I acquired my Z in June. I bought it running, driving, and with an alleged replacement motor. The chassis has almost 300k on the clock. The replacement engine apparently has 110k or so, and was put in a few months before me purchasing the car.

In the recent weeks, I have developed a major issue getting it to start, and stay running, and for it to run smoothly (as it was at the time of purchase).

The problem only presented itself randomly at first. Sometimes it would fire right up, and run. Mostly when it did, it'd idle choppy, and stall if left idling for a few minutes. When I hit the gas, it sounded like it was stuttering or missing. I took it for a drive 2 nights ago, down the street to 7-11. It was running choppy, but running. I went inside the store, and came back out. It would crank but not turn over. It was a strong crank, with no inclination of battery fault. I have since not been able to get her to run.

This is what I have replaced so far: Battery, alternator, negative battery cable (short one to firewall bolt, nothing replaced after), ignition coil, plug wires, distributor cap, and rotor. I have also tried adjusting the distributor position by loosening the nut and rotating it. I thought this had fixed my issue when I got it to turn over before, but then I got the same response.

I've read a few posts, and it seems it can range from dirty sensors to the ECU itself, and anything in between.

Thoughts on my problem? I'm into the car for minimal cost, even with the replacement parts, and it is 1 of 3 toy vehicles. I have time to fix it, but I'm a little stumped here.

Any help is appreciated... Happy motoring!

 

I would go through and check all the electrical connections, MAF, ECU, TPS etc, pull the connectors off clean them up. it could very well just be a bad connection. Body ground can fail, to insure this is not causing any issues you can run a dedicated ground wire from the Neg battery terminal to a common point, perhaps the firewall, run 2 more ground wires, to your plenum and to the ecu, this can eliminate a lot of possible issues, these cars are very sensitive to what voltage they are getting and a pour ground can influence that.

 

I'll give that a shot. Thanks for the feedback!

 

read what I wrote on the other post. but in addition. could be vacuum leak. the bane of the FI engine. A new chts sometimes does wonders. try connectors first. sometimes just plug/unplug will loosen some corrosion. what condition is your positive cable. What about the fusible links be sure they are tight. Z's won't run if they don't have a full 12 volts to the electronics. You can crank but if not getting 12v due to corrosion faulty connections in wiring to electronics she just won't run. Is your battery tied down and not just sitting in the tray? What is your fuel pressure? faulty fpr will do what you say. Get some data and try another post.

 

How about a bad and almost shot AFM?

My experience was pulling into a gas station with the car working fine..she would not start. The on;y thing I could think of was that something was in the gas they were selling. I had no clue of anything being wrong.

Can an AFM go bad slowly or does it shut down like a light switch? ie ON\OFF

 

pretty much work or no work. all it is is a wire thru which current flows. the amount of cooling is how the air flow is determined. built in hard wired analog circuit. wire broke she no workee. But I have never seen one go bad unless someone stuck a screwdriver or something in there without knowing what they are doing i.e. your standard moron that knows nothing but thinks he can do some good by fiddling.

 

Thx Rogerz..A few years back as I say; I pulled in to gas station try turning car on after fill..a nothing! Amazing! really out of nowhere! Thx for the info..now I know a gremlin got in. I keep a spare on the shelf after that.