1988 TII, 115k miles. I just got it a couple hundred miles ago.

Ok... I've been driving the car on and off for a few weeks now. The previous owner installed a fuel-cut switch, I soon realized it was because it floods A LOT! So basically every time I turned it off I cut the fuel off then let it die, then turned the key off. I once accidentally parked in a pothole at Autozone and it stalled when I tried to leave. It flooded, couldn't get it start using the fuel-cut switch, went back the next morning and it started right up. I was driving it pretty regularly with no problems as long as I cut off the fuel before the ignition then I started it up at work last week when I was leaving and it started for ~1 second or so then died. No smoke or anything like that, just died. It wouldn't start again so I figured it was flooded, I left it there and planned to get it the next day. Here we are a week later and it's still parked in the same spot, not starting! I tried the ATF trick (I know some people recommend against it) and that didn't do it. While I was in there I put in new spark plugs. I did the "poor man's compression test" and it sounded perfect. One thing I'm concerned about is the AFM. After it didn't start the first few days I started researching some more on here. It looks like a bad AFM or TPS will both cause no-starts, right? Well, for some reason, when I got it the rubber around the old air filter had melted and it was all over the place (including the AFM where it had dripped down). Anyway, does anyone have any recommendations or is there an easy way to check the AFM?

 

Forgot to mention that fuel and spark are both there!

 

going up to work tomorrow to tear into it... guess i'll start by looking at the afm.

 

Sure its getting spark are you sure its getting fuel? Aaron has a pretty good right up on why not to use ATF, but its your car. Im guess it cranks? have you done anything to it latly? do you hear the fuel pump? i would check fuel pressure and get a test light to check if the spark plugs are getting spark. Pull the spark plugs see if there fouled out, it does flood all the time the spark plugs are probably pretty beat. bring a wire brush with you to clean them up. Does it start at all, or doesnt even start. Try carb cleaner or starter fluid maybe your getting fuel but not enough. Maybe your getting to much. Leaking injector you are having a flooding problem.. Well good luck.

 

COMPRESSION just trying to save you some time and money my front rotor had avg. of 7.2 and rear was over 8. It ran strong then would only start here and there but I also bought car and drove it less than 500 miles and it died. I changed coils, CAS,MAS injectors NGK platinum plugs 9mm racing wires OPTIMA battery down to ecu, finally took it to mazda to find out it had bad side seal from it being possibly ran lean as you could see from numbers above, but here's what i'm getting to just go pay for a compression test if it's got a cut switch it didn't just start flooding. Did you change the oil or check to see if it smells like gas that will also let you know if it's been flooded alot.

 

Yes and yes
I'm planning an engine swap within the next 6-12 months so I'm not really concerned about the long term affects that it could "possibly" have.
Yep
Just what I mentioned in the first post
Fuel and spark are both there
As I stated in the first post, I put in new spark plugs last week. Plugs are new but they did have fuel on them when I pulled them back out. Then I cleaned them and put them back in.
Umm... cranks but doesn't start.

 

I have a compression tester and I plan on checking it tomorrow. I just haven't had another person to help me out (look at the gauge while I crank it or vice-versa). I realized the switch was there because it had been flooding within a day or two of driving it.

Anybody got any advice about the AFM?

 

if you flood pretty bad it could take hours if not days to get it to start again even with cleaning your plugs. it took me 2 hours after it sat 24 hours.
you may have leaky injectors
btw. what size injectors do you have?
my vert has large primaries for what ever reason.
and it floods now and then.
if you flood plugs alot you'll eventualy foul them out. you'll posibly need new ones. i'm at that point with my newly rebuilt tii engine that keeps flooding cuz i havent driven it yet once i put it in.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the injectors are leaking. I found a receipt from 2000 where the previous owner had the injectors cleaned and tested, it doesn't seem like they'd already be worn out again but I guess so. Not sure about the injector size, stock as far as I know.

