Car starts and idles low but dies

[l_eclipse_l]

'92 3000gt N/A no mods beyond aftermarket clutch. 89k miles.

Took it out of storage yesterday. Car fired right up after sitting for 3 months. It ran great at first. Noticed no hesitation or anything unusual, ran like a champ through the gears. Drove for about half an hour and stopped at a gas station to fill up. There was about 1/3 of a tank of gas left in the car when I parked it and I wanted to get some fresh stuff in there. Filled the tank with 93 octane and it started up normal. Put it in gear and drove out of the gas station. As soon as I hit the road and engaged the clutch, the idle went down to about 2-300 rpm and died. Turned the key and it started back up, but would not idle above 2-300 rpm again and died when I tried to give it gas, in gear and in neutral. Had to push it off the road.

Car will consistently start back up but idle so low that I think it will cut out, and sometimes it does. Giving it gas kills it and engaging the clutch kills it. Battery was replaced prior to storing and is not the problem. The gauge on the dash shows the alternator is working fine. I think it may be a fuel issue. Any ideas?

[l_eclipse_l]

Update: Went to check on the car today and it wouldn't even start. Definitely a fuel issue.

Anybody have an idea of what the closest aftermarket fuel pump is to the OEM one? I see a ton of aftermarket ones made by a slew of different manufacturers available...thoughts? The OEM one is hella expensive...

[VR43000GT]

To test if you are getting decient fuel pressure take the "W" loop off the end of the fuel rail. Make sure to have someone hold a paper towel for when you turn the motor on because if it is giving decient fuel it will come out very fast. If it looks like you are getting quite a bit of fuel pressure there, you may want to check your ECU. ECU caps are known to leak in 1st gen ECU's causing these symptoms. Just pull out your ecu by taking off the driver side panel (the ecu is right behind the radio) and unplug and unscrew it, and then check if your caps leaked on the board.

[Stealthee]

I had a similar issue once.

Remove the spare tire and get access to the fuel pump.

Unlug the harness

Now get a long piece of wire and run it from the battery directly to the blue/black wire on the plug in at the fuel pump. If the pump is working you will hear it run. If it runs try to start the car with it hotwired.

If that happened then you can get it home with it temporarily hotwired but it will run rich as hell.

If you want to fix it better to where its not rich you will need to get a relay to wire in.

[Hans_GZP]

check for spark at the coils. If there is none, I would suspect your ecu. There are other reasons not to have spark, but the ecu is the most likely.

And to check for fuel, you can just pull the return line hose off of the fuel pressure regulator and turn your car on. Gas should come out. You may not have fuel and spark, which would be a CAS or an ECU problem.

[l_eclipse_l]

Had the car looked over today at a dealer. Fuel is not the issue. They think a tensioner failed and the timing belt skipped a few teeth and I may have a few bent valves. I had the belt replaced less than 1,000 miles ago, along with the water pump but I didn't replace any tensioners because the mechanic said they looked good...won't make that mistake again. They say that cylinder 1 is down to about 150 psi but I don't remember them mentioning any of the other cylinders.

I'm having my mechanic tow it to his shop because I'm not paying dealer prices on this type of work, and he said he would do the work for free I just had to buy the parts. New tensioner is going in this weekend...any advice?

[Stealthee]

Word to the wise, 90% of mechanics don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

The majority of jumped timing is caused from failed tensioners. Just because something "looks good" doesn't mean it is. This is why the tensioner is part of the 60k PREVENTATIVE maintenance procedure.

Sucks you had to learn the hard way.

[Hans_GZP]

150 psi isn't that terrible. If it bent a valve you would have zero compression. Tell them to comp test every cylinder.

[Stealthee]

150 psi is still low though.

I had 60 psi on my TSI after blowing the compression rings and it still ran. Ran rather well too. Only thing was if I boosted I would have oil all over my underhood.

[Hans_GZP]

Point is, a bent valve isn't going to cause 150 psi comp

[Stealthee]

Well duhhhhh