hanknmorgan

Hello everyone. Today my car started acting up and I was hoping to get some possible diagnosis for what may have happened. I purchased my car, 93 touring, a few months back. It has 95,000 miles on it, but had a rebuild about 25,000 ago. Everything is stock, except Adam C intake mod w/ K&N filter. Anyway, I went out to start my car today and it started fine, but then started to stumble and sputter. It was idling very rought and caused the whole car to rattle and vibrate. It began smoking quite a bit as well. I got out to see the smoke and the exhaust was popping and sputtering roughly. The smoke looked white in color and was pretty thick. Definately more than just exhaust on a cold afternoon. It then after about a minute as I tried to back up stalled and wouldnt start again for about 30 seconds and several attempts to restart. It then came to life and sat sputtering for a minute. As it got warmed up a bit it appeared to stop smoking after getting up to operating temps and ran fine after that. 8 hours later on the way home from work it started fine and ran ok. It was insanely foggy tonight, so it was hard to really tell if it was smoking at all. I have had no problems with this car before. One day about 2 weeks back it seemed to smoke a little at startup but didnt really seem to be much cause for concern. It wasnt abnormally cold or anything wierd. The car only sat for 48 hours or so. Any clue what may be wrong? It doesnt look or sound good, but it was wierd that it only did it at startup, but it was definately a major something wrong going on. Thanks in advance for any input out there.

hanknmorgan

Sorry to reply to my own thread, but after reading some other threads it sounds like it could have simply gotten flooded and ran like crap burning extra fuel (creating smoke) until everything got to normal. If it was anything major, it seems like higher rpm's and driving would only get worse, but it ran fine once warmed up. Does this sound like a possibility. Also, if that may be the cause, which I pray it is something that simple, what could cause that to happen. I didnt do anything different or weird, just out of nowhere upon startup. It is my daily driver and I havent had any other issues of poor running at all. It was inspected 2 months ago by a rotary specialty shop who said it seemed to run great and said he saw no reason for a compression check at that time. I havent run the car hard since this problem this afternoon, so I dont know what boost patterns are like or anything, but it seems to run completely normal. Thanks again.

rynberg

Sounds like maybe your coolant seals are going -- usually these go on the rear rotor first. Essentially your car is only running on one rotor until it clears out the coolant.......I wouldn't get too excited yet, but it's a possibility.

I would take your car over to Rick's if it happens again or you notice any other coolant seal problems (excessive white smoke, lowering coolant levels).

hanknmorgan

I am hoping it is not seals going, but who knows. Is it common for seals to go even on a fairly fresh rebuild? Any other thoughts or comments on what may be going on?

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

I think at this point, just play the waiting game, and check your coolant level periodically. Might not hurt to change your plugs and wires if it has been a while, also. These cars eat spark plugs like a fat kid eats twinkies.

legal-z

my mazda reman puked a coolant seal at almost exactly 25k. hopefully that is not your problem, but it's not out of the question.