Sorry for not searching for this, but the search didn't seem to be working when I tried.

Last night it had my car on for about 2 minutes as I moved it out of the garage and back in (to make room for another car). Now just went to do some errands and tried to turn on, and it wouldn't turn on. I cudl hear the starter motor, but I dont think the engine was doing anything, did I flood it?

Can anyone tell me a way to fix this without having to take it into the shop?

Thanks in advance,
Sean

 

Search for fuel cut switch

 

Look under the dash near the steering column. You will see a black fuel relay, with a yellow harness going into it. There is a black/white wire (next to a blue/red), cut that about 3 in away from the harness. Then take more wire and run each end of the b/w wire to a 2 pole switch.

 

I'm not real clear exactly what you mean, but from what I gather its hard to re-start? If thats the deal go buy some new plugs first. That will ususally fix a hard starting car... If its flooded the only way to unflood the car is to squirt 1 once of tranny fluid in the spark plug holes..... Trailing holes that is...... it may smoke a bit too...anyway try the plugs first

 

If I understand correctly is that starter engages but the motor does not turn over that could mean usually is that there is not enough juice is going to starter or starter is bad, and since you said that you run the car for 2 min I would think that there is not enough juice going to car and most likely it is the battery (did you try jump start it?)

 

As far i understood from the first post this is not even flooding problem ( at least yet )> His engne is not turning over.

 

Wow guys, thanks for the quick responses. I tried it again, and I think most of you were right, the engine isn't even turning over. I'll try to jumpstart it, but I really hope the battery isn't dead already since I only bought it a few weeks ago.

 

Well, I tried to jump start it. That didn't work. Although I don't think the engien is turning over, all I can hear when I try to start it up is the whirring of the starter motor. Any suggestions? Tommorow I'm gonan pull out the plugs and see what those look like.

 

well your starter or starter wiring is bad because it is not engaging or thinks it is already engaged another words when you start the car the starter's gear should move to the flywheel and then start spinning and once you release the key in the ignition from start position it retracts back into it's original position. And in you case it does not move to the flywheel it just starts to spin in disengaged position. If I’m correct then you should here just winding sound of electric motor and no engine turning sound’s

 

1. Check the voltage at the starter when you turn the key.
2. If all you hear is the whirring of the starter motor, probably bad starter.

From what I been reading, it seems to be a bad starter. Have you heard the starter click when you try to start it?. If you have, probably need to replace the starter.

 

Sean,
my '88 floods sometimes when I start it then cut it off during closed loop warm-up phase. What works for me is to pull the 'EGI Comp' fuse (30A, found on top of driver side strut tower) then hold down accelerator pedal and turn key to "Start" pos for 10-15 sec. This should get rid of unburnt fuel in engine. Then replace fuse and try again. Excessive flooding fouls plugs, they may need replacing.

 

Hey guys, sorry foor digging up this old post.

I just installed a new starter motor and tried to start it, but no luck. Everytime i turn the key to the start position all I hear is the sound of the starter motor going and nothing else.

I pulled the spark plugs out, and it smelled like gas. The plugs themselves are dark and a little wet at the ends, which makes me think maybe it's flooded afterall?

Any advice guys?

 

an extremely flooded engine will spin so freely the it will just sound like a solid whirring. this is becuase of soo much gas in the chambers washing off all the oil and making 0 compression. this has happened to me on short periods of the car being on.

I would try what nc_willie said.

if its really bad you
may have to do that same process again but you might need to take a few drops of automatic tranny fluid or even a bit of engine oil and put it right in the spark plug hole. this will help build up a compression again.

definately clean and dry yer plugs. either take a wire brush to em or get new ones if they are really bad.

good luck, have fun

 

I was clearing off my desk last night when I found a paper that I printed out that described your exact situatioin the paper said if the you hear the starter but the motor isn't turning over then the engine is carbon locked. I hope this isn't your problem but its a possibility

 

I tried just about everything. Pulled out the EGI comp plug and tried to get rid of the fuel like nc_willie said. I did that with and without the plugs in, tried two different sets of new plugs, did it with the accelerator down and without, I also tried the oil trick.

It got progressively better, and the engien began to turn over more and more. It finally got to the point where it would turn over just enough, it got right to that split second before it would start but it wouldnt.

I'm at wits end, there isnt anything else I can think to do. I guess I'll have to call up Checkpoint Engineering tommorow and have it towed all the way to Rancho, cuz I have no idea what else to do.

Thanks to everybody who helped me out, I appreciate it.

 

Sean_O, don't give up just yet

you're pretty close to get it started.

Make sure your battery is well charged (use a trickle charger over night)

and do the "complex" unflooding procedure described here

http://2ndgenrx7.freeservers.com/techmaster.html

use regular oil (10W-30) instead of ATF

To prevent further problems,
install a fuel cut-off switch or get your injectors cleaned.

Hugues -

 

Thanks for the link Hugues, that was more or less what I was doing, but I guess I wasnt getting enough oil into the engine, so I'll give that a try tommorow.

 

yes, keep trying, you are almost there.

definately make sure your battery is full charged

i agree with using oil over ATF for unflooding

 

Thanks for that final push guys, it really paid off. As per the instructions on that technical webpage, I put about an ounce of motor oil (I luckily had soem 10-W30 laying around) into the bottom two spark plug holes and it worked like a charm. Granted, I had to borrow the battery out of my Mom's Civic to do so (I killed my battery a few days ago when I accidently left the key in the on position ) Either way, my car starts now.

Thanks to all of you that helped me, I appreciate it a LOT!

 

I am glad you got it started.

Would have been a shame otherwise.

You may want to have your engine oil changed due to possible fuel contamination.

hugues -