11:41 AM
Map sensor is all plugged in with pipes attached ok.

Checked the plugs and although a little on the dark side nothing too bad, I\'ve changed worse when the car was stock.

Carl, will call you later.

Thanks
Fish
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: antnicuk on March 07, 2007, 10:41:35 AM
does the map sensor work?  does it make a difference if you unplug it?
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Fish on March 10, 2007, 02:56:35 PM
Quick update opn this.

Swapped back to the OE ECU, still the same problem. So took the plugs out and they are all dry. :xconfused

So use a different set of cleaned plugs and tried again, fired up and stayed revving at about 2000 rpm, loads of smelly smoke out the ar$e of it. :o  But thankfully this cleared after a couple of minutes.  This is still on the stock ECU, so swapped back to the Apexi (pants) ECU and it fired back up and idles very happily at about 850-900 rpm.

Let it warm up, checked fluids are all good then went for a drive. All appears ok.

Checking the commander whilst on the drive, the water temps are around a steady 76-78c, but the Techedge is telling me that I am running very rich (IMO) on cruise. -4psi on the boost gauge at a steady 70mph and the AFR\'s are around 11-11.3. :3Confused  Should it be that rich on cruise?

Thanks
Fish

PS. Still gonna be selling the pig. :Talking1
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: elford_tim on March 10, 2007, 03:09:58 PM
While I\'m not a rotary mapping expert (or a mapping expert, period) I would find 11-11.3 under the circumstances you describe extremely rich, especially because you don\'t have any boost on the gauge.

Can you check the Apexi if it thinks it\'s seeing boost and starts dumping fuel in because of that?
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Carl on March 10, 2007, 04:30:12 PM
This is starting to sound more and more like a sensor issue,probably an intermittent failure.
The cruise mode should be around 12.5 to 13.5 to 1 approximately,but bear in mind that Lambda sensors need changing regularly in order to give accurate readings.
Regards
Carl
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: rx7veilside on March 10, 2007, 04:48:14 PM
that is def too rich for cruise mine was idling at that afr..what afr are u getting at idle
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Adie Moore on March 10, 2007, 06:52:28 PM
mmm, all a bit over my head but makes interesting reading, guess this is how you learn.
Title: Will Not Idle!
Post by: Fish on March 10, 2007, 09:09:38 PM
Carl the lambda sensor only has circa 4-500 miles on it.

Took it into work this afternoon and played about on the way home. There are some very odd readings, that I will be speaking to the mapper ;) about on Monday.

Fish

PS. Adie, there\'s plenty of useful information to be found here, just gotta dig a little bit.