has anyone else had trouble starting their car after it has sat for a long time?
 

I havent started my car since october and now it won't start.

I've done a few basic mods like dp, highflow intake.

Also i removed the ECU to replace to my AEM ECU.

But i changed my mind cause im gonna let the tuner put it in instead.

The car won't start and the engine got flooded.

Has anyone else had trouble starting it after letting it sit?

Does anyone know why it didnt start for me?

I don't understand. Are you giving the background of the car, or did you do these modifications since it was stored, and now you're trying to start it? Could be lots of things, first you'll need to unflood it, either by letting it sit for a while, or taking off trailing spark plugs and cranking a few times to get the gas out (make sure there's no sparks!). Also, since you flooded, you'll probably need to replace the plugs, as excess gas will destroy them (can't clean 'em either). Finally, make sure your ECU is plugged in, all the relays/fuses secure and unbroken. Good luck!
~Tom

basically i just wanna know why the car didnt start after sitting so long.

My brothers MX-6 sat just as long and his car started immediately. Since i havent touched anything more than the things ive modded i cant see why it didnt start.

anyways tomorrow i will try again.

is it trying to turn over? or is the battery dead?

the battery is good no problems there at all

it ignited alittle at the beginning then just died.

It got too much fuel.

Ive heard its good to turn your car on, say once a week, if you plan on having it sit around like that. Well, rotarys at least. Ive heard just to turn it on, idle it for a min or 2 to keep the fluids going, then shut it off.

Anyone hear this too?

It's good to have running for aleast 20 minutes or more cause it's take about good 15 minutes to warmup in cold weather. Also never start up your car and have it run for 2-3 minutes bad cause it fouled the plugs cause rotary run very rich right after it start up. Also hyperrite mention to change your plugs have u don't that yet? And u might need to reset the ecu.

Try starting the car with the gas all the way to the floor.

ok thank

don't know how to reset the ecu but im gonna search.

Disconnect the negative cable on battery and depress the brake pedel...should reset it for you.

ive checked the plugs and they all had a good spark except one, one of the trailing plugs.

I tried starting the car today without unflodding it, although it had sat for two days so that should have gotten the gas out. No ignition at all, and the leading plugs were wet, not the trailing.

I've unflooded the engine today, but i didnt have time to start it but will try tomorrow.

I'm not very optimistic and i'm very sure that it won't start tomorrow, but since i don't know what could be wrong i can't do anything else.

If anyone knows what's wrong i'd be very grateful if you'd help.

same thing happend to me i let it sit.. thought it was flooded.... in fact is was flooded.. but with water!!!! my coolant seal finally shrunk up enuf where it couldnt burn the water out.... good luck:(

I'll stick my head in from the 2nd gen. section. After sitting for a long time, if you indeed have weak springs, it wll loose compression on start up. I purchased my TII new and from '93 though last year it
"caught" me 3 times after letting it sit over the winter and not starting it every couple of weeks. It would start to fire once, then just spin like a sewing machine. Knew immediately low compression. Added atf/oil to the chambers, cranked it over, put new plugs in, smoked like it was on fire, then was fine. The compression was fine after running.

Can you spin the engine if you have compression????

I know that a piston is very hard to turn but is it same with wankel???

I could turn the engine when i put on my pettit pulley with just my hand easily, is this normal or have i indeed lost compression???

If so how can atf oil help? and how much atf oil should i use?

These are very different from a piston engine. I can let my Firebird with a 455 sit for a year. Crank it, and it fires right up. Yes you'll be able to turn the engine even if compression is up.
You might want to search over on the 2nd gen section, but in a nut shell, we pull plugs, take out egi fuse, so no fuel being injected in chambers, pedal to floor, crank engine over to clean out chamber, then put in a spoonful atf or oil, crank engine over slightly to disperse the fluid. Install new plugs, or "hit" the wet plugs with a match, or small torch to clean them up. Install plugs, fuse and let it rip. It'll smoke like a demon.
The atf/oil will actually create a seal between the apex seal etc and housing, and therefore build compression.
Hope this helps.

