1st start in a few months and cars sound horrible
 

I put my car away for the winter and didn't start it since November. Today I went to start it and it started first try so I was pretty happy. Once the car was running it didn't sound normal and was kinda shaking alot. I have had plenty of blown motors and I hope this is not another one. The only thing I did was when I drove it to where I store it I didn't wait for it to warm up and took it easy on the ride which was about 1.5 miles. I'm going to do a compression test tomorrow but wanted to know if it was normal for the car to run bad after sitting for awhile. Thanks in advance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIw6fcb70lc

Make sure all the plug wires are on tight. And check your map sensor hose.

If your car has been stored for months, you can almost be sure animals was playing around underneath your car.

And squirrels LOVE chewing wires.

It kind of sounds like you have a stuck apex seal (could be my crappy speakers though too). I had this happen years ago when I stored my 2nd gen for winter. I did the ATF trick (I would use MMO or something less harsh now), let it sit all night, and it worked great.

It's possible, also, that you fouled a plug by shutting it off early. How old are the plugs?

Sounds like its running on one rotor. Check plugs and clean them or replace them, crank the car over with the EGI fuse out while the spark plugs out out for a 5 seconds, wait a bit, crank again 5 seconds, then put everything back together and start it again. If it still sounds the same, try putting ATF in the spark plug holes, turn it over with EGI fuse out, put some more in, turn it over again, then put plugs back in and try again.

Check the other stuff first though. Hoses etc.

thewird

sound like its blown. check the compression and report back.

deff sounds like its running on 1,

does this car have any coolent seal issues? letting a car sit with that can rust the apex seals, if it ran before id think possible stuck apex seal,

but id first do a comp test and then try new plugs. and see whats up,

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will try everything and post my results tomorrow. I hope its nothing to serious the motor only has 400 miles since it was rebuilt. If it is a stuck apex seal what is the likely hood that I can get it free? Thanks again

This may sound crazy but my dad had an rx7 where he had a similar problem. He blocked of the exhaust ports and poured oil down the intake and spun the motor over and over and did this for a few days. it finally went back to normal.

Ive drug my car behind my truck with a friend driving and just dropped it in gear at 20-25mph with the car off. Then after a few cycles turn the key forward. Its worked two or three times when its sat for a while over 3-4 yrs.

I dont know if its specifically safe to do. But it works. The motor had lasted 80k+ as of when I sold it. Heard the guys that bought it blew it up shortly after buying it though.

Well i tried all the above suggestions. The map sensor is plugged in the wires are on good. The plugs do look like crap. I added marvel mystery oil and did a compression test. I have a piston compression tester and not sure if I did it right. I held down the button and every time the car cranked the number got higher and ended in 100 if I didn't hold down the button it was only around 50. I started the car after trying the mmo and i think it sounded worst than yesterday, it was backfiring and smoking like crazy maybe I just added to much mmo. Sad to say I fear the motor maybe blown, just shakes horribly and feels weird when giving gas. The car starts no problem, 1st try every time. Not sure where to go from here.

I would replace the plugs and add some fresh gas in there.

That would be the first (and cheapest) route to go.

Second, if you are uncertain of how the use and/or read a piston compression tester for our cars, i suggest renting or even buying a rotary compression tester with the digital readout.

Its an accurate full blown truth of whats going on.

Sorta like a "yes, no" pregnancy test LOL

None of that +, - crap lol

1QUIK7 is right on, especially since you say the plugs look crappy.

As he said, do that first. It's quite likely that 1 or more of the 4 plugs is severely fouled and not firing. If it starts, run it until it's thoroughly warm, and then rev it to 4K or so with a few full-throttle bursts to clear it out. If that doesn't cure the problem, then procede further to diagnose it.

dude your engine is blown, now sell me your turbo kit for cheap.

If it was fine when he parked it, I doubt its blown. Engines don't blow sitting in the garage. There's something he is missing or a really stubborn stuck seal.

thewird

I was just joking...that's why i wrote sell me your turbo kit :)

If youre brave enough turn it on and unplug one of the plug wires. If it stays the same you know it wasnt working. If it shuts off it was the other one.

Same thing for injectors. I had a dead injector driver causing the above symptoms.

Check spark, then fuel. Except i can reach under the UIM and unplug my injectors while its running.

thanks for more ideas, I will try as soon as I can. I hope it doesn't snow the next two days like I keep hearing. I took a pic of the plugs for the hell of it but I think it something a little more serious but I hope I'm wrong. I going to change them anyway it can't hurt. I guess we'll see what happens. Thanks again everyone for all the help.

They make spark checkers for such a task. Much safer ;)

Run a gallon of distilled water through the engine:

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/2n...injection.html

my car did this after sitting for a few months the only way i got it to run on the second rotor was to let it warm up then hold the gas to 4 grand until it ran right.

Well I changed the plugs and the car sounded perfect. I've fouled plugs before but usually they didn't let the car start, not make it sound so horrible. I let it run for about 20 minutes and everything was perfect so I started to pull out of my driveway and the coolant light went on so I turned it off added coolant and when I restarted it, it sounded horrible again! Is it possible I fouled the new set of plugs so easily? Thanks for all the help

get to the choppa! it sounds like a helo in the vid :-)

Something changed between idle and restarting. What did you move or adjust while filling the coolant? check for a break in the spark plug wires. cant hear in the audio, but is there a ticking as well as the rough sound?

My car did this too. check the boost sensor on the driver side on the firewall. there is a small 1/4" vacuum line that may have come loose

20 minutes of idling could cause them foul out depending on your tune. How rich is it at idle?

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

I'm wondering if you have a slight coolant o-ring leak that is putting coolant into the combustion chamber(s). That would explain the coincidence of the low-coolant light and the plug-fouling/rough running. If you can smell a sweet coolant smell and have excessive steam out the exhaust on startup, and you continue to lose coolant w/o an external leak, you may be in the early stages of coolant seal failure.

There are lots of threads on this - search to find diagnosis methods, etc.