I haven't changed anything on the car in a few weeks...This morning I fropped my car off at my stereo/alarm shop for a new Clifford alarm due to a scare last week outside my house.

Anyway...as usual, before I dropped off the car I set the rev limiter on the PowerFC to 3500. I saw them drive the car around back, then I left for the day.

When I came back to pick up the car at the end of the day, I saw them pull the car around back. I was running perfectly fine. I got in, increased the rev limiter back to 8100, read the alarm manual with the engine running, A/C nice and cold. The idle was normal and smooth. I left the parking lot and after waiting for the engine to warm up properly, I had a nice five minute spirited drive, then all of a sudden, as I pulled onto my next on ramp, as I acelerated, I heard some sort of scraping sound from under the hood somewhere. I assumed I was dragging something that the installer might have left under the car or something. As I accelerated, something was wrong. The revs were all screwy and i t was downhill from there. I got off the next exit and when I came to a stop, the car was idling terribly and there was some dark smoke coming out of the exhaust. I drove home about two more miles and when I pulled into the driveway and popped the hood, there was a little light smoke coming out of the engine bay, the engine was visibly stumbling, and there was sporatic dark smoke from the exhaust.

At this point, I immediately blamed the alarm shop, but after some thinking about how it drove so well out of the shop...I can't blame them. I mean, is there anyway that leaving the car with them and worst case scenario, they try to take the car out and over rev more than what the PowerFC permitted, could that cause a weakness in the motor that would make it run OK for a few minutes, then blow? Doubtful right?

I imagine that, since it drove fine for a few minutes, THEN went bad, was it just the motors time, right? It only has 40,000 original miles on the motor & chassis!

I'm so upset...I'm not a newb & I've done all reliablity mods and everything after that in a safe manner.

Any ideas? Is there any hope? Do you think it's possible that something may have gotten knocked out of whack and it may not be blown?

I wanna cry,

Ian

 

Sorry to hear about that, but i still think it was the alarm shop, but i could be wrong.... I'm thinking they were trying to drive it pretty rough, but the rev limiter stopped it... Maybe they kept forcing the engine, trying to push it...


Sean

 

Check all of your hoses to make sure that everything is hooked up correctly. It's possible that the alarm people inadvertantly loosened a hose, and it fell the rest of the way off after you got on it. Check your map sensor to make sure it is hooked up properly.

Good luck, Adam

 

Or someone could've said, "let's crank that badboy and give it some gas and see what it sounds like!" They could've forced it that way. But that would be very hard to prove.

 

everywhere i drop the car i tell them the powerfc has a logging feature and it will tell me everything they do. has always worked.

 

+1
it's happend to me...

i felt like a dumbass...

 

Yep, people usually behave nicely with big brother looking over their shoulder . I can't wait to get my datalogit so they won't be hollow threats .

Another idea is to pull the EGI relay, tell them if they want help pushing it into the install bay you'd be more than willing, or you could drive it in there and they could push it out when they are done. There is no reason why they need to drive your car, the only reason to let them is to make it easier on them and that is your decision 100%.

This is the first car i've ever been worried about something like this happening with, and if I ever do have it at a shop for some reason (more than likely tint at some point) I will take preventive measures to make sure they can't drive my car, or that they know what they do with it will be logged.

 

+1

check map sensor. Symptoms: rough/choking idle with black smoke.

 

I LOVE YOU GUYS! Adam (and the rest of you) Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

After I posted this thread, I did some more searching fo black smoke, bad idle, etc. and I fund another post with the same advice.

I crossed my fingers, went out to the car, popped the hood, and low & behold, there was a hose loose under the MAP sensor!

I plugged it back in & started her up....voila! my baby's back! I am so pleased...I really thought the car cover was goin' on her for about a year or so until I was prepared to go all the way and put a new motor, turbos, etc.

I'm really glad I kept my cool with the alarm shop..First, I knew if they DID do something, I would have no way to prove it, and second they are a very reputable shop and I needed to give them the benefit of the doubt first before jumping to conclusions.

Thank again guys, I really don't know where I'd be without this forum. You're all the best!

:smiley_12

 

yay

 

It's good to finally see a story like this with a happy ending. Glad she's running right for you again.

 

Hell Yea man....now your REALLY gonna appreciate the car

 

worst case senario bs, went on the 60 today, on the way to meet a pal to go marango, huge jam bumper to bumper, probably due to a pileup.

after 10minutes waiting, i step on the gas and show off my badboy, 30seconds later, i see my temp gauge hit the top white bar, next to the red one =.='

ok im freaking out, pull off the freeway and ontu a gas station.

cool... i topped up the coolant just 4 hours ago, and now i know wahts wrong...

i didn't CAP THE coolANT =.= the cap was still left there, under the hood o_O!

 

LMFAO!

whoops!

Hopefully you havent warped your engine

 

Good ending!. I had the same problem years ago. G

 

I guess I've just popped my rotary cherry!

 

Glad it worked out for you!

This is a sign from the rotary gods - buy some silicone vacuum line and replace the vacuum line to the MAP sensor if you haven't already done so. Good silicone line will fit the MAP sensor VERY tight and is VERY hard to remove, even on accident. If that line blows off at the wrong time, it CAN cost you a motor.

If you do have silicone hose going to the MAP sensor, is it the right size and of good quality? The vacuum line to my MAP sensor requires me to pry it off with some tool it's stuck on there so well.

Anyhow, glad to hear you're OK and treating a sweet low-mileage FD right!

Dale

 

You over reacted to the wrong symptoms. You should learn in time. Just keep reading the forum posts.