Cranking the car with the gas floored will tell the injectors not to fire.

What I did is: (make sure you have spark, first)
pulled the plugs/ and F/P relay
floor and crank 3 - 5 times (30s b/t each crank) for 3-5 sec and wait 30 min and do it again and wait 30 min.
took and baby ear squirter and put about a teaspoon of ATF in each hole (doesn't matter what brand and clean up the mess)
replace plugs and relay
floor and crank (to spread around ATF)
crank normal and be ready to catch it if it stumbles...mind didn't stumble

go tell neighbors not to call fire deptment and laugh your ass off at the spy hunter smoke screen you just laid down!!!

There is a better write up if you search for ATF and flooded...

ATF boosts compression in motor enough to start again.

Yea I know but wouldn't that help by not giving it more gas and flooding it more? :confused:

thanks for all the help.

now i got more confident about getting the car to start

I havent heard that, but thats what I do during the winter as my car sits, every now and then i go trek through the snow in it with the body spacers I put on it last winter. Its about a 6" lift. But, it seems as though running it for a couple minutes will keep everything in check.

It's ALIVE!!!

I did as you said with the unflooding and atf, and it started right away. Smoked like hell for a little while and idled badly, but after awhile it ran smooth as a baby.

Thanks for all the help. It's been very useful.

Aint that the truth!

this method has been used for a long time, I flooded one of my old rx-7s and a nice saturday afternoon called the fire department beforehand and said " look, i think my car has been sitting is going to smoke some when I start it, here is my name address and phone # please do not send the calvary" Heheh 2 minutes after it had been running/smoking the head guy on duty himself drives by in his little red car, just shaking his head. I got a formal letter to please never ever do that again, they got like 8 phone calls from neighbors.. :p

my smoking actually wasn't that bad.

A friend of mine has a Ford Sierra Cosworth and summer 2002 his car smoked just as much when he was on the strip :) He reved it to max and the girl that showed the cars forward had to run away cause of all the smoke.

It's a miracle that engine didnt explode. He had over 2 bar in boost :)

Everything wasn't joy with the car.

Yesterday it started and it warmed it up and only drive it like 50m to wash the car.

Today i took a test drive and it didnt turn out very well.

The idle was alittle bad at first and it smelled alittle ATF oil. After while that smell disappereed and the idle was good when the car was warm. I drove away, accelerating slowly, i loved hearing my turbos spool up. Then i wanted to give it some more throttle but then it just bumped, felt like a fuel cut but i only were around 7 psi. I wasnt even over 3k rpm. I thought the boost was building up unusually fast cause i didnt press the pedal much.

Don't know what it could be other than the ECU. I still have stock.

Yes i know i should get an ECu upgrade, and i have bought an AEM, but i'm gonna let the tuner put it in. I only wanted to try the car out and wasnt gonna try pushing it hard, ony that i didnt even push it and it still bumped.

Sorry for the looooong post.

help would be useful.

thanks.

i have owned my car for 3 winters now and it seems every winter it gets harder to start....keep in mind the car has 36k miles now.
I let the car sit from november to end of march. My process for restarting is to reinstall battery, pull the ecu (?) fuse and turn the key a few times....reinstall the fuse and turn the key. After my first winter it turned rigth over...the next winter it took awhile, then this winter it took for ever...i really thought the car wasnt even close to starting...then it finally did. I am starting to think that my engine is on its way or that letting it sit all winter isnt such a good idea. The engine is pulling strong vacuum at 18 or more, the idle is fine except for a slight misfire that i noticed last night. The plugs were installed last summer...i went with 9s all around...can that be the issue with the misfore or is it the 4 month old gas, or is the engine on its way....oh by the way...warm starts are alittle funny...not hard...just not real clean feeling.

If you haven't, get a fill up with the highest octane available. Just wondering if tank was full while sitting all winter.....Condensation? Stale gas?