Engine hard to start / very rough
 

Hello,

I had just jumped onto the highway when my engine died and would not start again. It wasnt firing at all, just kept turning over. I had it towed home and left it for a couple hours. Came back and now I've been able to get it to start but its worth +10 seconds of cranking and the engine is extremely rough and doesnt want to rev at all. The RPMs drop very low and it stalls if I dont give it gas. The engine was running normal before it died.

While trying to find the problem I've had code P0336 "Crankshaft position senson A circuit range/performance" come up but I'm not sure if thats attributed to me disconnecting the eccentric shaft position sensor at one point. I've checked the intake, plug wires and routing. The gas is about 6 months old but I wouldnt think that would make this much of a problem.

Here are some videos:

[youtube]H9SfiNe5_jM[/youtube]

[youtube]uLy1eHuLzYc[/youtube]

(edit) In that second video, the loud rattle when it revs is NOT normal. You can specifically hear it coming from the engine compartment before hearing it at the exhaust. The rattle seems to have a very specific lag between coming from the front and back. And the squeal when its trying to stall is not normal either.

The car is an 2005 6speed BHR coils CAI royal purple with about 70,000km.

I've never had a single problem with this engine until now. Have I screwed my engine over? What do you guys think?

do the 20 pump trick first and see what happens.

you might want to get a better battery or some sort of jump start charger.

cuz the way you crank it, it will kill your battery PLUS your starter.


the 2nd video, that noise, it sounds like one of the rotors is having problems(some seal problems?)

My civic was actually running with cables attached when I took that video.

I'll try the 20 pumps in a bit here.

How long should a person not crank longer than?

i personally wouldn't than 2-3 seconds. the more you try an crank it over you are just ruining your stater and wears it down.

Tried resetting the NVRAM (20 brake pushes) and KAM (hold odometer reset) and it sounds worse. Only cranked for 2-3 seconds but it seemed like it was barely doing much more than nothing now. So I guess that should rule out eccentric shaft position sensor problems.

All I can think of left that I can determine is perhaps one of the BHR coils/wires failed or the plugs are unevenly fouled if thats possible? I can switch out the plugs but my guess at this point is that wont do much. Might as well check if any are wet I suppose.

I don't really know where to go from here.

PS, I forgot to mention earlier, the car has no cat.

Then you are left with a compression problem...

I had same symptoms, changed coils, plugs, cables, starter, battery, cleaned MAF, air filter... in the end, engine was caput.

Charles: I didnt get a hold of a timing light today so I didnt check the coils, but I pulled the leading plugs of both rotors to see what I could find. Think I found the problem, or result of the problem anyways.

Something is up with the rear rotor. I took videos of both rotors turning over and I think its pretty obvious.

Front rotor: (Seems like a very similar sounding/loudness PUTT PUTT PUTT as the rotor turns and the entire thing looks black.)

[youtube]nwJO3Aal9Xw[/youtube]

Rear rotor: (Seems more like PUTT putt putt PUTT putt putt and the one side of the rotor looks scratched. If you make the video 1080p you can see it really well.)

[youtube]Up2nGxazLxg[/youtube]


....So is this where I strip everything off the engine and make it stock before taking it to Mazda? Should everything come of?

And side note, is it possible to pull the plug wires off for the rear rotor and drive it to the dealer on one rotor? Will the unburnt fuel being pushed out of the one rotor be problem in the exhaust?

Nobody is able to confirm that those scratches on the rear rotor are in fact, not good? And what would cause that?

Perhaps, I apologize. ...But it was killing me to not know for sure.

Figure if she starts it'd run long enough to make it to the dealer?

...and this is engine warranty material right?

The first video says to me. Blown engine.

Well sh*t. Alright, thanks for your help. One last question if you would.

A gentlemen I spoke with advised against driving or starting the car at all from this point forward in case there are any pieces of the apex left in the chamber. He mentioned that since the intake ports are larger than the exhaust port its possible for apex pieces to get shot into the intake that are too large for the exhaust port. Which makes it possible for apex pieces from one chamber to migrate to the other chamber if your running the engine.

He said that he had rebuilt an engine and they hadn't realized bits of apex seal had shot through the intake port further into the intake than they were working. After rebuilding the engine they fired it up and the bits were ingested leading to another blown motor.

I imagine it was a learning experience for him, but the point of the story was if its possible for bits to be ingested after a rebuild from the intake like that, why can't they while the engine is running?

Ok... so long story done.

Question: Would it be agreed that running the engine is dangerous if I may end up rebuilding it?

Again, thanks!

Not possible. Period.

The damage is done. But I wouldn't spin it around anymore.

This fellow your talking to is a bit confused on the internal workings of the Rotary Engine. Tell him to do some more research on the design.

The first video? That compression sounds fine... I thought the second video was the one that was off, but hey, what do I know :p: