'treezy

unkay my troubles could not have come at a worse time...

lately my car has been running ...weird
I know REDZMAN, Faithofadragon, and tibbytib know what I am talking about they saw and SMELT it in person at the Nopi Event. It idles weird (like you can hear a misfire, real deep grumble not like the usual tiburon idle sound) and it smells of unburnt fuel (running rich, TOO rich)...

I never bothered to fix those issues, I never got a CEL and the car always idles at 1000-1200 and sometimes 2000 on cold mornings for 10 minutes and I never had any acceleration problems or driveability problems whatsoever, till today...

First let me say every so often the car would have trouble starting, for example say once every 200 times I try to start it the starter would keep trying to start the car with no ignition, but I would wait 10 seconds and it would always start fine the next time I tried....

TODAY...

It died on me.
Started up fine and drove out of the parking lot fine until I got the street and tried to press the gas. The pedal went in and I could hear the throttle open but the car did nothing except idle and start to slowly die. So i tried pressing the gas in neutral and still no throttle response. I rolled into the street until the car slowly died...
Popped the hood, couldn't find any visual clues and just tried to start her again, after say 10 tries it starts fine and idles fine and I hed to the gas station to get some gas...

On the way there it dies again. Like so...
You knwo when you are cruisin at 55-60 in 5th and say you are slowling to a stop (red light) and press the clutch in and downshift to fourth and press the brakes...
Well I did that but when I downshifted into fourth the car did not jump in rpms like it should have so I put it back in idle and braked to a stop at the light. I tried to accelerate from 1st into the gas station and same problem occured, little to no throttle response and eventually the car died while i was rolling in neutral...

this time I couldn't get it started for quite some time. A friend stops by with a flashlight and I am trying to find out what the hell is going on in the middle of a windy night. So I got one hand working in the engine bay, puny flashlight in the mouth, friend speakin in russian to me, and the other hand is holding my CF hood from gettin' picked up by the wind and smashing into my windshield.. lmao.gif

I push her into the gas station after many attempts to start her. It WANTS to start, I can hear the fuel dumping and the plugs firing, the cylinders fire and get that close to starting and then I'll let go of the key and nothing...
I try this many times and one time it starts up fine....
I'm like WTF!!!!!!!!!

So I drive it to a friends and I am hear now drinking my sorrows away hoping to get some help by morning...
At the gas station I shined the flashlight into the spark plug chambers and took off the wires to inspect, and re-set the battery, and all my attempts to fix it failed. No starting....
Then magically it starts...

Sorry if there are massive spelling mistakes on this, I am a lil' tipsay...
hopefully you guys can come up with something, maybe I'll be able to take a better look tomorrow.


THANK YOU hail.gif

-patrick g.

REDZMAN

TPS brotha, I bet ya.

Go look at it and tell me what you've got.

hamhead

Ya, it really does seem TPS related, even though you don't have a CEL.

Hyundaidb883

next time you try and start up the car and it fails take out the spark plugs one by one and see if they're fuel covered, or dry. i can see the tps causing harsh driving, or poor idling, but not starting the car i don't know.. maybe.

faithofadragon

i dont think its gonna be a simple tps fix this time...

its dumping WAY too much fuel im thinkin it might actually be a maf or even a stuck injector take your maf off and spray it down with brake cleaner let it dry completely and put it back on then run some seafoam through the intake manifold and in the gastank

pat let me know im goin to the yard this weekend i can get you some parts....

REDZMAN

I dunno, that's exactly how my TPS troubles started.

01tibby

i am going to make a guess.

engine speed sensor.

albert

Well, I'd stay get an OBD-2 reader on it and get some data, but that doesn't appear to be an option for you.

It sounds more like you are over fueling rather than under sparking/not sparking. When it won't start...it probably because the engine is flooded. If you idle at 2000 RPM, it's probably because your Throttle butterfly is cracked open too far. The ecu CAN and WILL drag the engine down to proper idle via timing adjustments and light fueling. It's NOT good for the engine, but it's programed to idle between 600 and 1000 RPM no matter what. If It can't get the idle in range, it will throw a CEL/MIL. Those changes it makes to force the idle from 2000 RPM down to 1000, could cause your crappy running. If your throttle is cracked that far, that would be enough for the ECU to 'read' as a throttle request, and dump fuel on start up. Which would explain the flooding and hard starting.

Things to check.

Throttle body butterfly angle. If it's visibly open more than a paper's width...close it down to just a crack. Small enough to barely fit a piece of paper between the butterfly and the outter TB housing.


Other things to check
Fuel Pressure Regulator and fuel pressure/pump/filter. Have you ever replaced your fuel filter? If pressure is low, and fuel filter has been replaced recently, check fuel pump. Or replace fuel filter if it's never been done.
#1 O2 sensor
MAF Sensor
Engine Coolant Temp sensor (Not likely, but can't hurt to check)
TPS sensor (Not likely, but can't hurt to check)

'treezy

LOL, It's not the TPS...
rolleyes.gif

I'll be working on it today, I have to get to work and take a friend to his dealership (his MSP blew a rod FOR NO REASON!! and we are picking up the pieces of metal and cast iron after the detonation occured, OMG!!)..

Thanks Random, I'm going to get an OBD II reader, I have a funny feeling I'll have like nine codes to worry about. I think my CEL is burnt out or installed backwards because I KNOW my car was misfiring last night, you could HEAR it and feel it while it was dieing, and there's no way an OBDII car can misfire THAT MUCH without a CEL/MIL...


I'll be back with more info, hopefully.

In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming. At this point I'm open to any ideas.
...What I'm worried abotu it why isn't this a CONSISTENT problem? Why does it act up only sometims, and act up GRAETLY occasionally (like last night), and then go back to working fine...
It's like my car is fvckin toyin' with me... LOL

Faith, I could maybe use some parts once I know some more information...
A Fuel Filter would be nice, but I can buy one of those new here (never been replaced..)

zoned019

If he was idling high because the TB butterfly was open, wouldn't the ECU just think that he had his foot on the gas? It wouldn't adjust anything for that.