FD3 Not starting up! Help!
05-13-02, 09:48 AM
#1
OG
Thread Starter
FD3 Not starting up! Help!
Well ive been having problems starting my FD3. I dont know what is it. ANybody can give me a diagnostic or help me out to see whats causing it,
When I turn the key on, It starts fine when is cold but when is warm sometimes it wil start but very low, with really low rpms and very quiet and then it will build up to a normal idle. Sometime i have to try a couple of times before the car starts.
Could it be my alternator or is it time for new sparkplugs? Or could it be something worse. Anynone????
Thanks
Saul V
When I turn the key on, It starts fine when is cold but when is warm sometimes it wil start but very low, with really low rpms and very quiet and then it will build up to a normal idle. Sometime i have to try a couple of times before the car starts.
Could it be my alternator or is it time for new sparkplugs? Or could it be something worse. Anynone????
Thanks
Saul V
05-13-02, 09:55 AM
#4
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
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I mean after it starts, you said its starts with low rpms right, well after it starts and you just tap the gas pedal is it ok then?
Might be the plugs, when were they last changed?
Might be the plugs, when were they last changed?
05-13-02, 09:58 AM
#5
OG
Thread Starter
The starts with low rpms but then slowly idles normal without me having to tap on the gas pedla.
.....I got the car in october last year and it was parked til march this year because of an accident and its been driven everyday since. Im about to do a full tune up and a tranny swap, hopefully that will help.
.....I got the car in october last year and it was parked til march this year because of an accident and its been driven everyday since. Im about to do a full tune up and a tranny swap, hopefully that will help.
05-13-02, 08:30 PM
#6
holy **** muzik, my rex started doing the same thing last friday....almost like it's gasping for air. After I had been driving it for a while it was damn near impossible to get it started. When it did start it had a low rumble and then after about 30 secs it was fine, idle was fine, turbos were good....but sunday morn I started the damn thing up again and this time it would not break out of the low rpm grumble. I popped the hood only to see the left side smoking a bit.
So now after hours of research, I think it could be any one of the following:
-air intake problem
-primary injectors
-fuel pump
-spark plugs
-various solenoid
-misc. fuel system problems
Since most Rx7s follow the history of their brethren, I would say someone can tell us what is going on....PLEASE?
So now after hours of research, I think it could be any one of the following:
-air intake problem
-primary injectors
-fuel pump
-spark plugs
-various solenoid
-misc. fuel system problems
Since most Rx7s follow the history of their brethren, I would say someone can tell us what is going on....PLEASE?
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05-14-02, 12:01 AM
#9
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I've been reading all of this and maybe i have missed where someone has mention vacuum but i didn't see it.
Get youself a Boost Gauge and Test the Vacumm 20-16 if alright and if you have below that, welcome to the wonderfull world of vacuum leaks.
Get youself a Boost Gauge and Test the Vacumm 20-16 if alright and if you have below that, welcome to the wonderfull world of vacuum leaks.
05-14-02, 06:00 AM
#11
this week i'm driving...
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i may sound like a wacko, but mine was doing the same thing, but it was due to two really dirty k&ns when I bought the car (like so dirty it would suck the hoses in because there was so much restriction. I bet I gained 100 hp when I changed those things....
05-14-02, 06:12 AM
#12
fart on a friends head!!!
mine is doing the same thing. it started after my dumb. . . . . self decided to give it some high revs without a FULL warmup. have you guys noticed smoking on startup and a little after it runs a bit? its a little hard to start after it gets good and hot (operating temp). i also hear what seems to be a vaccum leak in the pass. side close to the firewall. i cant see anything. does any air get to the secondary turbo at idle? i think it might have something to do with the turbos. how do yours look? mine have quite a bit of play, but they spin freely. i dont have the money to replace them right now. it may be wishful thinking, i believe it may have something to do with the turbos. ill probably just save up and get a whole new powerplant and turbos, but i will look into finding out what is doing this.
05-14-02, 05:52 PM
#13
My engine only has 63K on the first one. I baby the hell out of this bitch. I never accelerate above 3000rpm before my operating temp is optimal & I always check my oil, change my oil, change air and oil filters, plugs,etc...
