My 1993 rx-7 will not start. It cranks but doesnt want to start.

What happened was about a month ago I had problems with something draining the battery dead over night. Well I was at school all week and working in my offtime so I didn't have anytime to fix it. So it sat with a dead battery for about 4 and a half weeks.

I finally traced the problem after taking a few days off to work on my car. The glove box light had blew and some reason kept a constant drain on the battery. I had taken the alternator off and battery off and both tested out good.

So now I have another problem. Some reason my car won't start but cranks normally. Occassionally after cranking it, a backfire will occur. But it almost seems as if there is no firing or combustion. I checked the plugs and they were all good. Wires seem to be good also. I checked the intake and didn't see any leaks. Fuses and relays seem to be fine also.

I've checked the forums for similar problems but couldn't find anything useful and thought maybe I was overlooking something. Any help would be appreciated. Thankyou.

 

Do you smell gas? Could be flodded.

 

The smell isn't a strong one so I do not think it's flooded. I had the plugs all out and put back in.


I read in another post telling someone to check the stock ecu codes. How do i go about checking these codes?

 

Also just found out the water thermosensor is bad, I touched it and it fell apart. Would this keep the car from starting????

 

I replaced spark plugs and thermoswitch and the car still will not start...... Any help would be appreciated.


I just don't understand how 1 day it runs erfect except has a drain on battery then 4 weeks later it won't start at all.

 

Have you checked all your fuses? including the ones in the engine bay under the FD01 and FD02 boxex? Usually the EGI fuse is the culprit. Anything ranging from the solenoids, fuel system, and engine wiring would cause the EGI fuse to blow.

Do a search for EGI in the 3rd Gen and 2nd Gen forums. Or if you want you can check out this thread that I strated. Also do a search for username HAILERS in the 2nd gen forums.

Not sure if the EGI fuse is what is wrong, but it's a good place to start.

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...&highlight=EGI

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...&highlight=EGI

 

Ok i checked my fuses again and they are all fine. I listened for the fuel pump and im pretty sure i heard it click on when key gets turned. Also the tank becomes pressurized.

Any other ideas on what could cause it not to start?

Also how do i check for ecu codes? I do not have a car manual.

 

Also when i try starting the hold light flashes on and off. Not sure if its suppose to or not.....

I reset the ecu by pumping the breaks etc while the battery was unhooked. And the light still comes on and off.

 

so how did you plug them in and check for spark? you should have gotten a wire and put one end to ground and wrapped the other end around the spark plug and had someone crank her up. BTW: you checking all 4 sparkplugs/wire right???

also, how are you testing for fuel? you should have pulled the fuel line closes to the front of the car near the oilfilter and jump the fuel pump to see if fuel is shooting out. just jumping the fuel pump and hearing it whorl around is not good enuf, you gotta make sure fuel is actually getting to your injectors. perhaps its your injectors? compression test is a good idea, how are you doing this btw, are you towing her to a dealer? personnaly i would try a regular compression testor first, much cheaper and damn near free if you already have one
do you still have the stock ecu??? perhpas you should try to plug that in and see if it will start with that.

Oh yeah, check to see if all the relays and fuses are good.

(coppied from another thread that i answered)

 

If your hold light is flashing, that's the Auto ECU telling you it has a code. Check these threads:

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...hreadid=192937

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...threadid=23584

 

Just a thought, but recently I have had problems starting my car also. Turns out that I had some shorted wires in my front harness, and caused 2 diff ecu's to burn out before I found the problem. The car wouldnt start even after fixing the shorted wiring, so I bought a new ecu and it fired right up. You need to check all 4 wires for spark, check your fuel pressure, check compression, and your check engine codes if the light is staying on with ignition on. Also make sure your plugs are still good. The service manual is a lot of help diagnosing things like this. You can download at http://www.iluvmyrx7.com/. Check the end of section F for the troubleshooting guide. It gives a step by step procedure.

 

Ok thankyou for all your replies to my posts. Right now I am going to go with the tran codes to see what the deal is there and why the hold lights flashing tomorrow bright and early.

Would the hold light flashing be anything that would actually keep my car from starting though??? Just curious. Also I'll post back soon as i get around to jumping the diag box and seeing what codes get tossed.

 

I got a code 58 from the hold light(atmospheric pressure sensor).

Anyone know what i should do to troubleshoot it or anyone replaced this part or had this code?

 

isnt the (atmospheric pressure sensor) the map sensor?

 

i have no idea?????????

 

not sure what a hold light code is ...but code 14 for the check engine light codes indicates a bad Atmospheric Pressure Sensor, which is internal to the ecu, to correct would have to replace ecu..NOTE: this is not the pressure sensor that is located on the firewall

 

hold light is for auto tranny's

And it says its atmospheric pressure sensor.

How much and hor hard is it to replace the ecu?

 

fairly easy

remove passenger door scuff plate
remove passenger side kick panel
remove 2, 10mm bolts and 1 10mm nut
remove the 4 connectors from the ecu
remove ther black box attached to the back of the ecu

replace the ecu and reverse the above steps for installation

see section F page 150 of the service manual...should be online somewhere

 

forgot the most important step...be sure to disconnect your battery

 

Why doesnt eh code come up in the engine codes if its the atmos[pheric pressure sensor inside the ecu?

Also is there another one since it only comes up in the hold light codes?

 

/bump

Still trying to figure out what i should do to solve this problem.

 

Did you say you checked for engine codes and none are present?
suggestions:
1)make sure there is gas in the car
2)check to see if gas is getting to the engine(pull lines off like previously mentioned)
3)the fact that it backfires sometimes seems to indiacate spark is present....
4)sounds like low compression...do the trans fluid (unflooding process) that may start it if the compression is low

http://www.rx7turboturbo.com/robrobi...20Engine%20Fix

The trans. codes/flashing shouldnt prevent it from starting....mine flashes all the time but it still starts and runs ok......

just a few thoughts.....

 

My owners manual says the HOLD light flashing indicates an electrical problem with the transmission.

In my case, I shut down the engine and restarted it and the HOLD light quit flashing. I have not checked for any codes yet.

I am having intermittant "acting flooded" starts, but it has started each time with continued cranking and flooring the accelerator pedal.

 

Try cranking the ignition a few times with the fuel pump fuse out, located on the top row of the fuse box in the upper left corner below the dash. It's a yellow 20 amp, take it out and crank a few times, then replace it and start it up.

 

Codes: atmospheric pressure sensor
and ?torque signal? (verbal from the mechanic)

They pulled tran pan and cleaned screen and flushed, next day got another HOLD flash incident, not checked yet.
The plugs were bad, so they replaced. It still intermittantly will vomit on starts when full cold, chugging like flooded. It catches and clears a little better with the fresh plugs, but froblem still lurking.

What kind of atmospheric pressure sensor mechanism do they use? Any possibility of a plugged port that could be cleaned?

And the price on an ECU? Ouch level?