GotBass

Sorry if this gets a bit long but want to drop all the information upfront. Looking for any potential help on how to get my car running.

I have a 2004 Mazda RX-8, (early production, VIN in 9000s), just over 100k miles. A few months ago the car started having idle issues, idle would drop too low and car would stall. Would only happen when the car was warm. Crank time is quite long. 3-5 seconds, sometimes longer. Didnt really think about it too much, looks like that is a sign of bad compression. Over the winter the car started struggling to start. Sometimes would crank for 10-15 seconds with nothing. Only happened with the car was warm. Always started fine when cold.

3 weeks ago the car completely died out while driving. Complete electrical failure. Called a tow truck, as it was being winched up on to the truck the electrical came back. Towed the car to my brother in laws house, who is a mechanic. I wasnt there but the tow driver was able to start the car to get it off the truck and then shut it off. (I failed to warn him to not shut the car off cold, which I have always avoided).

After that the car had electrical but failed to start. My brother said that the positive terminal was bad, replaced that. Car was giving crank sensor error codes. He replaced that. After replacing the crank sensor the car started the car started, idled for a few minutes and then died before he had the chance to drive it. After that it would not start. Was not getting any spark. (plugs have ~10k miles on them, coils and leads were done at 60k). This weekend he worked on the car again and was able to get spark but still could not get the car running.

Wondering if anyone has any advise on what to try from here.

Thanks in advance.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Short term to get it running:
Replace coils and wires.
Clean and re-secure all grounds on the chassis, engine block, and battery
Clean the MAF
Reset the ESS profile
Test for vacuum leaks

Long term proper diagnosis:
Compression test with a proper rotary compression tester.