Ok. Heres my problem, and it is probably a really simple solution, but im going to ask anyways. ill start my car...starts just fine. But if the engine is cold, it will die if i dont give it some gas. If i stop at a red light or stop sign and the engine is cold, it will die unless i keep the gas at about 1100 rpm. But once the engine warms up, it will idle just fine. any ideas?

josh

 

let it warm up a lil b4 you start to drive

 

yep, let it warm up or fix your choke.

 

hey my car is doing the same thing, i just bought it so i get it checked out at the mechanic and he said the carb was kind of fucked, so i'd probably check the carb if i were you.

 

Well, these are cars that you ALWAYS let warm up. ALWAYS

 

i cant let it warm up unless i sit there with my foot on the gas pedal until its gets warm enough for it not to do die. I cant just start my car and then go back into the house and do whatever for 5 mins or so, it wont be running when i came back out. i guess i could just sit there, but that wouldnt really solve the problem would it?

 

it sounds like you may need a new carb possibly

 

That's quite normal, especially with an old car. Only when I had just get my engine rebuilt and had a newly rebuilt carb installed that I was able to turn the engine over, rev it for a few seconds, and then it would idle. The average behaviour is as you describe, so I wouldn't worry about it. But don't you have a choke? you don't have to sit there if you have a working choke, you know.

 

Fix your choke, I just got an cable, and the little pieces that come with it for 16 bucks on ebay cause mine was doing the same thing. Also a rebuild on your carb is not a bad idea. Most likely it has not been cracked open in 20 years or so...that is a lot of crap to build up.

 

Not to be mean but do you know that you even have a choke? You haven't mentioned if you have used it. If you use it properly you can have the car sit by itself. My choke **** broke so I use a small vice grip to pull my choke out.

 

i know that i have a choke....but it crap. i have to pull it out all the way for it to even work a little....ive been wanting to get that pixed, but i keep forgeting about it. Also i didnt think that that would be the problem. The choke was crap when i bought the car. when i use the choke now, it just goes back in when i let go of it. so if i fix it, will it stay where i pull it out to???

 

My choke does that and always has, . I use a five cent piece to hold it on untill it gets to a decent running temp. Its no biggy.

Sue

 

The choke's main purpose is for warming up the car. When it's working properly it should stay out when you pull it out and automatically pull itself back in when the car is at operating temp (a little under 5min on my 84GS). It does this with a magnetic system. When something's wrong with that magnet, the choke will automatically pull itself back in no matter what you do, and that's common on a lot of older Rx7s, like my friend Eric's. He just cut a slit in a short piece of rubber tubing, and uses that to hold the **** out for a few minutes until the needle on the temp guage starts to move.

You have to let these cars warm up at least a little bit, it's just the nature of the beast. I've had my carb recently rebuilt by Rx7Carl and Sterling, and my warm up time is still there, and (though it may be a bit longer due to carb mods, I don't know) it's 5 minutes. On a stock car, there's a choke "plate" that mine doesn't have and there's a tube that routes air from around the exhaust mani until the car warms up, to help it warm up faster. When these two systems (choke and the flap in the snorkel with the tube from the exhaust mani) I'd imagine the wait time is smaller.

My engine could probably use a rebuild, but it still runs alright. Most people have to warm up, but Carl told me that you just need to give it a few mins, then you can drive with the choke on for a bit until it pulls in, but I don't like doing that. I'll probably do it some day when I'm *really* in a hurry, but I can't imagine torturing my car by driving it off the bat. Do you know that your engine is made out of two different metals (aluminum and iron)? Do you know that these two metals expand at different rates? It's important to let the car warm up at it's own speed because forcing it could cause warpage, or other undesirable effects... not that most of these engines haven't been abused like that, but it's true.

Jon

 

Have you tried to adjust your choke? If you open your hood look at your carb, pull off that blue airbox, look at the 3-4 black cables running to it. One is the hot start assist. It will run from your drivers side shock to your carb. If you have cruise control, it will run from your pass side to the carb. The gas and the choke cables come from the same place, out of the firewall, to the carb. Have someone pull your choke or press your gas to tell which one it is. The choke cable end on top of the carb.

To adjust it there is a nut on there, just screw it out until all the slack is taken up in the cable.

Sorry I can't take pics, I don't have a camera...mabye someone on here will......