I had my rad replaced in my car and now it won't start. It was running fine before we replaced it, rechecked all our steps, everything is connected and tight. It will crank and briefly run but stalls out after a few seconds. Any suggestions?

 

I'm a firm believer that if you work on something and it won't run......rhat the most likely place to look is what you did.

not likely to be a seperate problem.

start with the basics. ...

what did you disconnect? Did you blow a fuse?
When you disconnect the battery you lose the fuel trim info that was stored. ..so sometimes things will run poorly for a while while it relearns
ESS and MOP connected properly? Throttle body?

 

Thanks for the info, a mechanic here told me to have the key reprogrammed. An alert comes on the dash that looks a lot like a key. Hopefully that will solve the problem, I'm new to the rx8 world

 

The mechanic doesn't make sense or is just guessing. If the engine turns and runs briefly, there is nothing wrong with the key.

I would pull the spark plugs and make sure the they're clean and dry, and examine them for excess deposits at the same time. It's possible the brief start/stop you had flooded them.

Why was the rad replaced in the first place? Did you have other problems before?

What's the general state of the car? Compression test? How old are the ignition coils?

 

I just bought the car 3 weeks ago and my husband noticed a leak in the rad. It didn't overheat while I drove it. I honestly don't know much about the car at this point. Why would there be a key image on dash? Have you ever seen this before?

 

The mechanic said because battery was disconnected the antitheft is stopping it from running.

 

The antitheft would prevent it from turning in the first place, it wouldn't even try to start.

Is the key light flashing or always on? Flashing = normal. Always on = the antitheft is active, but evidently you can get it to turn so the system must have been tampered with.

If/when you do get it to run, let it warm up all by itself, it needs to learn to idle steadily. But all this points to deeper problems, you shouldn't need to go through this. That's why I was asking if you knew the age of ignition coils and overall health of the engine.

 

I'm kicking myself for buying this car lol. Thanks for the advice. I have a feeling I may have been ripped on this deal

 

I'm with danno -

if it cranks and runs, then stalls, it could just be that the computer has lost it's record of 'fuel trim'.

If you can get it to start, that's 90% of the fix - try to keep it running by giving it gas - when it slows down, keep giving it gas at 2000 to 3000 revs. It should quickly learn where the fuel trims should roughly be, then it may settle down to a nice idle.

It could take a few trips before it gets a fix on the trim long-term.


.

 

Super, that's what my husband is trying right now. Thank you so much

 

where are you located?

great info above ++1^^

Also make sure, all the intake hoses are snugged tightly a vacuum leak will stall the car.

Keep us posted on the progress.

thanks,

 

I'm in bc. We checked all the hoses and they're on tight

 

What area? If you are in the Lower Mainland there are options for help

 

Yes in the lower mainland but trying to avoid the costly bill. Could it possibly be a weak battery?

 

You could try jump starting it if that's the case, join Vancouver RX8 in facebook, I am sure some of them might be able to help.

 

The car gets 12 volts from the relay then goes to 0. Husband tested relay as it was being started with a multimeter. I bought brand new battery, it will still crank over but nothing has changed. Idles to 2000 rpm then stalls out, if I accelerate it goes to 4000 rpm for a brief second then stalls. When I turn key to on, the engine light flashes 7 long flashes then 1 quick and stays on. What could this mean?

 

What relay? Check engine light?

 

Can you check if the MAF is plugged into the wiring? It's a squarish black thing on top of the intake tract, sort of to the right of the battery if you're looking from the front of the car. Perhaps someone forgot to plug it in.

If the check engine light stays on, we need to know what code it's throwing, and for this you need a code reader.

In all honesty, I suggest you bring it to a specialist. We can only guess from the information provided.

 

Thanks for the ideas, really appreciated