Maybe my fuel filter should be replaced....maybe Knoxville gas is to demanding.....solenoids..er...
Maybe my fuel filter should be replaced....maybe Knoxville gas is to demanding.....solenoids..er...
05-17-02, 12:44 PM
#14
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I'm getting the same type of start up with teh engine warm. If I turn ignition off and re-crank after, say 10 minutes, the son-of-a-bitch just cranks but doesn't start for approximately 5 seconds. After 5 seconds, when it finally catches or whatever and does start, it's very slow, almost stumbles into a low idle and gradually gets up to around 1000 rpm and then settles around the 750 rpm mark.
I'm gonna check the battery, plugs and gonna do the Marvels Mystery Oil pre-mix to see if it's compression prob. Well I might as well do a compression check while I'm at it.
I'm gonna check the battery, plugs and gonna do the Marvels Mystery Oil pre-mix to see if it's compression prob. Well I might as well do a compression check while I'm at it.
05-17-02, 01:16 PM
#15
OG
Thread Starter
Okay Here are the results. First of all for tox....Dude!! You are killing your engine and you just dont know it. You have to rev it hard every once in a while to prevent carbon residues from depositing. You have to run your rotary hard sometimes Everybody knows that! Ive seen people baby their engines and then they are getting a brand new engine at 60-70k. Trusth me! You aint doing your car a favor.
Okay Back to my car.
My car is in the shop and here are the results.
1.- Vacuum Hose line busted
2.- Extremely worn out spark plugs and dirty filters
3.- Needs a couple of solenoid valves replaced.
For those having the same problem. It could be the same answer, Do a Full Tune Up and check Hoses for leaks and cracks. That will do it. Now if your engine does it still after you have done all of the above!!! You better believe you are getting ready to replace that engine. IF it smokes white, is Coolant. Which can mean an apex seal is going bad. Now dont get me wrong, most RX7s smoke regardless when you first start them or when you push them hard after a long run.
Yet all of these can be symptoms that may or may not have the same answer, Best bet is to get under the car and find the cause or take it to a shop for them to troubleshoot.
Peace
Saul V
Okay Back to my car.
My car is in the shop and here are the results.
1.- Vacuum Hose line busted
2.- Extremely worn out spark plugs and dirty filters
3.- Needs a couple of solenoid valves replaced.
For those having the same problem. It could be the same answer, Do a Full Tune Up and check Hoses for leaks and cracks. That will do it. Now if your engine does it still after you have done all of the above!!! You better believe you are getting ready to replace that engine. IF it smokes white, is Coolant. Which can mean an apex seal is going bad. Now dont get me wrong, most RX7s smoke regardless when you first start them or when you push them hard after a long run.
Yet all of these can be symptoms that may or may not have the same answer, Best bet is to get under the car and find the cause or take it to a shop for them to troubleshoot.
Peace
Saul V
Last edited by SaulV; 05-17-02 at 01:19 PM.
05-17-02, 03:11 PM
#16
I'm a CF and poop smith
I agree, you should be taking your car to redline every so often. Yesterday i went to redlineand i seem to have gained a little more torque down low it seems. just make sure your boost is under control.
05-22-02, 06:34 PM
#17
No..once that bitch is warm, her *** is mine. I am aware of carbon build up. I drive the **** out my car, that's definately NOT the problem. Upon further testing, it turned out that my coolant was leaking inside the engine into my oil. I wasn't totally convinced of this, but we put a few "pellets" into the coolant res...fixed my problem, the damn thing runs fine now.
Oh well, time to start a new engine fund. Hope yours doesn't have the same.
Oh well, time to start a new engine fund. Hope yours doesn't have the same.
05-22-02, 11:04 PM
#20
Original Gangster/Rotary!
iTrader: (213)
Originally posted by DK
Maybe it's not starting correctly because it's mad that you're calling it an "FD3" when it's really an "FD3S".
Maybe it's not starting correctly because it's mad that you're calling it an "FD3" when it's really an "FD3S".