 

it is 2007.... haha the afm. well it controls the fuel pump,besides metering air. well i tested it yesterday and if your looking at the connector after you unplugged it. test resistance from the 3rd pin to the 6th pin you should get abou 200-600 ohms with it closed with it open it should be 20-1000 ohms. check from the 3rd pin to the 4th you should have 200-400. check from the 3rd pin to the last pin this is the intake air temp depends on temp its summer lets say about 2000-3000ohms for 68 degee from 900 to 1300 for 104. check from the 1st pin to the second. This controls the fuel pump when closed you sould have no continuity when open slightly you should have continuity. All this is in the FSM with pics why did the airbox melt? could some of it gotten into the turbo? did you check fuel pressure, just wondering what your standing at? try reading the codes. if you havnt yet... my car wouldnt stay running read the codes bad thermo sensor unplugged it and bam. http://www.teamfc3s.org/info/article...Signal%20Table

 

I still didn't get a chance to check it out today. However, I did just realize that the gas gauge isn't going up when I turn the key on (to try to start it). Isn't the gauge supposed to go up when the key is turned "on"? And yes, it does have gas in it! I just put about 10 gal. in the day before it stopped running.

 

My car would start and set there and run for ever at 800 rpm as soon as I put it in gear it would die, and I would play hell to get it restarted. I could pull and replace plugs and try restating and nada. Then when you pulled the plugs back out only bottom were wet. I was told because of the low compression on the front rotor it was flooding and taking the excess fuel and dumping it into the rear rotor through the exhaust manifold. But I changed everything I mentioned thinking I had a spark or fuel promblem because top plugs were always dry and clean. Just trying to help.

 

It is.



Do you mean to tell me that you're just out of gas?!

Maybe you have a leaky fuel line or a shot FPD, which is common. I had a rust hole in the rear line and it pissed gas when running, maybe you ate it all away really fast.

If its your FPD, be glad you didn't caught on fire.

 

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought.... that's very strange. Like I said, I put about 10 gal. in it right before it stopped running. Seriously, about 1/2 mile from work! So assuming there is gas in the tank, would the gauge not working have anything to do with it not starting? I know the gauge not working usually just means that it has a bad sender but that wouldn't cause it not to start...

 

Check the 15amp injection fuse in the underdash fuse block my car died a couple of time with a blown fuse. My car just would crank until I put a new fuse in but it has be blowing about once a week lately.

 

Any luck ?

 

Ok... finally got an update, kinda. It sat at work for a little while because I haven't had much time to work on it. I was walking by it on my way in one day and saw that my stereo (2 weeks old) had been ripped out of the dash! I towed it home and it's been sitting here waiting on me to get some free time. I finally messed with it a little today but then it started raining.

I pulled a spark plug and sprayed in some starting fluid, it started up and sounded like it was running on one rotor (I only sprayed starting fluid in one side). So I'm thinking, "Ok, it's not getting gas right?" I pulled the fuel pump out real quick (there is gas in the tank by the way, it didn't leak out) and hooked it up to a battery... it turned on and sounded fine. I put the pump back in then it started raining. The next thing on my to do list is pull the fuel line off at the engine and see if it's getting pressure. From there I'm checking the cut-off switch and the relay, I don't really know where else to look. By the way, where is the fuel pump relay? I checked AllData but it didn't really show an exact location. Anybody have any other suggestions aside from what I've listed?

EDIT: When I messed with the fuel pump the gauge started working again so it must have been stuck?

 

Ok, last update... it is running now.

After checking the fuel pump and putting it back in, I noticed that the gas gauge was now working. Strange, I thought. I also noticed that the fuel pump cutoff switch was wired into the ground wire going to the fuel pump, very ghetto style by the way. I'm assuming the fuel level sender uses the same ground since it's the only one I saw. Anyway, I thought I'd try to start it and see if maybe the switch or wiring had been loose somewhere and I accidentally fixed it when removing/reinstalling the fuel pump. It started up! ... then died instantly. Started it several more times and the same thing happened.

Now, go back about a month to when the problem first started. I had been thinking it might be the AFM, especially since the old air filter had melted all over the box and AFM. So I pulled it all out, cleaned it up a little and checked the inside of the AFM. There was absolutely no rubber inside it, just on the outside of the plug. I put it back together and moved on.

Back to today, after starting it several times only for it to do instantly I came back and did some more research. Most of the search results pointed to the AFM or a serious vacuum leak. I decided to pull the AFM off again and about halfway through I realized that the air duct between the AFM and the turbocharger had slipped off the turbo. I slid it back on, tightened everything back down and bam! It started... smoked a lot, but started.

/thread