I'm afraid to drive the car now. It drives great when it gets going, but sometimes when I get to a stop the idle gets lumpy. It bounces up and down from 500 RPM to 800 RPM, just a little earlier I noticed it go down to nearly 100 RPM, I thought I was going to stall out but the light turned green and I hit the gas as soon as I could.

Anyone know what the problem might be? I get lots of white smoke at startup, not smelling like coolant, smells like gas, definitely not anything sweet though.

Does anyone know if it could just be fouled plugs?

Thanks!

 

Could be. But I'm not liken the sounds of this thread so far. If the engine lopes at idle [flub-flub, flub-flub, flub-flub], then you may have a blown apex seal. Baby needs a compression check.

 

yeah..compression check...and wtf are you doing driving the car like that?

park it homie...you will thank me later.


jason

 

God I hope not.

I get white smoke at start up that smells like unburnt fuel so hopefully, since unburnt fuel in combustion chamber = fouled plugs, maybe it's just that, and only that.

*prays*

 

Could I get a compression test at any mechanic (I don't have the equiptment, not really apt to buy some of it)? Or do I have to go specifically to a rotary mechanic?

 

I had the lumpy idle problem too for a while. Turned out to only be a leaky blow off valve and a loose hose around the UIM. I think the hose was the one that controls the AWS or the air idle bypass valve, can't remember anymore. I've also had the white smoke problem for a while, but the car is fine despite this (I only get a little white smoke on start up tho).

About getting a compression test, just call up some shops near you and ask if they can do a compression test on a rotary engine. And make sure you get 3 numbers for each rotor.

Good Luck

 

P.S. If it was a blown seal the car would most likely idle really rough and would have a significant power loss.

 

this isn't always true, when my engine blew the only thing odd about it was the amount of smoke ar warm up times. It was extraordinarily long and thick smoke, it took about 30~40 minutes for the smoke to go away for me to drive it to the shop. I was also still boosting as well

 

30-40 minutes... more like 3 for me.

I think mine might be a leaky BOV. I vented the stock BOV out of the airbox so it's freestanding and significantly louder, I think maybe I slitted a hose on accident with a razor.

Where is the UIM?

Also, I was thinking, do I need spark plug keys to remove and replace the plugs?

And what is the AWS?

Sorry -- not familiar with abbreviations...

 

you make me sad

 

 

hey, check out this cool site!

 

Cool, thanks Kento you're so generous.

I did a search for spark plug and spark plug keys but no results came up. Do the spark plugs need keys to be removed?

 

no

 

i have the EXACT same problem and im still trying to fix it... i get a lot of white smoke that comes out at start up and it eventually goes away after 5-10 minutes and it also smells like fuel... and my car has rough idle everytime i stop, the rpms bounce up and down from 800 to 500 and back up again...
i jus had a swap and rebuild, i hope its not a blown apex..ill check into my problem and ill let u know asap if i find out wats wrong..

 

i get like 2 or 3 mins of white smoke at start up sometimes, but usually only for the first few days after an oil change. and i premix 4oz royal purple synthetic per full tank of fuel so that could be part of it....

i used to get the idle reving problem too, but then i got a new battery and it went away.

i have no problems with my motor. guess its normal.

(original motor, 40k un-rebuilt miles)

 

I started her up today, and I heard a gurgling sound from the engine bay on the passenger side. Later when I was in idle, I almost stalled out, the car hit 0 RPMs then jumped back on.

This is getting irritating, I'm going to change my spark plugs ASAP and hope that solves the problem.

 

Gurgling sound from passenger side means you have air in the coolant system where the heater core is. You need to burp the system, best is by "bleeding" it at the throttle body coolant pipe. You're sure you weren't losing coolant when you checked the filler neck periodically?

 

Positive... I did drain the coolant and flushed it out a few times though, was I supposed to burp it before I finished that process?

Also, could this be effecting my idle?

 

Burping is the final step in the coolant replacement process.

Your idle problem is another issue entirely. Replace the plugs and see what happens first.

 

Ok, good stuff, I'll do that this weekend, until then, it will sit.

 

Do you have any oil leaks?

 

mucking around with the tps helped me fix my idle problems

 

check the damn compression

 

I have a MINOR oil leak, just drops, from the turbos, I believe they are external leaks.

And how could the TPS effect the idle?

Also, I'm checking the compression this Thursday.