Car chugging
 

I'm having a couple issues with my car, it's idling roughly and dying and when driving it chugs during acceleration and constant speed.
When accelerating it acts like it's not getting any gas at all, I can floor it and the speed doesn't increase, but it doesn't drop either.

When idling it's extremely rough, like jumping 200-300 rpm then dropping 700 then floating around 250rpms for 10 seconds before it dies all together.

I don't have any vac leaks or any other leak that I can find, I couldn't get under my car with the stuff I have, so I had jiffy lube change my oil and fuel filter, they checked for leaks and didn't find any as well.

So, I'm not sure where to look to find the source of my problem.

Anyone? Please?

Is the engine shaking badly in the bay, like it wants to jump out? If so, do a compression test. If that's good, start going through the ignition and fuel systems.

I haven't had a chance to check yet but after thinking about a few things from last time I was in my engine, my plugs were pretty dark and my car was smelling of gas a lot.

Would running rich cause the plugs to go bad quicker than normal?

yes having improper mixture and fouling would cause plug life to decrease and thus decrease the performance of the engine over time. have you thought about doing the general tune up stuff to it? new plugs/wires/cap/rotor/carb rebuild, fuel filter change all that stuff? that is where i would start. and when you have the carb apart replace the floats too (they are only like 20 or 30 dollars and makes a big difference if they are taking on fuel) also do the compression test to make sure that the engine is good, and if you can remove the exhaust manifold, i would inspect the seals.

Ok, so I took the top off the carb to listen to it while it ran and it's making a sorta hissing sound.
What would that mean? It makes the hissing sound right before it chugs and sputters.

Yeah, I'd like to do a tune up but I don't know enough to be able to do it myself and I can't pay anyone to do it.

Tme to get your hands dirty...GO GET A HAYNES MANUAL and all the parts rotornoob listed and start trying to change those simple items yourself. Also you gotta start using the search button on these small items because these things are here inthe website you just gotta look deep. If you can't pay someone to do it then you are gonna hve to try it yourself. Hope im not coming across as an ass but you gotta learn how to DIY with these cars. Try it out, its actually easy to work on these engines.

NEW Spark Plugs, Spark Plug Wires, New Cap/rotor and Fuel filter at least. The carb rebuild is a little bit more intensive ...even for me. But those other items are a quick change and they do wonders when replaced.

I have no problem learning how to do it, I'm trying to. I did search but the terms car and chugging pull up about 100 threads about drinking games and 3 that are actually about a car. Which is why I asked, I found one that was similar but it wasn't the same problem that I'm having, I'm trying to learn what the symptoms mean so in the future I can diagnose it faster and easier.

I'm leaning more towards the carb being the problem but replacing all the things can never hurt.

hehe...the first thing i recommend regardless of the shape of a "new" 7 is a tune up. the carb rebuild took me about 4 hours my first time but it was the first time i rebuilt any carb. the tune up took less than an hour. just make sure not to over tighten your plugs!!! this can cause MAJOR problems for you. also check that your emissions modules are working properly. the haynes manual will tell you how to do this.

Ok, so I took some wd40 and sprayed along the hoses and didn't find any area where it sucked in. So I don't think it's a leak, but I might have missed one or something. I'm going to do the ignition stuff next, fuel filter has already been changed. So if it's not ignition then I'll have to rebuild the carb, which is a problem because I have 0 tools of my own.

Do a search for shutter valve and eliminate that as a problem too.

double post

I have a Quick question. My rats nest is gone, so I know the shutter valve is gone. However when I let go of the gas normally it stutters and bucks a bit, is that normal with the shutter valve gone, or did the guy that took it off forget to cover something?

Ok, so I changed the spark plugs and it helped a little. The acceleration is stronger but it still chugs a little and occasionally it will drop idle and almost die and come back up.

I need to finish the ignition stuff, and carb...I can't find a haynes manual around here, so if anyone could scan the pages for rebuilding the carb and email em to me so I can do that without waiting until one gets here after ordering off the internet that would be cool.

Okay, I'm trying to figure out how much it's going to cost me to replace the ignition stuff, but the oreilley website and such are popping up with a question of "W/ electronic ign" when trying to price the Coils.

What does it mean with electronic ignition? And with my car what would the correct response be?
In the website I have all of the car info put in '85 rx-7 1.1L but I guess there's something that could be there and couldn't be on various 12a models?

get the carb manual from Trochoid's signature. You can get factory manuals as well.

I think they are just asking if you have a points ignition or an electronic ignition.

Ok, so I'm picking up the parts for my ignition stuff tomorrow.

Just to double check on the way I do it.
1) Unhook negative wire on battery
2) unbolt coils and replace
3)unbolt/screw distributor cap
4)unbolt(if it has a bolt) rotor
5)replace rotor with new one
6)replace distributor cap with new one
7)attach wire set(correctly!) making sure to put the leading and trailing on properly
8)Hope this fixing my problem and I don't _NEED_ to rebuild carb right now.

ya know it sounds to me like the accelerator pump diaphram on the carb is shot.. this is exactly what mine did and its shot right now.. check for gas dripping from it on the drivers side of your carb..

I didn't see any leaking at all on the carb.

I can't make heads or tails of anything. I haven't changed the ignition stuff yet because every time I search for my symptoms I come up with another 2 things it could be.

Unfortunately, I don't know any mechanic with carb experience. And the mechanics I've called want like $100 just to check the car and see if they can even figure out what's wrong, which I can't afford to pay.

Sorry to res my own old thread but figured it would be a good idea to post the solution.

After replacing all of the ignition stuff, coils,distributor cap,rotor, plugs,wires, I was still having chugging/surging issues.

Well, I drove my car around a bit and my fuel pump died. When I replaced it I had some surging issues for the first 30 miles or so, after that it's running great.
So the original problem I was having was a bad fuel pump.

Did you change the fuel filter?

Yes, not going to put a new pump behind an old filter(old being relative as the one on it had less than 100 miles on it), risking the $140 part to save $3 isn't worth it.

Mine does the same thing every once in a blue moon. Supposobly with the nikki carbs the floats get stuck easily in them. Ive caught my car doing it and i had someone stay in my car and keep it idling and i took the cleaner off to look into the carb and the carb will fill up with gas. Ive been told to just rebuild the carb and everything will be okay once again :)