For those of you who don't know, I just bought a Tiburon a week or so ago, and have been having problems keeping it running longer than 15 minutes. My neighbor, who is a mechanic, told me that from his experience, Tiburons have problems with bad piston rings and that this would cause this problem. Is there any truth to this? And how should I check this out if true? Compression test?

 

I've never heard of common piston ring problems. If only heard of ring problems when the owner self inflicted the damage due to poor maintenance or poor tuning, over heating etc...

Do a compression check or leak down test. Leak down test will be a more accurate to pin point your problems but the unit is a bit more expensive. Is there a film of oil in the exhaust manifold?

 

Tiburons do not have common ring problems at all. Yours could be bad but it isnt like a common issue. Do a compression check (dry and wet will help greatly) and report back, well get it figured out for ya.

 

Thanks. I was skeptical, because I would've thought that if it was a common problem there would be at least a few things about coming up on searches, but I found nothing. I don't know when I'll be able to get the compression tested, but I'll let you know when I do.

 

If you do it, its supposed to be at WOT. Also, when you do it the first time around dry, if one or two seem low or they are all low (I think spec is like 180 or so) then put a little oil in the cylinder to see if it raises. If it does, rings would be it.

 

actually you should be shooting for about 200-220

If your in the 190s your low.


The biggest thing is consistency. If you have 200, 195, 190, 200... i would say thats ok, and you just have a sucky engine.

If you have 200, 160, 185, 200... then i would worry.


Pay close attention to cyl 3. That one usually has the lowest compression on older engines with a bit of wear and tear,... or NAWZ.


But they are right... we dont have ring issues. TRUST ME... i know wink1.gif

 

A better way to ask this question would be to fully describe the issue at hand. So it runs for about 15 minutes, ok. Does it run fine, stumble, do you have to hold the gas down, etc. to keep it running for those 15 min? Will it restart after shutting off? What kind of maintenance items have you checked? Spark plugs, wires, fuel filter, fuel, air cleaner, etc? One 'common problem' Tiburons do have is the TPS. Check it to see if it's a Keifco or a Dae-Sung brand. Can you knock on the IAC and the idle smooths out? Like Ericy321 said, we'll get it figured out. fing02.gif

 

It runs fine, and then suddenly it just shuts right off. Nothing starts going on me - the engine just goes right off. It'll go off even when you're on the gas. It won't restart for a few minutes, and if you only wait a few minutes, it'll shut down in a couple minutes after. If you try to start it right after it shuts off it just cranks. I've checked the plugs, which looked normal, I basically ruled out any air intake/filter problems because it idles and runs fine, and I've checked to make sure all the sensors and whatnot are plugged in/connected well. I'll check out the TPS

 

Your crank sensor is bad....
install a new one and enjoy your car back again...


btw, stay away from crappy mechanics...

 

Hes right. Sounds like a bad Crank sensor for sure. I didnt even think about that but with the more detailed explanation it fits perfect.