Matthew Doswell

Good afternoon all.

after some advice.

recently driving along, and the CEL light flickerd had a loss of power and a horrid smell.

limped home. Restarted car no further problems although i can notice at high speed and especially gear 3 4 5 at high rpm doesnt seem to pull well.

new coils, fairly new plugs and leads. Has also had a new cat around 20000 miles ago from mazda.

i plugged into the ecu and the code read cylinder 2 misfire.

any help would be greatly appreicted.

many thanks.

BigCajun

iTrader: (1)

Check your coils and plugs for spark.
You can have a faulty coil.
Your 20,000 mile old cat could be damaged from the misfires, drop it and inspect it.
Misfires kill cats, bad cats kill engines

Matthew Doswell

New coils been fitted recent new plugs and leads.

if i drop the cat. Whats best to do visually inspect it ?
what am i looking out for.

appreciate the reply.

BigCajun

iTrader: (1)

Some people have reported defective new coils.
You can buy a cheap ignition tester, looks like a spark plug with a clip on it.
Cats strata is like a ceramic honeycomb, they will often break up or appear melted, that's obvious damage.
Sometimes they get clogged.
You can shine a light through them to see.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

When you say "horrid smell", can you be more specific? What did it smell like?

It sure sounds like the cat let go, if it was first installed with old/failing coils still on the car, they could easily have clogged it.

Matthew Doswell

Smelt like electrical burning. Thats the only way i can describe it. Ive checked the service history and seems a new cat was put on by mazda 1000 miles ago. I had the cat off before the problem and noticed a rattle coming from it . As if a nut was rolling around in it... i have checked the spark using a tester and all is good from the coils. I really notice it when driving at 60mph plus.
Was in 4th around 4000 rpm but the foot down and had no pull what so ever.

Thanks for the reply .

Loki

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like the cat is still blocked. Perhaps pieces of the old cat are lodged in the back of exhaust system.
Is the passenger side floor extra warm?
When you come to a stop after a drive, have a quick look under the car, see if anything is glowing.

So this car had a cat 20,000 miles ago AND 1,000 miles ago? That sounds like something is killing cats. Something like running too rich or poor ignition. Is the car all original otherwise?
Is it a Mazda cat?

Matthew Doswell

No sorry . My wife thought she read in service history . I checked last night didnt have one 20000 miles ago . Just one 1000 miles ago.

Ill check the cat when cars warm tonight . If failing that do you think it would pay yo take it off and visually check?

Loki

iTrader: (1)

I think inspecting it would help. Especially since you say something is rolling around inside. If the cat itself is OK then that's good information. Check the rest of the exhaust system for cat chunks while it's out.

Did you just buy this car? Sounds like it, you would probably remember installing a $2000 cat 1000 miles ago. If that's the case, I'd bring this up with wherever you bought it from.

Also don't drive it until you've found the issue, it could lead to needing an engine replacement.

Matthew Doswell

Bought the car privately. The cat was fitted by mazda and was in the service history. Ill take it off and have a look maybe post some photos and update.

Thanks for the help