Alright here it goes, I drove the car to work the other day. No signs of any problems, the car was running great, I go to leave work to go to a meeting and uh oh. The car would start but would not idle, plus it sounded like !@#%. So sitting there needing to get to the meeting I am deducting the problem. First I thought that the Leading plugs must have a problem. Maybe the Jacobs went bad/out etc. Well I have comfirmed that the coil is firing along with the plugs. Compression is good and all as well. The car just sounds like a V8, bluh bluh bluh bluh not vooooooooom. That is the best I can describe it, if I can't figure out what it is I might even take a small video clip so some of you can actually hear the car. You can rev the car and all of that but it still sounds bad as you rev it. It almost sounds like a massive exhaust leak but that is not it either. Anyway, anyone have any ideas at the moment to check?

 

you might have a massive air intake leak, check all the air hoses from the air box as well as the one air hose behind the engine.

there are so many things it could be, but I know that if any air hose it disconnected it could run like crap,

 

When I dropped it off at the bodyshop for some work it was running fine, they called and said it was now idleing like %#@. When I had a compression check done the front rotor did NOT show the characteristic 3 pulses (also known as the rotary heartbeat) only 1 and a second very weak one. The rear rotar show 3 strong pulses.

Verdict: one of the apex seals was not sealing against the rotor housing and therefore not making compression.

Result: idles like crap:

Solution: (as suggested by most) is rebuild the engine.

What I am going to try first is a serious dose of combustion chamber cleaner and a few days of turning it over to spread the cleaner all through it in the vain hope that the apex seal is gummed up with carbon and is stuck in it's groove. The reasoning behind this is that the plugs (less than 1 year old) were badly carboned up indicating a very rich mixture and possibly the cause of the problem...

 

I change mine every 3500 miles

 

I change mine every 10k