alex

Before I dig into the vac system, lemme esplain what happened.

Saturday I was messing w/ the stereo and accidentally left the key in the On position. By Sunday, the battery was dead. I jumped it and let it run for a while in order to charge the battery.

Unfortunately, I needed to get fuel ASAP. I got a little distracted with the stereo, and let the car run too long, so it ran out of fuel.

Ever since I put fuel in, I have to ride the accelerator in order to prevent the car from quitting- basically creating manual idle. What's perplexing is that it was absolutely fine @ idle before it ran of of gas.

Is there anything that would prevent idle (when it worked perfectly the day before) from keeping the car running? If not, I am going to have to check out the vac sys.

Ideally, however, follow the advice of the listers.

Driving it is a real pain, but at least I can work on my heal/toe.

I wouldn't drive it right now if I had the 951ts I have been lusting over. Can't take the wife's Odyssey this week.

PLEASE HELP!

zoltan944

fuel filter would be the first thing to look at. funning bone dry can really start sucking up some bad stuff.
Alternatively the fuel pump could be injured?
Both would affect the fuel pressure and mess with idle. Thats all I have with that info

mpd425

Thats what I was thinking. Running it empty stirs up all the crap when you fill it.

alex

The weird thing is that I have run out of fuel once before, and a few quick revs got everything sorted. Also, I think the filter is fairly new. Thanks for the help though. Maybe I'll run some FI cleaner and see what happens. I never noticed a difference, but some people have told me it works. I guess we'll see about that.

And I just hope its not the pump. That'll cut into painting mpd425's parts (and the rest of the car) I am eagerly awaiting!

alex

The more I think about it the less it makes sense. If it isn't getting fuel at low rpms, why would it at normal driving speeds? Again, it drives fine, but you just can't let the revs fall at the stop light.

alex

Where is the diagnostic plug as diagrammed on Clarks?

cubby944

It's forward of the fues box, should have a black cover over it

alex

OK, I adjusted the idle and now it right below 1k and stays running- but I can hear a leak, and it is not as smooth as usual.

Any tricks to find vacuum leaks I can try at home?

Rock

N.a or turbo?

Look around the Idle stabilzer valve for a vac leack Its under the intake manifold.

alex

NA. It sounds like its coming from under there, but obviously that area gets very hot when running! I'll wait for it to cool and see if there is anything obvious when the car isn't running.

mpd425

I hope you find it. Also send some pics when you get things painted. Looks like the parts are headed your way some where west of Indiana.

alex

Thanks, at least I don't have to perfectly manage the rpms at a stop by myself for now, but hopefully I can find it tonight and be done with it.

As for the parts, I saw UPS backed them up a day, but I've got plenty to worry about before they get here. What do you think, should I run blue, red and silver for a while? I'll look like I have a race car

mpd425

That's what I was going to do - the silver. At least it will look whole again.

alex

I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THIS

When I did my clutch, the intake boot ripped, it was super dry. I grabbed one off one of my parts parts cars (mine is an 88, the old car an 85.5). There was a difference in the metal connection on the bottom: mine had a plug, the old one was connected to something. I put some electrical tape around it just to see if that was what was why it wouldn't stay running, and forgot about it.

I went to open the hood to see if the engine had cooled and it immediately occurred to me what was wrong- I felt underneath the boot and sure enough, my quick fix had fallen off. So now its plugged very well and runs great.

Then I backed the idle adjustment bolt off to where it was before and promptly broke it when I tightened the nut...

mpd425

Well at least it's a cheaper fix that a fuel pump. Maybe you can get it painted now