Mazda99Nikon

My trusty 91 NA coupe has performed almost flawless this winter, other than some cold weather (0 dgree) issues with a balky transmission. The warm weather is returning but now the car has suddenly gone belly up.

Here's what happened.

I was out chasing tornados Sunday night (that's my job, I'm a photojournalist) and the car was humming along fine for about an hour -average speeds around 45 mph. After the twister passed, we had some intense rain and I parked the car just a short distance from home. After restarting it seemed to be flooding but I got it started after three attempts and drove home.

The next morning it seemed to flood again. On the third attemp it restarted but it sounded pretty rough, like only half the engine was firing. It ran for about 30 seconds and died.

I have tried to restart it but the starter just whirrrrs. I have tried to restart it with the antiflooding procedure, pulling fuse - and it still won't start. I'm sensing a slight smell of gasoline in the air but nothing all that strong.

I'm debating what to try next. I'll probably pull the plugs, dry it out and add some atf but I suspect there is something more specific to the problem. Blown engine? AFM? TPS? What do I do next?

JoshRX7

iTrader: (5)

Check your underhood fuses to make sure they're still good. Do the unflooding procedure. Get some starting fluid. : ) My N/A flooded once and it's the only thing that helped... starting fluid... try small amounts. And maybe a more trusty car is in store for "tornado hunting"!

Josh