poorboy

Haven’t owned my FD as long as many of you guys, but I’ve had it long enough ( 3 years ) to have experienced everything short of a blown motor. It isn’t my daily driver, but it is driven fairly regularly (eg weekends, and sometimes to work). Anyhow, it’s been slowly restored, and at this point, has new paint, new wheels, 99 spec bumper, restored interior, and much mechanical work and tuning. As at the beginning of this month, the last issues to be addressed were the worn rear suspension, the faulty cooling system (car runs very hot –eg. 95C to 105C during cruising) and erratic sequential boost pattern. It’s taken a lot of testing, and trial and error, but I thought I had most of the problems diagnosed (this forum has been invaluable, and my mechanic has been very helpful with suggestions as well). New pillow ball bushings were installed last week. This past weekend, a Fluidyne radiator was installed to replace the copper/brass unit put in by the previous owner, and new solenoids and CCA were installed to replace broken down parts. I had finished putting the car back together by 10pm last night, and it fired up on the first try, with no leaks from the cooling system. No small feat considering the amount of work that was done (and therefore the amount of things that could go wrong!).

Took it out for a long test drive today, and was blown away by the difference in the feel of the car. The suspension is much tighter and most of the rattles are gone, the boost pattern is now perfect and holds steady, and the coolant temperatures were down to 85C, with constant boosting (rather good as today was one of the hottest days of the year here in Vancouver). In all my time of ownership, I’ve never had everything come together so perfectly, and with these last items addressed, I finally had a taste of a perfectly running FD and what a joy it was.

Unfortunately it was short lived – I stopped for a tank of gas at noon today….and the car wouldn’t start…..noticed the PFC console did not come on, and after checking the 30A EGI fuse in the engine compartment – found it was blown. Replaced it with the 30A headlight retractor fuse, and tried cranking, and blew that one too. Clearly there’s a short somewhere – likely pinched a wire during reinstallation last night. Considering I had removed and reinstalled the UIM, IC, battery, airpump, airbox, y-pipe, radiator and fans, and some other stuff….there is no shortage of potential problem spots. As is so often the case with this car, it’s two steps forward and one step back.....

mrjohnnnys

iTrader: (1)

man, that is sad to hear, man, but it does not sound like something too hard to find. Glad to hear my radiator is working out for you! good luck buddy

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

Ah, good news and bad news. Congrats on getting the car running right. It took me a good deal of time and effort to get mine to behave itself also.

I once shorted two fan relays b/c it the wire at the rear of the fan had worn through and was grounding itself against the rad support cross bar after doing a bunch of work. While I don't have any answers for you, do look at the various things you touched and associated pieces next to it and follow the wires as best you can to see if they are shorting on anything. Unfortunately that means some of it has to come apart again...

poorboy

Yeah John, your old rad works great Hope you get your car back on the road soon.

poorboy

Funny you should mention the fan wires - I took out the SMIC tonight and noticed the wires looked to be pinched but hadn't worn through yet.

Also took out the UIM and checked the wiring underneath - insulation on both wires at the plug connecting to the AWS were worn through and the exposed wires looked to have been arcing. My AWS was already blocked off and is not used, so I just cut off the plug and capped off the wires. Put in a new EGI fuse, turned ignition to ON position and the PFC came on without blowing the fuse.......looks like problem maybe solved...won't know for sure until I put UIM and crank the car up tomorrow...