New FD owner, have a few questions regarding coils

[Om7]

Hi - recently purchased a '97 FD and it has a couple of strange faults which I am hoping someone has experienced before.

First, the car runs perfectly up to temperature and will run all day with no faults. But, as soon as it is up to temperature if you cycle the key the car will then misfire when coming onto boost or if you try to accelerate hard. Nothing can resolve this until the car has cooled overnight which then it performs perfectly again the next day. Any ideas?

Second, the exhaust manifold glows bright red. Like really red. Apparently this could be a few things, which is part of my third question.

Third, I had a problem where the car lost spark which turned out to be a coil pack plug which had disconnected. Last night I pulled everything apart, cleaned everything up and had a general tidy which I then refit according to the manual. I have attached an image which shows how I re-plugged in coils and which HT lead I fit to which spark plug. Is this correct?

I am assuming to a degree that all of these faults are related but if someone could clear things up that would be great.

Thanks in advance!

 

[GAVBEY]

firstly when the engines are cold they have more compression. That can cause some issues.
Also are you twin turbos?
have you changed your fuel filter recently? might be a slight lean condition giving you missfire.

how does it start when hot?

as for your plugs that looks right
Just remember trailing = top (both Ts..makes sense)
And the front rotor is 1 and the rear is 2

 

[Ceylon]

Yeah you've got it hooked up right for a post 12/95 car .

The leading coil (Closest to the firewall) should have a black plug, though? Someone may have "repaired" the loom, it's only a small loom, may be worth pulling it and checking it over with a multi meter.

 

[Om7]

Gavbey, thank you for your reply.

It was compression tested and came back with good results as far as I am aware:

Front Rotor: 8.1, 8.1, 7.9
Rear Rotor: 7.8, 8.1, 7.8

Sorry, I should mentioned spec: twin turbo, completely stock except for HKS hard pipes to the stock intercooler and a cat back exhaust. Car has done 140k km and I was assured it had been rebuilt, which going through the engine bay it certainly looks like everything has been removed and refit.

I changed the oil and filter last night when playing with the coils but I have not changed the fuel filter. I will change that too.

Hot start is fine, no issues at all until you begin to drive and it won't take much throttle or go into boost before misfiring. It will rev to 4k rpm if you accelerate to it slowly and happily drove home at 60mph last night.

Great, thank you - I haven't messed up something simple then. Although I was assuming the bright red glowing exhaust manifold could be down to be plugging in the trailing leads the wrong way around! Any ideas on the crazy hot manifold? I assume it isn't normal as the heat coming off it is insane.

Ceylon, from memory last night it was another blue plug. I did notice that it was only a small harness and it seems to have been played with before (black tape wrapped around it that isn't factory). Did earlier cars have a white plug? Is it worth replacing this section of harness anyway?

Thanks again!

 

[Ceylon]

Earlier cars had the leading coil in the middle, like in Gav's pic. Your coil loom should be from front to back White, Blue, Black.

I'd pull the coils and test them:

 

[Om7]

Great, I shall pick up a fuel filter and pull the coils to check the resistance and let you know the results.

 

[GAVBEY]

Great, I shall pick up a fuel filter and pull the coils to check the resistance and let you know the results.

thats what to do mate. always good to stick a fuel lfilter on anyway. ive seen them collapsed from stock form.

 

[Jit]

If you’re on a stock ECU i would try and pull fault codes. Sounds like limp mode

 

[Spendyrx]

Mine was glowing red.... was a failed coil!

 

[jdmr_neil]

Cat hasn't collapsed has it

 

[Spendyrx]

Cat hasn't collapsed has it

It's not a rx8 neil ??

 

[Jit]

Cat hasn't collapsed has it

That’s a very good shout too

 

[Om7]

I have ordered a fuel filter so hopefully that will here at the start of next week. I won't get chance to replace the filter or check the resistance of the coils until mid next week so I'll update then. I checked all four leads and all four plugs for a spark yesterday and all seemed fine.

I will pull the codes now the battery is charged and I have used it to run around in. I did 70km in it today and it was perfect, no problems at all. As long as I don't turn it off it will run fine - just need to make sure it has plenty of fuel and I don't need to stop anywhere before I drive it!

I guess that if the cat collapses it will block and cause pressure in manifold causing the glowing? To be honest the car doesn't feel very quick but I haven't been in another to compare and I drive a 350z as a daily so this has less power for now. It is worth fitting a decat pipe anyway to see if that helps?

Thanks again for all of the suggestions, very helpful. To be honest I wasn't expecting much as information seems to be very limited or way out of date (15 year old forum posts) so it's great to see so many people offering support.

 

[JoeLanger]

If you're changing the fuel filter order some 8mm ID hose and relocated it. it's a right bastard of a job to do in it's stock location.

Can't offer any more on your problem though, ignition system would be a good place to start I guess, easy to replace parts.

 

[jdmr_neil]

Yep with your post about low on power I'd deffo suggest you check your cat. For reference a pretty stock fd running well will be on par or quicker than a standard 296bhp 350z. It's all about the weight difference.

 

[Om7]

Very true, I assume the 350z has a good half a ton on the FD but the FD has no where near the power. Torque is very different on the two through. Decat pipe it is!

 

[jdmr_neil]

A standard fd with just a power fc and a back box will be an easy 300bhp and only 1260kg

You need a boost gauge to see what is going wrong mate

 

[Om7]

The boost is all over the place but at the moment I'm not too concerned as I would rather get this running fault out of the way.

Another thing I should have mentioned which developed yesterday and now won't go away; the airbag light on the dash flashes six times and then repeats. What does this mean? On the MX5's the flashes are a code, but as far as I am aware I do not have any airbags? So what does this mean? The only thing I can think is that I had a passenger in the car for the first time yesterday and that has triggered something in the passenger seat maybe?

Thanks again to everyone in advance!

 

[Jit]

The flashes are a code. Sounds like code 06 which a google search reveals to be faulty drivers airbag module. Like you said though, if there is no airbag (I’m assuming steering wheel replaced with aftermarket by previous owner?), perhaps it’s the clockspring failing. May be worth checking thout connectors under the seat as well but I’ve never heard of that one

 

[Om7]

Very strange. No, stock steering wheel the same as this. Perhaps, although I haven't touched anything in the interior yet. Have to check those too - thanks!