sung

Hi friends,

Looking for some help on an issue that's been driving me crazy. 2001 Type-R that just recently had new rings and new valves put in. After getting everything back together the car ran perfectly fine for a week. Then one day while driving on the highway the car cut off and has been intermittently cutting off ever since. Whenever it does cut off it usually doesn't like to fire back up right away, only turning over after having cooled down a bit.

I've swapped wires, plugs and the entire distributor assembly. Fuel pump primes and I can hear all the clicks from the main relay.

Here's a video of the car while idling and then the way it cuts off. Sounds like it's running out of gas almost. The sound at idle in the video is affected by ambient noise and bad video quality. After it does this it won't turn over for a couple minutes but then it will start up fine and just do it all over again.

[youtube]Y495TtMsC7w[/youtube]

12th and Hyde

Did you check the welds on your intake? You might have blown them.

JDM74

I would say that the fuel pump is the culpret. It may prime fine but it can't keep up once the engine is running and the line is slowly sucked dry. See if you can put a temp. fuel pressure gauge on the rail and see if it holds fuel pressure while you start it and let it run until it dies.

bluesrt2004

Agree'd, It seems like either the fuel pump, or possibly the fuel presure regulator.

Fabrik8

The fact that it idles roughly, and will shut off at idle tells me that it's most likely not a fuel pump problem. No matter what there should be enough fuel flow at idle to be able to run properly. If it runs that rough at idle because of fuel starvation, there should be no way it could run at all off-idle. A fuel pressure regulator could cause problems like this, but because regulators are based on pressure and are a mechanical device the symptoms should be very consistent. If the rail pressure is higher than normal, it will run rich all the time, and if the pressure is too low then it will run poorly under all conditions.

If the line was getting sucked dry, as soon as the fuel pump was reprimed during the next start, it should run until it sucks the line dry again. A cool-down period wouldn't matter, and wouldn't be necessary. It should also shut down really fast as soon as the engine is off-idle; the extra fuel flow would just accelerate a restriction problem.

I'm guessing this is a sensor problem or something like a loose or corroded ground that is affecting a few sensors at once. If the idle is rough like that all the time, it should be fairly easy to look at the real time sensor data on an OBD2 scanner and see what's going on. It would also be good to see if there are any stored codes. Could be something like a broken battery clamp also. Are there any other symptoms other than the engine shutting off, like the cluster dimming, etc?

MAP and TPS problems can both cause idle problems like that, but will also cause problems during just about every other throttle position and engine load point too.
I can't see why that would shut the car off at highway speeds without some other indication of a problem, unless one of those sensors was internally broken or there is an intermittent connection in the connector. Both sensors should throw a CEL also.
Coolant temp sensor problems are usually very consistent with temperature and the problem would change depending on cold- and hot-start temp, and ambient temp during cold starts.

I'm still thinking about this one, it's intriguing.

Stock ITR ECU or OBD1 ECU and adapter harness? Basically, do you have OBD2 diagnostic and code storing ability or not?



Wait, you're saying it's not turning over until it cools down? So it won't crank at all for a few minutes?

sung

no electrical symptoms such as cluster dimming or anything of that. car would just shut off and idiot lights would come on.

no CELs or stored codes. its an obd1 ECU with harness.

yes... most of the time when it dies it does not turn over right away.

the times when it was the worst was when it was during a hot day. not sure if that was a coincidence or not. that was before distributor change when it was more intermittent... right now its at a point where it does it everytime the car is started but at varying times after it's started.

sung

the idle sounds worse in the video than it actually is in real life though

i actually did get it running long enough that it got up to operating temp and then i put a timing light on it. set it to right about 16 degrees TDC.

is it possible this could be a mechanical timing issue?

RCR Roscoe

double check your grounds. sounds like your ground strap is mia or loose to me.

if uncertain make a new ground with a pair of jumper cables, block to NEG on battery.

EDIT: well i see in the vid a straps there. make sure its on good hahah worth a shot!

1slowcivic

checked that ground 101 near the thermostat housing... very important make sure its not corroded... does the car dies when accel hard? but its ok during light accel?

JDM74

When you say "does not turn over" do you mean the engine rotates but doesn't start or it doesn't even want to rotate?