Oh dear. All is not well in rotary-land for me today!
Went for a nice drive this afternoon, spent about 10 minutes driving slowly around some nice roads before heading to a petrol station to pop some more jungle juice in.
From here things went a bit pear-shaped though! The car wouldn\'t start easily, and refused to fire for the first few attempts. After waiting for around 5 minutes I tried again and the engine came to life. I then drove the car for around 20 minutes (sensibly, as my better half was with me!) and it was going very nicely, idling fine (around 800-900rpm) and generally driving as it should.
We then pulled into a local car wash, and as I was reversing the car died. Now, it may have been that I stalled the car, but honestly I\'m not sure. When I tried to re-start it, the car refused to play ball. I waited again, but this time it refused to start. Some of the guys from the car wash offered to push me, and thankfully with ths assistance it fired up once again. However, almost immediately the car died once more. From here, even push-starting the car did not work. After around 30 minutes of trying I had no choice but to give up.
Upon inspection it seems as though there is a lot of oil in and around the engine bay, and also quite a bit in the filter housing. I lifted the lid off and discovered oil inside the hole where the filter sits.
I have no idea what this all means, or what is needed to rectify the problem. Can anyone offer any help here?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any help.
Which plugs are you running?
mm doesn\'t sound good first think i would do is pull the plugs out and check the colour etc, if they are damp discounect the fuel pump (lift the rear seat bottom and on the passenger side there will be a connector) the crank the engine just for 3 - 4 short busts, then leave it as long as you can to dry out, as for oil in the filter im really not sure the only oil you have up there is from the OMP
Mark
Thanks for the replies.
I\'m not sure exactly what plugs are in at the moment, however I do have some spares ready and waiting. I was actually planning on changing them soon, but wanted to get it done (along with an oil/filter change) at the same time as fitting the new petrol tank. I\'m now regretting not acting sooner!
Thanks for the suggestion, Mark. I\'ll pull them and take some pics of the engine bay, plugs and inside the air filter housing in order to give you a better idea as I imagine trying to diagnose a problem based on my ramblings is hard!
There shouldn\'t be any oil in the air filter. I don\'t see how it can get in there unless one of the engine vent tubes is passing it upwards....but how?
If the air filter is clogged with oil then the car will have bad fuel consumption and will stall as if it\'s gassed up.
I dont think it will hurt to remove the filter and start the engine with the top pan off. Then you might see where the oil\'s coming from. A new air filter sounds like a must once you\'ve found out where the oil\'s coming from. Is the engine overfilled?
Also as Mark, check the OMP connections are still tight on the carb intake lines.
which filter?
FDDreamer didn\'t actually say the air filter no?
its a 12a n/a
Quote from: RedRummy;506385which filter?
FDDreamer didn\'t actually say the air filter no?
Yeh....I was wondering which filter; it\'s in FDDreamer\'s 2nd post. I thought \'oil in the filter housing\' what filter can that be?
It might be a crossed tube going to the carb block so that somehow the OMP has finished up lubing the air filter but that would take some doing I think.
Sorry, I should have been a little more lucid! I wrote those posts after a very tiring gym session (seemed like the best way to vent my frustration!) and, looking back on them, agree they don\'t make much sense!
In terms of oil, I don\'t think it is overfilled as I actually checked the level before yesterday\'s fateful drive (I normally check it every other drive) and it was almost exactly halfway between the low and full markers.
However, the car DOES have bad consumption (around 16mpg at my last check, which was an average over around 100 miles of driving) and the air filter does look to be in bad shape. Could it be petrol up there? I like the thought of that even less than oil, but it popped into my mind. Again I need to get pics up, but the reason I thought it was oil was the colour of the liquid - it seems far too dark to be anything else. If I still have a car left tonight I will try to start it minus the filter, and also try disconnecting the fuel pump etc.
Quick question though guys, what is an OMP? :Hammer
Thanks everyone,
Adrian
Quick question though guys, what is an OMP? :Hammer
Thanks everyone,
Adrian[/QUOTE]
OMP = oil metering pump it puts oil into the carb to lubricate, if you look a the front plate from the drivers side it will be near the bottom and will have 2 small clearish! pipes from it up into the carb, there is also a long metal rod that controls it this again runs from the carb (pull the throttle cable and you will see it move)
Mark
Adrian, the front plate that Mark means is the front of the engine. Down at the bottom, on the drivers side is a little pump with the two clear lines coming up to the carburettor. As said it\'s a lube oil feature peculiar to the rotary. (keeps the rotor tips lubricated). If you have no joy getting it going properly, lets have a pic of the pipe connections at the back of the carb, under the air filter.
Sorry Mark, I thought I\'d better give some more detail for Adrian. keep on it with me though.
Thanks again for the continued help guys. I\'ve taken some pictures of what is inside the air filter housing, so that you can see what I\'ve been referring to. A picture speaks a thousand words, or so they say!
I will hopefully get out to the car later today and take some pictures of the pump and tubes etc.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/328isport/10062008046_1024x768.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/328isport/10062008047_1024x768.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/328isport/10062008048_1024x768.jpg
Good news! I went back to the stricken car yesterday to take some further pictures, and my better half decided she would try to start the car (despite me saying it was pointless!). After one \'almost\' attempt it fired up and I was able to drive it home! :-)
So, it seems the problem is not as serious as I first imagined, and I can\'t have damaged anything too important as the car ran fine on the way home. I\'m very relieved the car is back home, and now can try to understand a little more about what went wrong, and perhaps what changed that enabled the car to start.
the oil/fuel in the filter is what i have seen previously with mine when it was stock becasue the rotary is esentialy a 2 stroke i think it is just the way it is, i would say you flooded the car, or had fouled plugs all you can do it pull them out unplug the fuel pump and turn it over for a couple of short bursts, then leave it for as long as you can clean up the plugs and make sure you have a good battery
Mark
Mine\'s nice and dry inside the filter housing.
I\'d put a new air filter in and keep an eye on it. It must be the easiest filter in the world to look inside.
I\'d want to know which of the pipes has been passing oil upwards, so you might need to look inside after every run.
It does sound like it was flooded before, but as said, a dirty air cleaner (dirty with oil mist), will make it a lot worse for flooding.
Also I think you\'ll find that the plugs dried out on their own whilst the car was standing, so it started as soon as your lady tried it. That\'s very common with flooded engines.