Past year or so I've had a few peculiar problems with my stock '96 Del Sol S. I am not sure if the problems are related or separate, so I will address them in two separate points.

1. Living in the NE, when the car starts, only in warmer weather (this problem strangely goes away in the Winter), upon 'beginning' of the day starts, the engine will turn over but for 5-10 seconds have a hard time keeping idle and stutter. After these 5-10 seconds everything will be fine, and if I start the car later that same day it will just crank up nicely, no problem. Reading the ODB-ii at one point, I had an ox sensor failure, so replaced that, and also replaced with a 'new' or nicely rebuilt IACV, suspecting that might be the problem, yet it still reoccurs. If one 'keys out' after such an event (i.e. brings the key entirely to the power off position) and then restarts it will start fine.

2. Certain events will cause an engine stall while driving even at high rev. Trying to find a 'repeatable' occurrence, honking the horn will almost always do it (as one might expect, thus, I only do this in *dangerous* situations *Smirk*), but I have also had this occur when lowering the rear glass, or also, not engaging *just* the wipers, but wipers plus windshield washer will do it. I'm still driving the car after nearly a year of it being this way (both conditions), so it is strange for me to expect an alternator/battery failure, but, who knows ?

In any case, though otherwise loving the car, here, I am a bit stumped. Wondering if anyone might be able to help out ?

Best,

- A

 

1) Post all CEL codes currently stored in the ECU.

2) Reset ECU. Drive car. Recheck for CEL codes. Post any that are found.

 

Ok. Will need a couple days to accomplish. Familiar with ECU reset as a 15 min pull of battery unless there is a better (more 'correct') way ?

 

5 min pull of 7.5A hood Back Up fuse would also suffice.

 

So... I stopped by Autozone this afternoon and had them put their basic ODB-II reader on it... Apparently no faults or codes detected... I feel as if I am back to square one...

 

Is the CEL on while driving? Does the CEL work?

 

CEL light not on while driving-- believed to still work (especially as no codes came up when I did OBD II). Did come on when previously I replaced the ox sensor quite awhile ago... But still the problems as described originally above. 'Thanks computer' :/ ....

 

Turn key from OFF to ON(II). Does CEL turn on and then off after 2 seconds?

 

Tonight tried: Yes, CEL will post (meaning it is active, light) even if just shy of actually a bit quite shy of two seconds.

 

Try cleaning the IACV and FITV, followed by adjusting the idle speed.

Have you already replace the PCV valve?

 

As mentioned IACV is recently purchased new (less than a year). With old IACV valve I would often try to clean it, but as that never really resolved the issue I purchased a new one. May be incorrect but I believed that D16Y7 engine did not have FITV/idle adjustment ? PCV valve replaced about too years ago.

This morning I took a video of the problem in action: As mentioned this will only occur on the first start of the day, or when the atmospheric conditions are very different from when it was previously ran. After it goes through this seeming 1 minute 'adjustment' period all following starts for the day will be fine with no hesitation-- Until next morning, same thing.

 

Do this^ as per service manual instructions (see FAQs sticky).

Also bleed the cooling system.

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