I went to the MSCW meeting last night to join up and on the way there my car developed strange problem. At highway crusing I noticed that it seemed that I had lost secondary boost. When I put my foot down, the car just studdered and didn't really accellerate at all, even when downshifting to 4th or even 3rd. Once I got into slow traffic (gotta love Route 7 in rush hour) the idle became really rough and dropped to almost 250 once, but hovered around 500 instead of it's normal rock steady 850.

I suspected that it was just a loose vacuum hose from everything I've read and been taught about these cars, but since i haven't had the car long enough to put in a boost gauge (just ordered one this morning from rx7.com) I was unable to see what exactly my boost was doing.

After the meeting broke, I got in my car to leave and she fired right up, and drove like a dream. I had boost as normal, and the car felt just like it has since I got it.

Has anyone experienced this before? I can't imagine what it would be other than a vacuum leak, but those rarely just cure themselves right?

 

Well I got a couple of ideas from the big list, sounds like it may be a bad solenoid, but I guess until it happens again I'll have a hard time diagnosing the problem.

 

Definetly sounds like a vacuum leak, it shouldn't be that hard to locate if its in the rats nest, it should be purty evident once the im is off. First I would start off by removing the top pressure chamber and seeing if you can get a good peak at anything abnormal with the hoses. Also make sure your plumbing to the intercooler is sound.

I'm no expert but from a logical approach that is where I would start.

 

Thanks lopedl, I'll do that tonight. I checked all the plumbing to the IC last night and it all looked good.

 

Check your ground wire contacts. Under heat soak, they have a tendency to not maintain good contact and can cause a number of odd symptoms with engine performance. There are three contacts--firewall, driver's side fender wall, and engine block (driver's side just above oil pan lip). All should be scuffed clean and tightened.