problems starting help!!

[bustamove06us]

i have an 88 festiva. when i go to start it cranks for a bit but after giving it some gas it does start up but in 5 or so seconds it dies. i have to keep doing this for about 2-3 min before it will stay running. any ideas of what my problem might be?

[ericsmith32]

Check to make sure you plug wires are seated good. Also make sure that the fan isn't running. Other than that could be plugs, fuel filter to name a few.

[Tim]

Got one that does the exact same thing. SeaFoam and carb cleaner helped it out a lot.


Regards,

Tim

[FB71]

welcome to the world of older cars with carburators....


often what causes that on these cars is a buildup of carbon on the back side of the intake valve. It soaks up the fist dew shots of fuel into the intake, leaving little to nothing for the engine to run on. That's why it'll fire, then die. Pump the accelerator 4-5 times before cranking. That'll help for now. Then, like Tim said, SeaFoam or AutoRX and some carb cleaner.

[mattswabb]

Check to make sure you plug wires are seated good. Also make sure that the fan isn't running. Other than that could be plugs, fuel filter to name a few.

I'm going to hi-jack this thread a bit. What does the fan running signify? The reason I'm asking is that in my BP car it has trouble starting sometimes. It fires then dies instantly a few times then fires up and runs fine except it has also stalled a few times on the road. This is intermittent. If I put my key in the run position the fan is on. I'm not sure if this is like this all the time or not. I have changed the MAF and no difference. I haven't driven the car in about 5 weeks. I've got a few things going on in the garage then I was going to fix this problem.

matt

[ericsmith32]

I have the fan problem occasinally and the only thing I can figure out is when the fan is on it's sending some sort of signal to the ecm. Which in turn on a cold motor is doesn't want to start. Nowdays I can turn the key off and on a couple times and it quites. The fan relay I think is the first one towards the front on the drivers side, and it's the only thing it could be on mine since I replaced everything else.

[FB71]

check your temp sender for the ecu. The ecu turns the fan on and off based on coolant temp, AND richens or leans the mixture to compensate for temp. Basically, it goes into a 'choke' mode when the engine is cold. If the fan is on, the ecu thinks the engine is hot, and doesn't richen the mix enough, causing it to stall and stumble.

[mattswabb]

I went out to the garage to check it out. The book says I should have voltage present at the temp switch with the key in the run position. I do not. It's too late to get into this tonight so I'll start trouble shooting tomorrow. The wire looks real bad so I hope that is it.

When it does give me trouble I stomp the gas and it starts up.

matt

[FB71]

yup, with the sensor unplugged, you should have 5v on the red/blue wire, and 0v on the black wire (ground). Check the continuity of the black wire to the battery negative POST, not the body/chassis. It should be less than 0.5 ohms. Check the rd/blue wire back to the ecu, pin 2Q for the same value, even if you have voltage present.

[mattswabb]

Finally got around to working on this problem.

I unplugged the fan, fan relay, and fan temp switch. Checked the connections. Then took the fan switch wire to ground and the fan stayed off when I turned on the key. So I thought the switch was bad. Plugged it back in and now everything works fine? So I assume I had a bad connection. I had problems with my lights when I got the car because the plugs were corroded. Then I clean all the connections with contact cleaner. I hope the problem is gone.

matt