For the past few weeks I have been having idle problems on start up and a CEL. The first time I took the car in, they reflashed the computer to the N flash. I drove the car for few days without issue and then the CEL came on again. Following this the car became hard to start and would missfire for about 30 seconds with an accompanying flashing CEL. After the initial rough idle subsided the car would drive normally with an illuminated CEL. I took the car in again and this time they replaced the spark plugs and reflashed the car again. The car drove fine for the rest of the day, but when I started it the next morning the misfire, CEL and rough idle were back. I took the car back to the dealer and the meccanic exhausted the troble shooting tree without zeroing in on the problem. He then decided to pressure test the coolant system over the weekend and call the Mazda tech line. He found that the car was loosing pressure, so there is obviously a leak somewhere. Well, upon talking to the teck line people he was instructed to remove the spark plugs and crank the engine with a piece of clean white paper near the hole. The result was piece of paper with coolant on it. Needless to say my engine has an internal coolant leak and they are replaceing it under warantee. The engine came in on Saturday and they started work on it today. I was hoping to take my car down to The Revolution this Friday but it looks like I will be driving either the rental Grand Cherokee they gave me or my wifes Protege5. There is a bit of good news though, they are putting on a mazdaspeed clutch and fly wheel while the are doing the swap for me. I would also like to mention that I always warm up my car and rarely drive it hard. Well anyway that is my story.

 

did you get some freebies for the inconvenience?

 

Just a quick question. Do you allow the car to warm up prior to getting into higher revs? Not just temp needle in the middle, but in the middle for a few minutes, before taking it to high revs.

 

you getting the mazdaspeed parts comped?

 

Yes, I always make sure the car is warm before going into the higher rpm band. ( 4,000 and above).

 

did they do a compression test on your car, and if so what did the numbers look like? I am having similar problems on mine, but the compression test came out a ok.