Hi everyone!

I have a problem with my only car!

The other night I parked my car for 15-20 minutes and tried to start it but it didn't start. I kept my foot on the gas pedal to start the engine and tried once more and it hardly started. That's when the check engine light came on!

After 35-40 seconds it stalled. Tried to restart, same thing. The idle was rough and it automatically increased the rpm more than 1000.

When the idle is above 1100 it's fine but as soon as it drops less than 800 or so it dies.

I used the OBD to see what the problem might be.

In socket 2 I got:
121
221
231

With socket 6 I got:
143

One strange thing happened though: When the socket 2 was in, after I start the diagnose check a shimmering sound came along with the light blinking/flashing. After this the light blinked 4 times and then the same shimmering sound/light again and then 8 more blinks. This pattern kept going for a while.

I have no idea what it can be.

I would be the most appreciative if anyone could help me with the solution of this problem. My car is sitting in the street and I can't drive it to a mechanic, well at this point I can't afford a mechanic anyway

Thanks a lot everyone!

 

First thing that went wrong was that you pressed on the gas pedal. If you press on the gas pedal when trying to start the car, you will flood the cylinders and the car won't start. Check the spark plugs, starter and the wires to the spark plugs. Then check the distributor. Thats the only things that i can think of right now.

 

Actually, flooring the car to start it clears the cylinders. You do that when you have flooded the car. In carburetted cars, each press of the gas pedal pumped the accelerator pumps and you could flood the engine by pumping it too much. Then you'd have to hold it to the floor the clear the cylinders. When people don't replace their air filters enough and dirt restricts the airflow they will try to start but be too rich. Opening the throttle can start it in most cases. A good running car with modern fuel injection should have no problem starting with the throttle wide open. Just get off the pedal as soon as it lights up to not rev the engine.

This is a great place to interpret those codes:
Engine and OBD Diagnostic Codes

121 means the Air Mass Meter is sending funny signals
221 means fuel trim is too lean
232 means fuel trim to rich
It appears to be going haywire. I'd make sure the you don't have a huge vacuum leak (like and intake tube fell off or apart) and the you're fuel pressure is steady. Your fuel pressure regulator could be going kaput.

143 means the knock sensor is going haywire. Make sure it's plugged in and that the wire harness is not damaged too.

Give that a shot.

 

Well OK then. I only know that from my 740. It's fuel injected. Didn't know that his was fed by the carburator. Well, you learn something every day then.

 

Thanks guys!
I do appreciate it. I'll see what I can do and let you know what the problem was.

 

First thing I'd address is your MAF sensor. All your signs point to it as the culprit. It could be tricky to deal with as it acts up intermittently.

 

His is fuel injected, too. I just used carburetted cars as an example. Sorry my writing isn't clear. There is a clod start injector that I forget about on later 740's that changes things a bit.

 

UPDATE: now it doesn't start at all

 

A mechanic suggests that I should change the distributor, well they are expensive.

Any suggestions?

 

I just got a used distributor off ebay for 40$. Is also swap mAp sensor. Spark plugs cables ect. Basically a full tune up

 

Thanks man! Could you share the name of the seller on e-bay?

 

UPDATE: changing the distributor cap fixed the problem, the car is running now although the codes are still there, so are the issues

 

indeed, was going to say, these distributors don't have any sort of advance or anything in them, they don't wear out, you just replace the cap and rotor every 60K miles or so, when they look too crusty inside.