My car will start fine when I first start it in the morning but if i drive it like 10min and stop at kroger...turn it off, once i try to start it again most times it will start but ill have to keep petal to floor just to keep it alive...if i dont give it gas it willl jus idle from 1-2rpm back and forth and die...so what i do is keep it floored until what kinda seems like im "cleaning it out" cause it will idle from like 1-2 2-3 3-4rpm real slow then maybe after 10sec of me holding gas it will jump straight from 4-to redline...and backfire a lil bit....i replaced fuel filter and ran fuel injector cleaner in it.....idk what else it could be any help?

 

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Is the car driveable when this condition is present? I'm assuming your RS is TBI. I'm thinking you may have an injector that is suffering a heat related failure. The surging is typical of a lean condition. If this was an injector issue, the car would lack power and be a bear to drive. Other possibilities are a failing fuel pump or fuel pump relay but I don't see that being your case. next time this happens, remove the air cleaner lid and watch the spray pattern from the injectors. It should be a pretty clean cone pattern and the same on both sides. If one side is lazy, that's a bad injector. You may also have a heat related failure of the ignition module that's affecting the crank reference signal to the ECM. If the injector pattern is hit and miss, this would be a clue that the ECM is not getting a good crank ref signal from the distributor. If the spray from the injectors is weak and doesn't reach the walls of the throttle bores, this is a sign of low fuel pressure and perhaps a weak pump.

 

you may also want to check ohm's on the injectors. The coils are prone to failure when they heat up. If you do check them do it when they are cold and hot

 

I looked at both injectors one is better than the other but nither seem to have a strong cone spray.....and would that even cause my car to have trouble starting up after its warm?

 

Yes. If the injector spray pattern is weak, this is a sign of low fuel pressure which will definitely cause hard starting and a lean surging idle. The TBIs are hard to perform a fuel pressure test on as there is no easy way to connect a gauge. But, in order to verify what's happening here, it's necessary. The easiest way I know of to connect the gauge is to first disconnect the fuel lines at the rear of the TB. Then, remove the 3 TB to manifold bolts and slide the TB forward enough for the pressure(larger of the two) line to clear the fitting. Then, using an adapter kit, connect the gauge between the inlet fitting and the pressure line. Pressure should run between 9 and 13 psi at idle. If not, you probably have a broken regulator spring. The regulator is built into the injector pod and is repairable.

 

I had a similar problem. Ended up being my control modular and dristributor were both going out.

 

That's a good point. I've made the mistake before of focusing on the injectors and forgetting to look at the ignition. It takes just a minute to pull the distributor cap and look for corrosion on the pole piece and timing core. Those are the "gear" looking assembly at the center of the dist, under the coil. Wiggle the shaft back and forth to check for runout. The next time the engine is hard to start, use a cheap adjustable KV tester that you buy from the auto parts store to check for 40KV at a spark plug wire. If the spark won't jump the gap at 40KV, try it at 20 KV. If you get 20 but not 40, suspect old ignition wires, cap and rotor. If the spark is hit and miss, consider replacing your ignition module. You can have it tested but they test okay alot and still don't work well, especially when hot. The pick up coil in the distributor, under the rotor, can also fail. Test it for resistance cold and hot. It should test between 800 and 1000 ohms. If not, you need a new distributor.

 

Have you plugged it in to see if it reads off any codes? like 13 is O2 sensor 44 is IAC (Idel Air Control). Might give you a hint where to start.

 

Randy has good advice. It's always good to look for codes in case the ECM has picked up any problems. These older systems aren't real sensitive and only tend to set codes in the case of a total drop out of a sensor. But if nothing is obvious, it's still good to look at codes. Datastream, if you know what to look for, is also very useful. In your case, you would want to pay close attention to BLM and Integrator for signs of an lean condition.

Southbay has probably given the best advice of all of of us. The injectors do suffer heat failure. Years ago I chased a hot stall issue on a Geo Prism. It was so intermittent that it was hard to catch. I did ohm the single injector and it was 1.5 which is normal. What took me days to figure out was that when the injector got hot, it shorted to .2 ohms and dropped out completely, causing the engine to stall.