If one more person (and I think our muzik friend is a frequent offender
) calls it a ******* fd3, my head is going to explode 
Billyrohm, FD3S is the internal designation (what all the Mazda engineers and such referred to it as) for our 3rd gens. FD3 is in the VIN, but that's irrelevant.
05-22-02, 11:12 PM
#21
Original Gangster/Rotary!
iTrader: (213)
Originally posted by tox
No..once that bitch is warm, her *** is mine. I am aware of carbon build up. I drive the **** out my car, that's definately NOT the problem.
No..once that bitch is warm, her *** is mine. I am aware of carbon build up. I drive the **** out my car, that's definately NOT the problem.
I agree 100%....I'm so careful with the warm up and cool down, but otherwise, she's at 8k rpms. If I'm merging on the highway, you know I'm WOT, bay-bee
05-23-02, 03:43 AM
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muzik3k, those are the exact same symptoms of my newly purchased fd, a POS one with 131k miles on original engine. with some diagnosis, i found out those are usually the first signs of engine going bad. the need of excessive cranking is due to your combustion chamber being flooded due to not enough compression to ignite the fuel. i guess it might be some other things like lack of airflow from restricted air filter like it was for rjuge. with mine specificially, i knew that my engine was going bad but i decided to run it to see how long it will last. eventually got to point where car does not turn at all. it would constantly keep trying to turn over, but once i stop cranking, it slowly goes back to 0 rpm (slowly because it is still igniting a little to move the rotors a bit). to remedy this, i opened up the sparkplugs (they were wet due to flooding), dried em off (drying off the plugs on just one rotor housing should be good enough), put em back in and it fires up again. i did this for a good while, the hard starting usually happened during hot starts, it then happened during cold and hot starts. combustion chamber flooding increased, and you constantly need to dry your plugs more often (due to lack of compression). coolant starts entering the combustion chamber as well, i am guessing because the rotor seals can no longer seal off the pressure? in my case, the front rotor housing was a LOT worse than my rear, the plugs showed this, the plugs for my front rotor was brittle brown (due to coolant contamination), while the rear spark plugs were completely black. coolant pressure test backed this up, overflowing the filler neck when pressure testing the front rotor chamber.
just to list some other problems other than loss of compression of the new fd i bought: leaking secondary turbo, leaking rear main seal, radiator just cracked (more like exploded) due to heat soak after i turned the car off, driverside door sticks (i must pull the door up to open it), passengerside inner door handle broke off, the center arm rest area behind the center console cracked and now is sagging down. well, it sucks with all these problems, especially since i just bought it. the seller told me it was in "good condition" but i'm sure anyone selling an rx7 will say the same thing even though the real reason is more like "this car is completely fucked, i need to get rid of this bitch".
just to list some other problems other than loss of compression of the new fd i bought: leaking secondary turbo, leaking rear main seal, radiator just cracked (more like exploded) due to heat soak after i turned the car off, driverside door sticks (i must pull the door up to open it), passengerside inner door handle broke off, the center arm rest area behind the center console cracked and now is sagging down. well, it sucks with all these problems, especially since i just bought it. the seller told me it was in "good condition" but i'm sure anyone selling an rx7 will say the same thing even though the real reason is more like "this car is completely fucked, i need to get rid of this bitch".
Last edited by happyham; 05-23-02 at 03:47 AM.
05-23-02, 03:52 AM
#23
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Originally posted by happyham
muzik3k, those are the exact same symptoms of my newly purchased fd, a POS one with 131k miles on original engine. with some diagnosis, i found out those are usually the first signs of engine going bad. the need of excessive cranking is due to your combustion chamber being flooded due to not enough compression to ignite the fuel. i guess it might be some other things like lack of airflow from restricted air filter like it was for rjuge. with mine specificially, i knew that my engine was going bad but i decided to run it to see how long it will last. eventually got to point where car does not turn at all. it would constantly keep trying to turn over, but once i stop cranking, it slowly goes back to 0 rpm (slowly because it is still igniting a little to move the rotors a bit). to remedy this, i opened up the sparkplugs (they were wet due to flooding), dried em off (drying off the plugs on just one rotor housing should be good enough), put em back in and it fires up again. i did this for a good while, the hard starting usually happened during hot starts, it then happened during cold and hot starts. combustion chamber flooding increased, and you constantly need to dry your plugs more often (due to lack of compression). coolant starts entering the combustion chamber as well, i am guessing because the rotor seals can no longer seal off the pressure? in my case, the front rotor housing was a LOT worse than my rear, the plugs showed this, the plugs for my front rotor was brittle brown (due to coolant contamination), while the rear spark plugs were completely black. coolant pressure test backed this up, overflowing the filler neck when pressure testing the front rotor chamber.
just to list some other problems other than loss of compression of the new fd i bought: leaking secondary turbo, leaking rear main seal, radiator just cracked (more like exploded) due to heat soak after i turned the car off, driverside door sticks (i must pull the door up to open it), passengerside inner door handle broke off, the center arm rest area behind the center console cracked and now is sagging down. well, it sucks with all these problems, especially since i just bought it. the seller told me it was in "good condition" but i'm sure anyone selling an rx7 will say the same thing even though the real reason is more like "this car is completely fucked, i need to get rid of this bitch".
muzik3k, those are the exact same symptoms of my newly purchased fd, a POS one with 131k miles on original engine. with some diagnosis, i found out those are usually the first signs of engine going bad. the need of excessive cranking is due to your combustion chamber being flooded due to not enough compression to ignite the fuel. i guess it might be some other things like lack of airflow from restricted air filter like it was for rjuge. with mine specificially, i knew that my engine was going bad but i decided to run it to see how long it will last. eventually got to point where car does not turn at all. it would constantly keep trying to turn over, but once i stop cranking, it slowly goes back to 0 rpm (slowly because it is still igniting a little to move the rotors a bit). to remedy this, i opened up the sparkplugs (they were wet due to flooding), dried em off (drying off the plugs on just one rotor housing should be good enough), put em back in and it fires up again. i did this for a good while, the hard starting usually happened during hot starts, it then happened during cold and hot starts. combustion chamber flooding increased, and you constantly need to dry your plugs more often (due to lack of compression). coolant starts entering the combustion chamber as well, i am guessing because the rotor seals can no longer seal off the pressure? in my case, the front rotor housing was a LOT worse than my rear, the plugs showed this, the plugs for my front rotor was brittle brown (due to coolant contamination), while the rear spark plugs were completely black. coolant pressure test backed this up, overflowing the filler neck when pressure testing the front rotor chamber.
just to list some other problems other than loss of compression of the new fd i bought: leaking secondary turbo, leaking rear main seal, radiator just cracked (more like exploded) due to heat soak after i turned the car off, driverside door sticks (i must pull the door up to open it), passengerside inner door handle broke off, the center arm rest area behind the center console cracked and now is sagging down. well, it sucks with all these problems, especially since i just bought it. the seller told me it was in "good condition" but i'm sure anyone selling an rx7 will say the same thing even though the real reason is more like "this car is completely fucked, i need to get rid of this bitch".
05-09-03, 03:42 PM
#24
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Happyham, thanks for the post. My rex has 62k miles on the original 93 engine - had the cmopression tested by KD last year, and he said ehw as good, so I'm not too worired yet, but the symtoms you spoke of are things I will definitely keep an eye on.
Hey, mind if I ask you how much you paid for that FD? I'm looking for a 2nd FD with a shot engine... um... *puts on flame suit* ... um, so I can have an LS1 or LT1 engine put in it.
Don't get me wrong, I love the rotary engine, but having 1 tempermental engine is enough. The v8 swaps sounds like it will make things more reliable - ie. I can then have 2 rx - 1 as a daily driver.
Hey, mind if I ask you how much you paid for that FD? I'm looking for a 2nd FD with a shot engine... um... *puts on flame suit* ... um, so I can have an LS1 or LT1 engine put in it.
Don't get me wrong, I love the rotary engine, but having 1 tempermental engine is enough. The v8 swaps sounds like it will make things more reliable - ie. I can then have 2 rx - 1 as a daily driver
.
